Hello, I have been working for my NF for about 10 months now, I see the children as my own and we have bonded massively, I get on extremely well with MB as well so all in all I'm a happy nanny.
When I first started I was working 28 hours a week, my youngest charge started nursery and MB found herself a new job so my hours were cut to 24 a week (okay I could live with this). Since I was so happy in the job I thought money isn't everything, I would rather be happy.
Things have been going well for the last couple of months except MB's new job are a terrible company to work for, constantly chopping and changing her hours therefor my hours have been chopped and changed as well.
My hours at the moment are Mon, Wed, Fri and sat (I've not had a full week end of since Christmas and that's only because Christmas Day and Boxing Day happened to fall on the week end).
We were speaking yesterday and she informed me that her hours were being cut (by her own choice though) so therefor my hours were being cut again by 2 or 3 hours a week. It's not a huge difference but I don't exactly make that much money as it.
The new hours would be:-
Week 1 - Mon, Wed, Fri
Week 2 - Mon, Wed, Sat and so on.
Am I right in thinking its a bit unfair for her to cut my hours but expect me to technically be available four days a week as one week I would work a fri then the next a sat?
I've tried to explain to her that Im struggling as it is finding another job to fit around my current hours to make up for the short fall but with the new hours it would probably be impossible.
She's a single mum so tends to play that card quite a bit. (not trying to offend anyone) but she gets all the benefits, tax credits etc. My wages are paid for by tax credits as I'm OFSTED reg, she gets the nursery sessions for free as their funded. She has quite a good job herself, nice house but then sits there and winges about how my wages are so expensive each week :/
Although I'm contracted 24 hours a week I always work over that, as she doesn't want to pay the overtime out of her own pocket at the end of the month we agreed that she would give me a day off in lieu but every time I've asked her about a certain date she's told me that she can't give me the day off because she has no one else to have the kids (fair enough she doesn't have a great support system but why agree to the arrangement in the first place then?).
I'm starting to get the feeling that she doesn't want a nanny at all and just wants to save every penny as much as possible, it's starting to make me feel very uncomfortable as I'd prefer to work for a family that actually needs/wants me there and appreciates what I do for them.
All of this is supposedly happening in Mid May, I think I might leave it until the end of this month and then bring it up again and explain that I need to know what's happening with my hours.
The plan was that I would stay until September (when little one goes to school full time) and then move on so I'm a bit upset that I might need to leave earlier than planned.
Am I being unreasonable, is she?
If someone could advise me, I'd be extremely grateful.
Thanks