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Original poster

after-school nanny - is this a sackable offense and if not how to handle it?

37 replies

bossykate · 18/08/2009 10:43

our after-school nanny has been on holiday in her home country for the last four weeks - this was agreed as pre-existing holiday when she joined us, even though it has not been particularly convenient in that it has not coincided with any family holiday. i texted her yesterday asking her to pls remind me what date she was coming back (thought it was in fact yesterday tbh - the four weeks being up) got a very apologetic text saying that due to lots of problems with husband's car (they drive there and back) and having to order new parts from out of the country they are not able to come back until 31st August - an additional two weeks off.

i was absolutely furious last night when i got this. i haven't yet replied. h no help at all - actually we can manage for another couple of weeks. but as far as i'm concerned that's not the point. to me this is a sacking matter. otoh, i could give verbal/written warning or dock pay (dodgy legal ground?). contract explicitly states amount of holiday and that there is no entitlement to unpaid leave.

nanny is excellent - but think we have gone beyond that, iyswim.

please help - wwyd?

thanks in advance

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Original poster
bossykate · 18/08/2009 14:20

yes, bran, you got it.

thanks to all for the comments.

OP posts:
branhasnocommentfortheDM · 18/08/2009 13:40

IDRTDMA I'm assuming that BossyKate's kids are in holiday club or similar, so she would be an after-club nanny atm. I'm not sure her exact hours are of any relevance anyway. She was supposed to be back after 4 weeks and isn't, not only that she hasn't given BK any warning of this.

nannynick · 18/08/2009 13:24

It's a reliability issue I feel... the holiday was approved but you had expected her to return on the pre-agreed date.
You could agree to permit her to extend her holiday - on the understanding that the extra days are unpaid.
Is this the first occasion that she has been unreliable?
Will you be able to find a replacement easily? If so, then you could give notice under the terms of the contract, and get someone else.
If finding someone else will be tricky and this is the first time your nanny has been unrelaible, then you may want to consider giving a written warning (with regard to failure to attend work on working days) and agreeing that on this occasion those days will be considered to be unpaid leave.

GypsyMoth · 18/08/2009 13:12

She's an after sch nanny. Are your schools back now then?

Original poster
bossykate · 18/08/2009 12:53

sorry, crunchygranola.

OP posts:
Original poster
bossykate · 18/08/2009 12:52

hi everyone

thanks very much for the responses. i am still thinking it through, taking your comments on board.

crunchgranola, i mean she has been an excellent nanny in the course of her day to day duties, but no matter how good she is this is a serious "offence".

thanks again for the replies.

OP posts:
ruddynorah · 18/08/2009 11:57

if she's been with you for less that a year then she has no come back as such for something like this as sacking her wouldn't be covered by discrimination laws. so maybe just give her notice and end it? unless you think she's decent?

FluffySaysTheDailyMailsShite · 18/08/2009 11:53

She should see this as a job, if someone 'went missing' for 2 weeks they would be sacked. There's no reason why she can't catch the flight/train etc to get back, it is a paid job and she should see it as such.

justaphase · 18/08/2009 11:45

I had a similar situation with a nanny - although she did phone me the night before she was due to start, and I was due to return to work - to tell me she was stuck in her home country but will be back within a few days. This went on for a couple of weeks - her phoning every few days - at which point I gave up and looked for another one.

She later wrote me a letter explaining that she decided to get married and needed to change her visa status which took a lot longer than she expected. It would have been fine if she had told me in advance - but being able to trust and rely on your nanny is the most important thing, far more important than in other jobs. So I would say - let her go.

crunchygranola · 18/08/2009 11:36

Sack her. That's probably what would happen if you did this to your work.

This happened with my nanny once and I sincerely regretted afterwards not sacking her then, because it turned out to be very indicative of her attitude to work.

But then, I don't know your nanny. I'm curious though about your comment "nanny is excellent - but think we have gone beyond that, iyswim" - is this her only offence so far? Why do you think she's excellent?

QueenofAllWildThings · 18/08/2009 11:07

hmmm, this is hard. you don't want to lose a good nanny and end up with a worse one, but then again it's a bit ripe to only inform you once YOU had texted HER. I'd be inclined to limp along and keep her, but to inform her that it was unacceptable and that you won't put up with it again. Kind of like a formal warning?

branhasnocommentfortheDM · 18/08/2009 11:04

What is particularly annoying about this situation is that she waited for you to ask before telling you that she would be back late. Why did she not contact you as soon as there was a problem? Was she going to tell you at all? She could come back, there's no reason for both her and her husband to wait for the parts, it sounds like a bit of a made-up excuse to me.

If this holiday was pre-existing before she started working with you then I'm guessing that she has been with you less than a year, which I think will make life much easier if you want to sack her. You can just give her notice (I'm not a HR person though so hopefully one will be along soon).

I guess the question is do you want to keep her? Has she been reliable up to this point? Would it be hard to replace her? I guess if you want to keep her you could make it clear that you are very annoyed, and add a clause to her contract that failure to return from holiday on the correct date will in future be a sackable offence.

If you do decide not to sack her what will you do if the car parts don't turn up when they are supposed to? I think you would probably need some agreement from her that if the car isn't fixed by a certain date she will travel back without it in order to be able to work for you.