Nanny-reduced hours

[southendmum]

Hi. Desperately need some advice and quick!

My nanny told me tonight that she's thinking of reducing the 5 days she works for us to 4 as she intends to become a childminder when her contract finishes in December and would like to use 1 day a week to volunteer somewhere to gain the experience (even though she's been a nanny for 6 years!).

This doesn't suit me at all as my employee wouldn't be happy with me reducing my days and was not the agreed terms for my return the work, plus l'm too busy to work 4 days! We also don't have family to ask to look after children for 1 day.

Bit frustrated as l was thinking ofleaving work initially in Sept but agreed to prolong to Dec as she is getting married and wanted job security! Not even sure on this anyway-might keep working. :?
Also can't help worrying that if she's looking to give up nannying and clearing exploring her options she could hand her notice in at some point-just like she's lumped this on me!

Any advice would be great!

she has asked to reduce her hrs you cant accomodate you tell her she either works her agreed hrs or she hands her notice in - simple

obv crap for you in that you have to recruit new nanny but she doesnt dictate the contracted hrs you do you are the employer

Your nanny is the employee she doesn't get to dictate her hours!!

She can ask for reduced hours (as can any employee) doesn't mean that you as her employer has to accommodate her

thanks both for your views.

Both of you have kinda echoed my first reaction but always good to get someone else's opinion.

You are the boss you call the shots.

An employee can make a request to work part-time but you don't have to accept it. If your nanny wants to work part-time, maybe they need to look for another job.

her contract finishes in December

Does it? Not that common to have an end date specified in a contract in my view. Though your contract may well have an end date specified - perhaps it is a fixed term contract. You don't seem to have a problem with it ending in December - though you do mention extending it to December from September. So I'm just flaging this bit you wrote, as it does not sound usual for a nanny contact - you could be made redundant next week, what happens then?

Nannynick-you're right it is unusual. When l when back to work (march 2011) l went back on a 6 month contract as l wasn't sure if l wanted to return to work so it suited both my employers and me. However since then l've been persuaded to work longer and actually enjoy being back at work but the 6 month contract means l'm not tied to being back. Therefore my nanny has always been on 6 month contracts too.
As for being made redundant - although you can never be 100% sure l work for a very strong and successful business (they offered to pay me double to return to work!).

It seems to work for your employer, you and your nanny so that's great. Though why your nanny should think that you can simply drop to working 4 days a week is beyond me, it's almost as though your nanny does not live in the real world.

So what do you think your nannies reaction will be when she's told she can't drop to 4 days per week? If she wanted to do voluntary work, she could find some at weekends - though I'm not sure why she wants to find voluntary work, not sure it would really help her in convincing parents to leave their children with her. Maybe it's to extend the age range of the children she has worked with.

Yes it's always worked and my nanny has been looked after and l've always been honest with her. Don't feel she's being the same with me which isn't a nice feeling.

She obviously won't like my decision but if she wants to keep her job then she's no choice.at the end of the day the job she accepted was full time childcare so if she no longer wants that then she needs to move on unfortunately. Think she's making a bad decision though without being big-headed.

At the end of the day it's her decision - there are other nannies and whilst it worked for you to have them on 6 month contracts, that also means they're free to re-negotiate every time it ends. Maybe there's something going on in her life you're not aware of? By any chance could she be finding the job difficult? If that was the case, you'd think she'd want to leave completely, though.

All you can do is tell her you need her full time or not at all. Surely she'd know you're going to say that?

Just like any other job, she can request an hours change but if it can't be accomadated by the employer it will have to be denied.
If you can't do it then it becomes her problem to sort out, not yours. She will have to rearrange her plans or, the less nice alternative, she will have to start looking for alternative work.
As eastmidlandsnightnanny says, it's a bit crap for you if you have to find another nanny but thats just that.
Don't panic about it! You shouldn't have to affect your life to accomodate her. Sounds like you've been fair thus far anyway!
Hope you get it sorted. * sends happy thoughts your way! *

Does your nanny have any children under five?

You need to be careful you follow the statuory flexible working request proceedure, if your nanny has children under five, or has a disable child.

www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1081563512&type=RESOURCES

From what I remember there are 8 reasons that you can legimately decline a request. I hope the link helps you to decline a request and remain within the law.

thank you for the link.

My nanny doesn't have any children and as far as know there's no real reason that l can think for her to cut her hours or lose part of her wages. Obviously she's given her reason of volunteering in order to further her childminding but doesn't show much commitment to me, especially as she is supposed to be working until Dec.

As she's supposed to be working for me until Dec then she shouldn't be trying to re-negotiate. Plus l look after her and don't make her work long hours.however going to have a chat with her to see if she is unhappy or if there is any reason why she wants to reduce her hours.

As a few people have said, surely she knows what my answer is going to be so l 'm wondering if she's not being honest with me and looking for an easy way out. If so won't be happy.

Why not tell her that you need her 5 days but she can save up and finish her contract early, so she can get her volounteer practice in over a block of weeks in November instead?

Like the suggestion but then l'm still stuck for a month in Dec..

Had my chat with her tonight and told her it wasn't feasible. Genuinely think she thought she had a right to reduced hours. Like nannynick said it's like she's not living in the real world. She also asked what would happen if she insisted on the 4 day week and you can guess my reply!

That's so odd - if it were me I'd know that it wouldn't work out and just part ways as soon as it became possible (at the end of the contract or whatever). I don't understand the volunteering thing. If she really wanted to do it, couldn't she do it at the weekends?