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AIBU?

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Original poster

Expecting nanny to come in whilst they are on holiday

141 replies

pezza15 · 04/07/2018 18:18

My friend is a nanny and the parents are off on holiday in August for two weeks and have hinted that perhaps my friend should go to their house whilst they are away to “do a few bits” - meaning batch cooking etc.

Taking the piss or what???????

OP posts:
Urubu · 04/07/2018 22:50

thought a nanny was paid to look after the children whilst their parents are at work.
Do parents with nannies do anything at all for their children

That is the difference between a babysitter and a nanny. A nanny cooks for the children, does their laundry, tidies and clean toys, does clothes shopping, school projects, writes thank you cards, organized birthday parties...

dadshere · 04/07/2018 23:25

It is quite simple. If she is on holiday, she should politely decline. If she is being paid to work, she should follow her employees directions, as long as they are reasonable.

gillybeanz · 04/07/2018 23:31

Kosha

I'm sorry if I offended you, I was half joking.
My child is a boarder, you should hear what they say about us. Thanks

I do think the nanny should do some work and not have a free holiday, but agree that it's not like they need her there and she should only do her usual contracted job description.

StringyPotatoes · 04/07/2018 23:36

I'm a nanny with many nanny friends and this is completely standard. You're paid to work those hours so....you work them? I don't understand your point. There is more to looking after children than simply physically taking care of them. Their bedrooms might need deep cleaning or old toys put away. Batch cooking is incredibly helpful for working parents.

Of course, if the parents aren't there you might come in earlier/leave later, or even work extra hours one day and take the next day off but you absolutely work the contracted number of hours you're being paid for.

CoughLaughFart · 04/07/2018 23:43

And sorry yes she will be paid

There’s your answer. Lazy cow. We can’t all down tools because our manager goes on holiday.

Is this a shit reverse?

EveningHare · 05/07/2018 09:02

of course she should be working

Ohyesiam · 05/07/2018 09:06

So should whole companies close down while the CEO goes on holiday?
You/ she sound young.

crispysausagerolls · 05/07/2018 10:11

Your friend is a CF for not expecting to work when she is being paid.

JellyBears · 05/07/2018 10:26

The general rule for employers taking more holiday then the Nanny is that the Nanny gets it paid as she hasn’t asked for the time off and is available to work or they employers have her come in and do nursery duty’s like sorting toys, batch cooking etc.

At the end of the day though a Nanny gets 10 days only of her own choice whereas the family get 10 days of the Nannys holiday to choose plus their own, so it’s always going to go over the allowance and in all the jobs I’ve had I’ve always had that time as extra.

PitterPatterOfBigFeet · 05/07/2018 10:30

As long as the nanny is being paid it sounds like a pretty good deal to be honest. It would be weird to expect an extra two weeks holiday for nothing!

dueanotherchange · 05/07/2018 10:32

Our nanny gets 4 weeks paid leave, two weeks of our choosing and two of hers. However, as we have to pay her regardless, she picks two weeks and then tends to get the benefit if we go away for more than two! Understandably she tends to go away in term time, and now that we have one at school, we don't.

I wouldn't dream of asking her to come in while we're away.....I'd find that odd!

JellyBears · 05/07/2018 10:34

@PitterPatterOfBigFeet the thing with nannying though is it’s not normal lol. I get 20 days holiday a year. My employers gets to choose 10 day of that. So far this year they’ve taken two holidays so I’ve used none of mine...and they’ had a week between Xmas and new year so I got that too.

It’s then really hard for me to use my holiday as They get funny about timings etc..

QueenOfCatan · 05/07/2018 10:36

It's normal. As long as she gets her usual 4 weeks holiday at some point it's very normal to do duties whilst families are away.

QueenOfCatan · 05/07/2018 10:37

Saying that as an ex nanny by the way.

PitterPatterOfBigFeet · 05/07/2018 11:26

It’s then really hard for me to use my holiday as They get funny about timings etc.. I think that's a different issue as you should certainly get holiday time of your choosing (within reason obviously you can't suddenly decide you're going away tomorrow).

londonista · 05/07/2018 17:53

I agree that she shouldn't complain if she's asked to do normal nanny preparation stuff while the family is on holiday. Though I personally disagree that general housework falls into this category. All I ever asked our nanny was to clean up after the child for the day's activities.

If it were me, and I was happy with the nanny though, I wouldn't ask unless it was absolutely necessary. Why create ill feeling? Good nannies are like hen's teeth.

arethereanyleftatall · 05/07/2018 18:04

It's is scarily staggering that the op and her friend think it's the employers here who are taking the piss.
Of course she should work, and be very grateful that she's doing 2 hours a day instead of 8, happy days surely?

There are people like this though. I had a flat mate once who would get to march (April to April year) and book a holiday for the end of March citing 'I haven't taken my two weeks sick pay entitlement yet.'
?!?

Pollaidh · 05/07/2018 21:18

Imagine it's a cleaner and not a nanny. If the cleaner is being paid, and don't wish to take it as holiday allocation, then they still come in, though there might not be the usual cleaning. In this case it's standard to ask the cleaner to do parts of their role that they usually struggle to fit in, such as cleaning the fridge or oven.

When we are away we always give our cleaner an option - come to work, be paid and do cleaning tasks, or take it as holiday, don't get paid.

TatterdemalionAspie · 05/07/2018 21:24

This is a joke, surely? Confused

Are you seriously asking whether it's dreadfully unfair that an employee is expected to carry out some very light duties whilst their boss is on holiday (whilst being paid to continue working during said boss' holiday)??

You are being hilariously unreasonable. If she's on leave, then she doesn't have to work, or even think about work. If she's being paid to work, then she needs to do what she's asked to do.

Fucking hell! Shock

LorelaiVictoriaGilmore · 05/07/2018 22:45

I didn't even have to ask our nanny... She's a modern day Mary Poppins and comes up with her own list of things that she wants to get done while we are away. She sorts all their clothes and makes me a list of what needs buying, goes through all their toys, tidies the kids' bedrooms, batch cooks, makes photograph albums of all the activities she has done with the kids during the year, plans activities and trips... one time she made a beautiful 'what am I doing today?' board for ds complete with photographs of all his usual activities, pictures of weather, pictures of feelings...

We are very lucky!

twattymctwatterson · 06/07/2018 02:15

So they are paying her, she isn't on annual leave and you think they're being cheeky by asking her to do some actual work? Hmm

FrayedHem · 06/07/2018 02:50

It would be taking the piss if the parents still expected the nanny to do the school run/toddler groups without the children there, but some batch cooking sounds perfectly reasonable.

ShamelesslyPlacemarking · 06/07/2018 03:54

Two peaceful child-free weeks to batch cook, deep-clean tidy and sort, prepare craft activities, get everything shipshape for school, pre-buy gifts and other bits and bobs to make everything less of a scramble for the next few months sounds like bloody heaven to me and I wouldn’t even be getting paid to do it.

GoldilocksAndTheThreePears · 06/07/2018 03:56

Pretty much every nanny job I've had has had a standard family picks 2 weeks, nanny picks 2 weeks, of the annual holiday allowance. I personally always chose the week around Christmas so I could travel home and the other week to fit around the family, as I didn't go on holiday it was just time for myself. If my employers picked say the first 2 weeks of July as my holiday, but also went away at other times, I'd expect to work! Of course. It was a salaried position like most jobs, unpaid time would have knocked my yearly salary around. However it was usually great anyway, you'd have a list of required tasks and I'd set my own tasks I was meaning to do like clear craft cupboards or deep clean pushchairs and things that took time to dry. But usually as long as it all got done I'd have the freedom to start later than usual, play music while I did stuff, just be more flexible and more free as long as all got done. My last job had the added bonus of car use as the family tended to fly to family for half terms here and there and preferred the car to go with me each day as I had off road parking and they didn't, and I didn't own a car. Bonus!

Expecting a varied, well paid job such as nannying to simply stop because the charges aren't there is pretty unprofessional. Most employers will have this specific circumstance in the contract to avoid discussions like this.

Gwenhwyfar · 06/07/2018 07:42

"I dont stop doing my work when my boss is on holiday, and neither does anyone else I know."

I think a lot of people you know are lying to you then because I can assure you that in many offices when the bosses are away staff can take it very easy. Of course, they still have to turn up and deal with urgent stuff and they may take the opportunity of not being interrupted with new work to do things like filing, but in some places there will definitely be some skiving.
When the cat's away...