Now to address safeguarding issues and criminal activities (before I take a break from this thread and actually go make myself lunch)
@RodiganReed and @theDudesmummy
Regarding safeguarding I do this job for the kids. Like I joke about , the parents pay me but my real boss is baby. Which means all I do is for the children and their well-being I would NEVER condone any type of abuse or neglect. EVER. I don’t care if you are Rihanna if I see you do something worrying or absolutely not okay I will make sure I have massive evidence video/audio evidence and I will break my NDA and not just report it to the police and CPS but go public about it just so that I am sure there is enough outrage and viability that the police and social services will be forced to intervene. I do know that that would mean the end of my career but my career is based on the love I have for those kids not the one I have for their parents and my loyalty lays with the child not with mom and dad. Same if there is domestic abuse towards the mum for example and the kids are witnessed to it, I would report it to CPS as a safeguarding issue.
I am sure some nannies don’t care or are scared. I mean those people have money and power, some of us work for people who are the top or the political game. Going against them is daunting but I think they get away with enough already and I don’t personally believe in enabling them to do what they want.
I had a family who tried and forced me to work illegally and made a lot of illegal requests (can’t say names but ironically they were not so surprisingly linked to politics) and would try to change my pay or edit the contract half-way through to benefit them, I think they were shocked when I refused and threatened to sue them if they didn’t make everything legal and paid me above board. They were quite high up and so I think they thought I wouldn’t dare go against them and also they probably felt what they were asking was reasonable because nobody even if found out would probably hold them accountable for it so they saw it as low risk and perfectly acceptable.
Thankfully as soon as I threatened legal actions they sorted everything out legally for me at least (they still have UK nannies working in Europe under no visas and paid under the table and whatever else; ahem!) it wasn’t hard to stand up for myself because I had enough evidence of their requests that I knew I was in the right but it was daunting because they can accuse you of anything and their word is worth a lot. So it’s hard to have people like that have so much control over your career and life when you are just trying to do your job.
So yes I am confronted to a fair amount of law breaking or like they prefer to call it “law bending” but unless it concerns the kids or I am asked directly to participate or it would be illegal in the “let’s eliminate X and have him killed off” sense (which thankfully has never happened! Or at least been overheard by me!) then I tend to stay out of it.
As for if I notice people ripping them off? Yes, a lot but it’s part of the game unfortunately I think. If you have a billionaire come to your shop you might sell them something for triple the price because you know they won’t question it. So I think that happens a lot.
But I also know the very sad case of a lovely billionaire family I was working for. Honestly so nice and naturally generous who hired a couple as guardians for their summer family estate and while the dad (grandpa or the kids and head of the family) was going through cancer treatment and on the verge of dying and they completely took advantage of him not overlooking finances and reaped him off.
In this world you need to trust people with your money. I usually don’t have access to their credit cards but the PA will or might as will the house manager those people had access to checks and cards I guess and were in charge of renovating the house (they also were given a house on property and they were allowed have it renovated at the same time to their taste using the family’s money of course) well they did do that but they also decided to pay off their mortgage and renovate their own personal house top to bottom with the family’s money, they would just order double the material and alter the bills and pass them on as building renovations asked by the family themselves.
And because the family trusted and don’t deal with their accounting themselves and don’t necessarily check their bank account especially during that moment in their life, it was found out months later when the person in charge of renovating the couple’s home actually called them to double check if all the extra work that kept being requested at a different address was actually something they wanted done.
They got fired and then refused to exit the property (total definition of cheeky fuckers if there was over one) so the family had to go through the long legal process of evicting them and yet they made life very difficult when the family was visiting while they were still squatting the estate. It was ridiculous and heartbreaking, especially as the family made the decision to not sue them and not go after the money as they wanted to focus on the dad/grandpa’s health and just wanted them out. So yes some people are real sharks and the worst of humanity and I do get to unfortunately meet them too.
If I saw something in this case I would of course say something too! But yes people feel entitled toward money that’s not theirs. You just have to read the thread about the lady who won the lottery and where people suddenly felt entitled to a couple million. It’s disgusting such people exist tbh.