Nannies: requesting annual leave

[fencingmummy]

I am in a nannyshare and the annual leave arrangement is that our nanny chooses 50% of her holidays and we choose 50% (i.e. between my nannyshare partner and myself). The notice period for requesting leave on either side is 6 weeks and there are currently no restrictions on when our nanny can take her leave (subject to giving us 6 weeks notice). My nannyshare partner is a teacher and I have leave restrictions at certain times of the year, so the 6 week notice period is vital for us in terms of planning/making alternative childcare arrangements.

Our nanny has requested that the 6 week period be reduced, as it is too long to plan a holiday and it also makes it difficult for her to take advantage of last minute deals. In response, we have given two options (but these haven't gone done well):

1. the 6 week notice period remains, or
2. the notice be reduced to 4 weeks with a restriction that leave cannot be taken during September or March.

Are we being unreasonable?

I think 4 week option is fine,I am a nanny and that is the notice period I have. Whoever said they dont let their nanny choose any holiday,really?!

In my last job they asked I only take time off during term time if possible,fine. I requested time off to go to a wedding. My employers thought it would be acceptable for me to travel from the UK to Canada over a weekend!! I was firm and said that I could not do that,notice was given in 3 months before. I also asked in JAn for time off in June (a wed,thurs,fri) it was during term time and they refused saying their 6 year old had school exams during that time so they really needed me. I handed in my notice the next week,they were constantly late and not flexiable at all and I was.

Best part was the mum was a SAHM and all kids were in full time school.

It's not uncommon for there to be leave restrictions in a nanny job (although it's often compensated by extra holiday) so option 2 is very fair.

It's worth saying that you'll consider any request for holiday bit the last minute deal thing does make me wonder whether she wants to book on Thursday to have the following week off. Does she appreciate that her leave notice depends partly on yours?

Could your nanny share partner offer a little more flexibility during school holidays?

My first reaction was to say 'contract states 6 weeks, but because we are nice people, if we can accommodate less notice, we will, so go ahead and ask but don't get grumpy if we aren't able to say yes'...and then I saw someone else said the same thing!

YANBU at all. She knew the terms when she took the job and is lucky that you are prepared to make any compromise at all, because you don't have to.

Surely every nanny understands that their job has to fit around your job - surely that's the point of hiring a nanny in the first place!

I haven't read all the replies but perhaps offer less than 6 weeks notice if holiday request is outside of your financial year end and your nanny shares term time restrictions?

Many thanks for all the very helpful views & comments, especially Lonecatwithkitten with the recommendation to go for independent advice.

Will see how it goes...

Goodness me, what a lot of negative comments. Of course I don't treat my nannies as servants, but had a very clear contract based on nanny agencies, which gave them 4 weeks holiday and said this needed to be agreed with us and explained the restrictions (some due to special conditions in my DHs job). No nanny ever complained about this clause, we always gave them 6 weeks holiday in fact, agreed dates well in advance with them and made sure the dates worked for them. We just didn't give them the RIGHT to determine the dates but in practice made sure they were convenient and worked well. That's why my nannies stayed 3-4 years each.

All I was doing was saying I thought the OP had a very generous contract and that it might be useful for her to know that other people had less generous contracts and still had very happy nannies. Been to two weddings and a christening of my nannies in the last 18 months in fact.