Is this fair?

[firsttimeusingananny]

Please help me. I have never used a nanny before until last week. I had a nanny coming in for few days to help out with my 3 year old son.

She was brilliant my son loved her all good, nothing bad to say about her at all.

The original agreement was for her to work 10 hours in total. The first and last day she stayed over the agreed time. However, on the second day, it was snowing a lot so I told her if she felt unsafe driving home she could leave early. So she did, and she worked around 2.5hrs less that the original agreement.

She sent me her invoice and she charged the original 10 booked hours +2.5 additional hours.

I am on the fence whether this is fair or not. I can see why she would charge me that and I can also see why she shouldn't.

Personally, I would not have charged the additional hours, but I could be wrong. I haven't said anything, most likely I will just pay the invoice but I just wanted to hear other people's opinions.

Thank you!

How many hours did she actually work?

Did you explain to her that if she left early due to the adverse weather conditions that it would be unpaid?

If you had booked her and told her to go home you should expect to pay for the original hours plus the overtime.

I agree with @LIZS

She worked 10 hours. No I did not tell her it would be unpaid, my mistake. I assumed that was understood as it was for her benefit and safety not mine... lesson learnt.

Did you agree for her to stay later on the days she did?

I agree she should be paid for the hours she went home early, unless you specifically said it would be unpaid.

Tricky one as you sent her home. I think the fair thing would be for her to charge for the normal 10 hours but not the overtime. In future you need to be clear how you expect those hours to be treated

It’s not her fault you let her go early and not fulfill her hours.
YABU.

Especially if you may want to book her again in future.

I would also have assumed that I'd be paid for the full hours in this situation.

You needed to make it very clear if this wasn't the case (and she might well have preferred to stay).

If it had come from her, I think I'd expect unpaid (although if she's going to be regular nanny it might be showing goodwill to pay her anyway if she has to leave early due to bad weather).

As an employee if I ask to leave early I don't expect to be paid but I've always expected payment if I'm sent home early (unless it's an overstaffed situation).

Why did she work over her agreed time in the first place? This would affect how I broach the payment request. If through a fault on your side (stuck in traffic, for example) then absolutely she should bill for it. If she just decided to stay on when she could have left at the agreed time then I'd push back on it. Yes, you may need her again but you've also budgeted for 10 hours of her time, not 10 plus whatever she decides to stay.

I told her if she felt unsafe driving home she could leave early.

You basically suggested she leave and now don’t want to pay her.

I don't think she should be unpaid when you say she can leave early because that's your choice, short notice, she has cleared her time to work for you up to X time – I don't think it's fair to not pay her for that.

We use nannies – our last nanny was our employee and salaried, so this sort of thing never arose. Our current nanny is self employed, but we have a contract stating hours. I most often get home from work 20 mins before she's due to leave, and let her go early, but always pay her up to to the official leaving time. It's not on her when I might come home early or not, and he is banking on earning X a month to live on.

Thank you, all fair points. Like I've said, I had never used a nanny before so I wasn't sure what to expect.

If a tradesperson tells you a job will require 6 hours but actually they do it in 4 they don't charge the hours they didn't work, so I don't think my question was that unreasonable.

You haven’t said why she stayed an extra 2.5 hours?

So lets say you are in your own job and you put in 5 hours overtime last week. This week, for whatever reason, your boss said to you "hey if you want to leave early today fire ahead"...would you still expect to be paid your overtime from last week?

She didnt ask to leave early- you told her to

If she had asked to leave early it would be unpaid. But because it was your suggestion it's paid because technically she could have worked.

I'd pay it and be clear next time if you don't want to pay.

So I read this as you cancelling hours at short notice- I would still charge for those hours. In future, perhaps have the discussion around leaving early for whatever reason- my general rule is, if I instigate leaving/cancelling, I don’t charge the client; but if they instigate it at short notice then I do.

Why did she stay late the other days??

I think a tradesperson is different though – it's a one off job for their time on just that one job. The time they indicate is more just for your benefit, so you can plan and be prepared for X costs. You are expecting a nanny long term for X hours a week, so it's a significant chunk of her income.

The arrangement was just for 3 days and a flexible on/off arrangement in the future. We don't have family around and my husband travels a lot so just need extra pair of hands once every 3-4 months as needed.

There isn't a particular reason why she stayed late, my son was taking a while to settle and sleep so she stayed and the other one we just chatted for a bit after my son when to bed. Both quite organic situations, I didn't ask her to stay but also didn't ask her to leave.

I think you're being unfair.
If your boss told you that you could leave early, I'm sure you'd expect to be paid.
If she's a good nanny, I'd be going out of my way to make her want to come back!

She's not really a nanny then, she's a baby sitter. I still think it's different with a tradesperson estimating a job time for you, but I'd let the invoice this time slide.

If you're not happy with this sort of pay agreement, then mutually agree with her in advance of your next booking with her.

Oh, I didn't realise there was a difference between nanny and babysitter. But yes, I agree, I think there should be a clearer communication next time.

Entirely depends on the contract arrangement. I did freelancing for a while and if my boss said not to come one day, I wouldn't get paid for that day as it was part of the nature of freelancing.