Nanny 5 weeks pregnant... Opens a whole new can of worms!!

[bonitagbchica]

Okay, long story short. Hired nanny back in late August for mid September start. She's not been performing duties outlined in contract since like November, had a chat in January about it with no improvement. Started looking for a new nanny in late Feb. Finally gathered all applicants, etc and was hoping to arrange interviews... until last Thursday when nanny announced she's 5 weeks pregnant. Oh God what now?!?!

So text her Monday pm to confirm Tuesday's 730am start and she asked me to call her to wake her up!?!? Madness! And then to top it all off, I get home an hour early on Tuesday and find her asleep with the kids just knocking about... Now, I must admit, my kids are 4 and 5 and probably wouldn't burn the house down, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day and the kids belonged outside with the other kids that were out on the road playing when I pulled up!!

What can/should I do?!
Am I overreacting? HELP!!

Don't know where you stand from a legal point of view but (a) you should not have to wake your nanny up first thing in the morning and she certainly shouldn't have been asleep on the job.

surely that's a sackable offence, sleeping whilst in charge of the children?

gross negligence?

NB I know nothing of nannying or employing

I would have thought sleeping in charge of the children is gross misconduct too!

At the very least, give her a written warning. She already had a verbal warning in January - if she doesn't start performing her contracted duties then sack her.

You can't sack her for any discriminatory reason or because of her pregnancy. You can sack her because she isn't doing her job though.

You can sack her for not performing her duties....frankly, sleeping whilst on duty is unacceptable in my eyes (am a nanny) am

i think i would fire her for sleeping on the job. I would also be talking to my kids to find out what kind of activities they do etc.

What does your contract say about gross misconduct?

I think you definitely need to move to the written warning of your disciplinary process, but as she's been with you less than a year you can fire her for any reason as long as it's not related to her pregnancy.

Your previous chat gives you good grounds for no improvement in performance and she can't claim it's due to her pregnancy if she's 5 weeks. You were already looking to interview other nannies so could prove her performance wasn't satisfactory and you planned to let her go anyway.

You need to do everything by the book now though - risk assessment etc - so she can't claim you treated her unfairly whilst pregnant.

she was asleep on the job and you said/did nothing?

Give her written warning for sleeping on the job. ALso have a contract review and remind her of her contractual duties. Being pregnant is not an excuse to not do your job.

AS has already been said, you cannot fire her for being pregnant. But, you can fire her not doing her job. ANd for what it's worth, sleeping on the job is gross miconduct (in my opinion).

Although I did once have a nanny who used to cuddle up with the 1 and 3 year old on sofa and watch a disney movie, and all three would fall asleep in the morning after I left for work. When I realised this, I was not very happy about it, but I did discipline her. I just started ringing her round that time. I think she got the hint. However, this nanny, was otherwise very good.

CORRECTION

When I realised this, I was not very happy about it, but I did not discipline her.