Giving Nanny Formal Warning.....how?

[CarlyP]

can anyone tell me how i go about tihs. its not gross misconduct, but she is not following out what was agreed. she has been with us since oct and i keep letting little things go, but enoughs enough!

please help

If you have reminded her on a number of occasions that she should be doing certain things, then I think you should put it in writing.
Write her a letter, explaining that you are disappointed she is not sticking by the agreements that you agreed in October and that you have had cause to remind her about this on X occasions.
I think you need to give her the opportunity to raise any points she may have about this, so that you can be seen to be reasonable & fair.
I'm sure others may be able to give you clearer instructions, but hope this helps.

I agree with Bugsy that you need to give her the opportunity to raise any points BUT from personal experience - which ended in a terrible terrible way, just ask her to leave. If you keep on having to remind her about the small things - what happends one day when she doesn't do the 'big' things! They are your children, it is your house and it is her job to listen to your requests. Nannies are in a difficult position and sometimes you have to go through a few to find a really good one. When you do they will become your right hand. Good Luck.

I would sit down and have a word around the kitchen table, follwed up by a letter, stating what was once again agreed at the kitchen table meeting. State that she has four weeks to pull her socks up and MAKE sure you have a meeting in four weeks to discuss progress either way. Effectively putting her on probation.

I would sit down with the contract and job description (assuming there is one), and go through her duties point by point. Write them down and both of you keep a copy.

Unless otherwise noted in your contract, you need to go through a process of 1, verbal warning 2, written warning 3, dismissal. You could be on shaky ground if you go from verbal warning to dismissal and it is not a matter of gross misconduct.

Agree with sitting her down - I had a situation with my nanny last year which ended up with me having to take advice on dismissing her and it is not easy. I had to invite my nanny to a formal meeting and point everything out to her and give her the chance to give me reasons for x, y and z. When I wasn't satisfied with some of her explanations I was then in a position to issue her with a letter of concern which clearly stated that should certain things occur again then I had grounds for disciplinary action.

Do you have a Grievance procedure.

If you want I could CAT you the jist of it.

Best of luck - I know how utterly frustrating it can be.

Agree with sitting her down - I had a situation with my nanny last year which ended up with me having to take advice on dismissing her and it is not easy. I had to invite my nanny to a formal meeting and point everything out to her and give her the chance to give me reasons for x, y and z. When I wasn't satisfied with some of her explanations I was then in a position to issue her with a letter of concern which clearly stated that should certain things occur again then I had grounds for disciplinary action.

Do you have a Grievance procedure.

If you want I could CAT you the jist of it.

Best of luck - I know how utterly frustrating it can be.

OMG, it's mishmash....

I know, I know - not been here in an age and thought I would drop into see what was happening - not been on MSN either. How are you?

Didn't mean to post twice to get notice

The reality is thta if she has only been with you since October, she does not have sufficient continuity of service to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim (your most obvious risk although there are others and if you are concerned, try get some legal advice). If in yoru heart of hearts you don't think any amount of talking is going to improve the situation, there is something to be said for cutting it all a bit short...

I agree with Uwila and Mishmash - you need to sit her down and talk through it. Feel free to follow it up with a letter, but you must talk through first. Ours ignored everything we said, so we sacked the bitch.

Thanks for all your advice. although the children think shes lovely (only aged 1 and 2) and seem happy to be with her, her sitting on sofa watching tv whilst theyplay is notacceptable. i jsut somehow feel she has got us over a barrel because i dont want to cause my boys upset bygetting someone else and the process can be so long and hard.

mishmash, if you could cat me that info that would be great.

thanks,

carly

Will get it to you in a bit Carly - thought I had saved it in "My Documents" so will have to fish out paper fie - although my issues were a little more serious but you will probably get an idea or two from it anyway.

MM

Just to say - we had terrible problems with our current Nanny in the early days. She simply wasn't doing the domestic part of the job at all (she's really not a very domestic person) and if we hadn't had the disciplinary procedure in the contract we'd probably have let her go at the end of her probation.

Instead, we gave her a verbal warning, extended her probation, set targets, assessed them every week - she shaped up, has been with us 8 months and we will be very sad when her visa runs out and she leaves us.

She still isn't very domestic naturally, but it's within the bounds of what we can live with and she is, overall, an excellent nanny. So, having to go through the formal process isn't just a tedious overhead - you can sometimes get a result from it too.

Carly - I don't seem to have CAT facility

Can I e-mail you?

sure, its [email protected]

thank you

cx

Mishmash, you cheapskate. You have to pay to get the CAT facility now.

you have to pay? why?

I think mumsnet provides an awful lot for free. But, they have running costs so they've started charging for th priviledge of CATs. I think it's very cheap. A fiver for a year of unlimited CATs.

tongue cheekily at Uwila]]