Pregnant nanny refusing to work

I think you'll have to separate the two issues. Precious pregnancy and being a crap nanny.

It is perfectly normal to be so precious in pregnancy and I think you'll have to just humour her on that one, so to speak.

However. . Everything else is unacceptable. I'd get rid of her now so you don't have however many more months left to put up with. You need a new, good nanny asap. You say your previous nanny was also disappointing. Are you vetting them enough to ensure they are a good match for your family past just being qualified? I don't mean that in a horrible way, but I can see how easy it would be to not realise the importance of a good match past you feeling confident that they can look after your children properly

Quite honestly, she sounds like she has little regard for the domino effect her absence causes and the stress. As a nanny we just don't have colleagues to cover our backs and pick up slack. We work through much more than any other employee ever does- I'm working through my 2nd miscarriage right now. I've worked through extreme morning sickness, a fractured foot, etc over the years. It's just what you sign up for.. Especially for the families who have absolutely no back up plan. I'd rather drag myself in and mind the kids from the sofa all day than not turn up at all.. and I'd never, ever text to inform my boss of my intention to not come in!

As her employer you should have carried out a risk assessment as soon as you were informed that she was pregnant, and things like contact with sick children should have been on it. You really need to do that ASAP.

Your problem now is that you are exasperated enough over all the non-pregnancy stuff to not want to keep her on, but if you are going to sack her you'd need to be very careful about distinguishing between pregnancy and non- pregnancy issues. If you can be presented as having sacked her for pregnancy- related reasons you could be in a significant legal pickle.

If you are contemplating sacking her, or even kicking off the disciplinary process, this is really one where you need specialist advice.

The high temperature will only last a day or three maybe

She should not passively wait to be offered the flu jab as she may be waiting a long time! In my local area we can have the NHS flu jab at our GP, booking hospital or Boots, if you bring proof of your pregnancy e.g. scan report. I had mine at Boots at about 12 weeks.

As her employer you need to conduct a pregnancy risk assessment with her, establishing what she can and can't safely do. You can re do it later in pregnancy if her circumstances change e.g. back pain.

I am a HCP and at my risk assessment we agreed which types of patients it would be potentially unsafe for me to see. There are some illnesses that can be dangerous for the developing foetus e.g. chicken pox (if she does not have immunity from having had chicken pox herself). Also we agreed preventative measures e.g. not lifting heavy objects, regular walks around the office to aid circulation (rarely a problem as a Nanny I'm sure!).

You can probably find risk assessment templates online.

You do need to agree on what is reasonable though, and you probably need to have a frank discussion about this with your Nanny to reach a consensus that goes into your risk assessment. If your children were very unwell and likely had flu that is one thing, but if it is just a sniffle it is much more likely to just be a cold, and whilst a pregnant woman would feel lousy with a cold, it wouldn't be specifically dangerous to the foetus (unless she got very unwell for some reason).

Although it sounds like she is being unreasonable, emotionally I can understand her actions- I felt a fierce need to protect my unborn baby from even the tiniest risk, and I also felt so tired that I didn't want to risk even a cold. Luckily my job was pretty quiet and there were so many other staff that I could opt out of lots of things without causing problems, even though they weren't mandated in my risk assessment. Obviously a Nanny job isn't like that, you don't have ten other nannies pottering around the house, ready to leap in!

She needs to ask for the flu jab. She's also being rather precious.

I managed to 36+4 working on a children's ward with no time off. There were a few odd rashes I minimised contact with, but no one I isolated myself from. (I would have if Ebola had come to the uk, I suppose)

She can ask her mw to test her immunity to chicken pox, MMR, and parvovirus, then not worry about them.

Flu jab is advised to all pregnant women, whooping cough after 28/40. She should have had info about it at booking.

Agree with WeAreEternal. She's being way too precious - how would she cope if she worked in a big hospital or a restaurant and was constantly exposed to coughing/sneezing customers?

I have had nannies for eight years - I would say 50% have been absolutely brilliant and part of the family and the other 50% like your nanny.

I would be giving her notice, she sounds like a nightmare.

Nannies are supposed to make your life easier not complicate it more.

Ahh perhaps you're right octonought, I wasn't offered it until then, and my midwife did both jabs on the same day...

You definitely need to have a frank chat with her and outline all issues that you both have. If you want to keep her on then you can try put together an action plan to implement changes, whether this be simple things like you buying anti-bac gel to prevent sickness spreading, to nanny ensuring she sets off to work earlier, and then enforcing verbal and written warning clauses if nanny doesn't adhere to what she agreed.

Nannies can be a wonderful childcare option. As with most jobs you have to find the right person as it isn't an easy occupation!! Don't let it put you off.

Also nurseries tend to be less flexible when it comes to children's sickness, so I wouldn't use that as the only grounds to consider alternate care

Maternal high temperatures (or hyperthermia) can actual damage a foetus, so your nanny is right in not wanting to expose herself to a child with a high temperature. As an employer you have a duty to protect her from this risk. If she wasn't pregnancy, I could expect her to work.

Everything else is unacceptable. You are entitled to sack someone for issues unrelated to their pregnancy and if you are unhappy with other aspects you are perfectly entitled to bring these up. I'd be very careful to document everything carefully as she is pregnant, but it doesn't mean that you should have to put up with poor performance.

I wasn't offered flu jab until 28 weeks- I don't know if this is the norm across UK, but I suspect it may be.

Has the time she has had off all been since she was pregnant? Being late and not apologising isn't acceptable to me, and I would not be happy. How did you deal with this at the time? How long has she been with you, and how many days off has she had in total?

You said you have preschool children so the temperatures won't be down to teething, if nanny and children havent had chicken pox before, I could perhaps understand her hesitance to come back to work until the reason for temperature was discovered as chicken pox can be dangerous.

I can appreciate how hard it is to look after children whilst pregnant, I'm a CM, and I was absolutely exhausted in my first trimester, could this be apart of the problem do you think?

What does it say in your contract regarding sick days and sick pay? It may be worth sitting down with her and reviewing the contract and job requirements now she is pregnant. Can you be flexible with start time? Maybe she starts later and finishes later?

Are you happy with the care she provides otherwise?

I'm pregnant, I didn't "get offered" a flu jab I just rang up and asked for one. I've done that with all 3 pregnancies and my kids nasal sprays. Her fault for not being proactive about that.

Not sure how it works with a nanny looking after sick children pregnant or not though is that the done thing? Nurseries wouldn't have them if they were poorly?