Owing hours

[MogandMe]

Nannies

Do you owe hours to your employer when they let you leave early?

Employers

If you get home before your nanny has finished - do you let them go home early and if so do they then owe hours?

Just been talking to a nanny friend who on 2 occassions has been let go early (upto 2 hours) one of these occassions was when the children were asleep in bed so didn't even have any "work" to do. Her employers have now said that she owes them back the hours.

As a nanny who has never had to do this - even with the worst employers - I find this a strange system so wondered what others thought about it.

no, absolutely not. she does not owe any hours. its not the nannies 'fault' that the employers came home early and let her go. she was there available to work.

No. However it creates a good working atmosphere meaning nanny is less likely to mind parent arriving home a bit later than anticipated (subject to having had prior warning and the nanny not having to be elsewhere).

It depends on whether hours were rigid or whether the hours are "normally" going to be between x and y o'clock and these fall outside of those hours or whether hours were strictly rigid. We had the more flexible arrangement with our last nanny.

Errr no. Very odd. Is it in her contract?
I occasionally asked my nanny (very, very nicely) if she'd do a babysit for me instead when I didn't need her for a half a day with at least 2 weeks notice. But she'd have been completely within her rights to say no.
She needs to sit down with them and explain that she's okay to do it on this occasion, but in future if they don't need her, she's happy to either do childcare related duties or go home if they'd prefer. But, its not normal for a nanny to make the time up.

My nanny has "under-worked" to the tune of hundreds of pounds, as we agreed a certain number of hours and days a week, and some weeks we absolutely need them, and others not so much. In general, we never say that she owes us these hours, but if, on the odd occasion, she really only does a half day, we might ask if she minds picking up those hours another time. But for the 1.5-2 hours she's paid for, but then doesn't work because one of us gets in earlier, no, never. It's hardly her fault that our schedule is erratic, and we just have to suck it up as the childcare choice we made. Like nanny nick says, it makes it easier to ask a favour when we really need it as she knows we don't take advantage of her or mess her around.

Yes I think the main thing is give and take. It is when it is all one way that problems occur.

i def dont owe hours - not my choice to leave early

i am more then happy to work my hours but tbh if my mb/db gets in early they always let me go as they WANT to spend time with their children

friends boss will sit out on drive till 7pm - even sat out there for an hour once, just so that nanny would bath the children

surely any parents would want to be able to spend that extra 30 mins with their child after not seeing them all day?

As an employer, do you owe your work hrs if you leave early. I'd go mental if my employer dared to even suggest I owed her hrs. At the end of the day, if a parent chooses to come home early and dismiss the nanny then that really is down to the parent.

Blondes - the dad has been known to wait outside until the nanny has taken the children up to the bath so that he can sneak in and watch tv downstairs until nanny has bathed and put the kids to bed - and obviously worked the full hours!

I wouldn't dream of counting up the hours and having nanny owe them back but I have found that slightly overpaying means she's more likely to muck on - for example this evening I was preparing for a dinner party and DH had to go buy bread, DS was whinging in his bouncer do she came and took him for an hour and a bit, did his dinner and tidied (heroic as we do BLW) and all this off her own bat just to help when she could have easily locked herself in her room and let me suffer!

I don't think it shows much trust if you lent pinch like that.