Nanny off sick

[chrissiejames]

How often are your nannies off sick? Do you give them full pay? Have any of you dismissed nannies for being off sick? (Can you do that?). When my nanny if off sick I have to take the day off work which is making my own sickness record look bad!
Thanks
Chrissie

How often is she off sick? Is it excessive or regular?

How much sick leave are we talking about? A couple days a year or a couple days every month?

I would pay my nanny for normal amounts of sick time here and there, then take holiday to look after the kids myself. But, if I thought my nanny was taking the mick, I wouldn't give her anything above the SSP required by law.

If she is genuinely sick, that is most certainly not grounds for dismissal. But, if she is pulling sickies, youbetya that would damage the working relationship the point where either dismissal or resignation was probably inevitable.

Chrissie, I think how often she's sick is an important question in order to answer you properly.

Actually even if she is genuinely sick and you simply cannot cope with it, you are entitled to dismiss in due course - provided you have made a reasonable effort to find out what is wrong with her and whether her absence record is likely to imporve. It is a difficult area - you need to tell us more...

as a ex nanny i was off work 7 days in 8yrs.one family i worked for,had me working when i had tonsilitis,i agreed to work as long as she did not mind me having sleep the same time as little boy.

when i was off i got no sick pay.

Thanks for your messages - she has had 5 days in last 4 months - is that a lot?

One day a month. I'd say that's a bit much. Is she live in or out? What are the reasons? I mean is she really too sick to work, or does she take to her bed when she gets a menstrual cramp or a mild cold?

Basically, if I would go to work, I expect nanny to come to work.

What does your contract say? Have you offered anything above SSP?

Sounds too much for odd days rather than a bout of a more serious sickness. You probably need to sit down and have a chat with her about what you expect and the reasons for her absences and tell her that that frequency of sickness absence is too much and you expect to see an improvement over the next couple of months otherwise you will ahve to have a further review of the situation...

Sounds quite a difficult conversation to have, GhostofNatt

Well, lummox, when i had it, it went a bit like "Ummm, I know that you really have been sick and I'm certainly not suggesting you haven't been sick, but umm I really do need you to show up from work a bit more..." etc etc

I think it would be more difficult for chrissiejames to continue in her current situation without having the talk. This is a burdon of being an employer: you have to manae the employees. So, when problems arise, you have to deal with them.

I have only been off sick once in the last 17 months of employment (one family) The only reasin I didn't go into work was because I was throwing up etc) I caught the bug from work (mom, dad and T had all been sick that week) I was back at work the next day. I got paid full pay. Sometimes I feel dreadful when I go to work, but am always allowed to have an easy day and sleep when T does.

In 3 years ive never had a sick day

i normally stuggel into work, dose up on paracaetamol and let the children watch more tv than normal (on average they see 2 or 3 single 20 / 30 min programmes per WEEK in my time (max!))

I do give full pay, but if I felt they were taking the pee, I'd have a word fairly early on.

However, I don't understand why you are taking days off sick, when it's your nanny that's sick, not you! I use annual leave on these occasions. I'd never dream of ringing in sick when it wasn't me that was sick!

Sanctimonious? Moi?

I wouldn't personally want a sick nanny coming in to care for my little one.. why run the risk of your children catching it too!

I was a nanny before having my little girl and had serious problems with an employer after I got food poisoning and was off work for 8 days with it.
Why would they want me back anyway with such a serious illness? I lost almost a stone and a half in weight and ended up badly dehydrated but they thought I should have gone to work because it was inconvenient for them.

Roxswood, ive never had more than a bad cold, and TBH on each of the 3 occasions, the kids have it already anyway!

in fact im sure thats where i got it, FROM THIER KIDS IN THE 1ST PLACE!!!!!

Thanks all of you. I think I will have a word. The reasons for the various days (some sequential some not) have been a bad cold or vomiting - maybe I am mean even doubting them but it does just seem an awful lot to me. So then I think oh I'll leave it and see..

Tanzie - yes sorry I meant absence record, but it still has the implication of "letting the side down" as it is always last minute (and I have gone over my annual leave entitlement so it is now unpaid leave which is not strictly allowed in my company).

I am currently doing full pay for sickness though our contract doesnt oblige me to pay anything (other than SSP). Maybe by paying full pay when she is off sick there is not the motivation for her to come in if she is feeling a tiny bit under the weather but where in the same situation I would expect her to come in as I would do the same(obviously there is a line between feeling so bad that you can;t function properly and just not being 100%)...

Chrissie

Chrissie, I would probably stop paying sick days if my nanny was acting as yours is. I would just explain that I can't afford to pay for childcare twice.

However, I must add that my nanny is wonderful and would not pull a sicky on me (before someone on nannyjob reads this post and alerts my lovely nanny to my harsh policies).

Uwila, we're not all that bad

Chrissie, where I work, we are allowed 5 days self certificated leave in a year. Can you tell her that she has used up her allowance and will now either be paid a) nothing at all when she goes sick or b) statutory sick pay (not sure how much that is). That might buck her ideas up.

But, Tanzie, that paves the way for her five free days next year, and the next.

SANanny, I agree you're not all bad. But a couple of bad apples crop up now and then, don't they?

Surely though if she has a cold you know that she's got it IYSWIM. Bad colds do not last just one day. So she would have the symptoms before/after the absence. Although I also see what you mean about whether she is fit to work with it or not.

I think though that you have to accept that there is a fair chance of nannies catching a lot of illnesses because they will pick them up of your kids. This happened to me when I was an au pair (was in America so exposed to totally new set of germs) and also when my DS first started nursery. Was not so bad when DD started nursery because I had built up some immunity through DS!

chrissiejames, is your nanny live-out? Is there anyway to find out if she is genuinely ill, like stop by her apartment with some chicken soup and a get well card from the kids?