Can I run something by the nannies on here please...

OP It's your attitude that is the problem, not your actions.

Texting your nanny on the weekend is fine. Becoming enraged because she doesn't respond/her phone is broken is beyond ridiculous. You need to have a word with yourself. You can't possibly think that your nanny should be available 24/7 to the point that if her phone is broken she has to email you to let you know. That's nuts.

The time issue was a mix-up, that's fair enough, it happens. Becoming angry about it, being unable to see how/why she got confused is unreasonable. If you needed her in at her normal contracted time there was no need to text her. You did text her, she misunderstood. It happens. Your inability to shrug it off is the problem.

Paying over the going rate doesn't make your nanny superhuman, she's not going to be infallible no matter what you pay. You need to ask yourself why a broken phone and a misunderstanding has upset you so much.

But if you rang and nobody picked up you would have known she had not gotten the message, and you would not have had the uncertainty!

Tbh I think you must have made it seem like coming in at 3pm was ok, otherwise you wouldn't have tried to contact her when you realised the change of plan with your mum.
If she lost her phone then she wouldn't have known you had tried to contact her so she wouldn't have known to email you. I wouldn't email my boss if I had lost my phone at the wkend.

Honestly, and I don't want you to take it bad, why not just let it go? You seems rageous about it. How long has she be working for you? Was she good until now? was she late? There was one case of bad communication (and bad luck with her phone, but she answered you during the weekend before apparently).

Why fuming all day, feeling like you have to insist here that she was wrong, etc...

Can't you just see that she misunderstood? You sound a bit like you are trying to control her.

Really, if you are happy with her as a nanny, let go. Send her an email telling her that following what happened today, you want to make it clear that you want her to come at 14.30 every day, even if the kids aren't there.

Don't make a huge drama out of nothing.

I think s totally OK for an employer to send a message or a mail to the nanny during the weekend. Mine does and I answer 90 percent of the time. Unless I leave the country for the weekend, as I sometimes does, them i don't receive my message and my boss does have to deal with it. I might or might not look at my emails. I don't feel like I have to be available all the time for my employer. I lik e my employers though, so I would always try to help them as much as I can. But if I am not answering one weekend and they freak out, well, I would not like it at all.

13.50 an hour (so around 200 pounds a week?) is a good pay, but certainly not a pay that justify being on call.

Now I agree with you, you are absolutelly entitled to want her to be there at 14.30. But your message was confusing . So you have no reason to be fuming. You should never assume that soething is obvious, you should just be clear.

I earn £13 gross for normal hours so tbh it's not that high to me iyswim

ESP as an after school or limited hour position

Also South East

Out of curiosity again lol - if your phone didn't work over the weekend would uou try and get hold of nanny to tell her?

£11.76 per hour was Home Counties average for live-out 50 hours per week in the 2013 wages survey (pdf)
The part-time aspect of your particular job would mean a bit higher, so I would say you are above average rate but you need to be to find someone who will do the hours you need.

My boss and I use email and text messages to communicate. It seems to work for us. There does need to be a response system, as you never really know if someone has got the text or email.

I've had this with a previous employer who kept contacting me all weekend for ridiculous reasons and I had to tell her this wasn't acceptable. On the other hand though I think it's totally acceptable for a boss to contact you at the weekend with a quick question or query, especially if it involves changing the routine or working hours.
I feel all your nanny needed to do was send a quick reply to say 'yep ok' or 'no sorry I have made plans' etc but as her phone was broken its a moot point.
I think you have to write this off as a one off and make yourself clearer next time. I don't think you deserve the pasting you've got on here it sounds like miscommunication but I do suggest not going off on one at your nanny as that wouldn't be fair.

Agree there is no problem contacting her outside her working hours. Lots of bosses do, but why did you txt her to say the grandparents weren't dropping the children off until 3 if you expected her to be there from 2:30 anyway? a note or txt that morn would have been fine.

Tbh if you were expecting her to turn up at the usual time there was no need to contact her and a note on arrival for any changes is fine. It's not like she doesn't have any leeway - you pay her from 2.30 so she can flex around changing conditions presumably!

As to the contacting out of hours, no I don't tend to, but if I need to then I will email and request a read receipt.

What do you pay out of interest? You say over the going rate

Oh this is one of those

Am I wrong?

Yes.

No I'm not....

threads.

I have no problems with employers texting or emailing me anytime. Communication is vital I feel.
I can't understand why thr nanny wasn't there, did she turn up at 3 pm ? Did your parents drop the children later?

Doesn't bother me at all being texted when out of hours

Yes nanny was slack not to turn up at 2.30 tho sounds like she thought you meant come in at 3pm

What I do find weird is that if you were so worried why didnt you email her or go to her house - assume both were on her cv and in contract - she has your email so you should have hers

It was her private time so no need to tell you her phone had broken tbh

Was a mixture of miscommunication and crossed wires

As a nanny sometimes my boss has text me only if it's VERY important, But usually everything can wait till Monday. From your post if I was your nanny I would of taken it the kids were coming back at 3 and I would of probably got there 10mins before. But no unless actually told to come in for 2.30 and wait 30mins a cook a meal or whatever I would of only come in a bit before 3. I think it was an obvious lack of communication and you have different expectations to your nanny in regards to hours being changed around and what time she should exactly get there for.

You seem to be getting a real kicking on here and I can't understand why. Perhaps communication could have been clearer regarding whether or not she was expected to start at 3 or simply expect the children home at 3 but even so, if she was in doubt she should have either asked or turned up at 14:30 as that's when she's paid from.

as for the not answering messages thing, I agree that the weekend is her own to as she likes with but nannying is a unique job in that we are employed for our flexibility. Of course, every nanny has the right to say no to extra hours/changes of hours but I do think it's courteous to be contactable during time off or at least to inform employers if you're going to be unavailable (e.g. your phone has broken). I'm live-in and would hate it if my employers kept hounding me at the weekends but I appreciate that children are unpredictable beings and childcare often needs to be flexible so I don't mind the odd request on a Sunday evening to slightly alter my hours as long as I have no other plans. But maybe I'm unusual in that....

For the families I've worked for if there is a change in plans i.e no longer need to pick up a child from school as they have a play date e.c.t the parent normally leaves a note with all this on for me to read when I get in.

I'm a nanny.
My employers will occasionally text me out of working hours, and I will sometimes do the same. I reply to all texts and calls I get regardless. To me it's just common courtesy.

From reading your op I had assumed that you wanted her to start at 3pm. I think there has just been a mix up in communication. I wouldn't be furious about it.
Wrt her making sure you had a way of contacting her as her phone was broken- I'd never have considered sending an email etc to let you know. I would have just let you know on the day.

Is there something else going on with her to make you so cross? It seems disproportionate to be furious when she had a clear reason for not being in contact and it was obviously a misunderstanding wrt start time.

As a nanny if you said to me that they would be dropped off at three I would be there at 2.30 my normal time just in case they were a little early if nothing else.

As for being in contact over the weekend my bosses have texted me about changes in plans with an apology for texting at the weekend/ evening but if it is relation to my next working day then that is fine, although if her phone broke I don't see how she could know you were trying to contact her, don't you have her land line number anyway although I do also know these days some people only use mobiles so don't have a landline.