Nanny late every day, help

[thisusernameismine]

Need advice please. Would you be bothered if your childcare was late, not by much, but 2-5 mins late every day?

It's having a knock on effect as means every workday I am a few mins late and they're paying me to start at a certain time. Additionally, my LO is in the middle of a clingy phase so the handover is a bit of a nightmare and unfair on my child, who needs extra reassurance from me before I can leave.

I've already addressed this but it's slipped back into a few mins late. I do feel I've been fair throughout the employment as if I work from home I've said come in late (like 2 hours late) and leave an hour early as I'm home. Just feel there is no 'tit for tat' in terms of timing.

I like to be at work a few mins before I'm due to start but maybe that's just me!

Can you move her official start time back by 15 minutes?

You need to tell her again! It’s having a knock on effect on you and it’s not acceptable. If you want a proper handover though then maybe you need to pay her to arrive earlier. My nanny’s start time is 15mins before I need to go, so we have a handover and there’s room for error if she’s running late.

I agree with the previous posters about officially moving her start time

Move the start time to take pressure off you both I feel she’s otherwise good. Not ideal to have a ‘to the minute’ timing in the mornings.

How much handover time do you have? My nanny is generally on time but occasionally gets stuck in traffic, which I understand because we live in the city centre.

If it became regular lateness I would absolutely speak to her but we have 10 mins between her arriving and me leaving so there is a bit of slack in there.

Thanks for all replies.

I can leave 5 mins after her official start time and that would be enough. But what I'm finding is with nanny being late every day (she lives walking distance away) it's a more stressful handover. Her being 2-3 mins early is an anomaly.

I guess the every day lateness, and having addressed it before, is grating on me quite a bit.

Good idea re changing start time so I will try see if she can start 5 mins early and actually be on time rather than using that to be 5 mins late.

I don’t think 5 minutes is a sufficient buffer to be of benefit but it’s your call

I don't think moving her start time so when she is late it's okay is the answer, it's not really addressing the issue and you are paying her from a certain time for a reason

As a nanny if I was finding that I regularly arrived late, I would leave home earlier. So why is your nanny not leaving home earlier?

I don't think that you should be building in the buffer for her. You need to address the issue.

Unless she is the world's perfect nanny in every other respect I wouldn't be putting up with this.

Sit down and explain the knock on effect on your day and that its unfair on the DC to have such a quick handover. If she doesn't care enough to address her lateness I'd be looking for someone else as it shows a disregard for you and your DC.

You shouldn’t expect her to be early - it seems like you do. Personally, especially with a clingy child and a job where you need to arrive at a set time, I don’t think a 5 min handover window is sufficient. What if you need to give her specific instructions/show her something? Plus even with good intentions things can happen to make people late occasionally. Obviously she needs to arrive on time, but I still think your plan is set up to be stressful regardless of that.

@HarrietM87 thanks for reply.

I'm not expecting to be massively early but would hope that she's inside, coat off, bag down etc ready to literally takeover at time agreed rather than arriving at the door a couple of mins late every day, so is not actually ready to take over on time?

This isn’t ok, if this happened to me I could miss my train and be half an hour late to work (not the end of the world but looks bad). You’ll have to talk to her again.

Being late for work anywhere else wouldnt be acceptable so why does she think its ok for her?

Have a chat and tell her you expect her to be here at starting time so you can handover and get to your own work on time. Why should you get a reputation for being late due to her not leaving a few minutes earlier in the mornings. Its not rocket science for her to leave in plenty time to get to her paid employment on time.

If it continues look for a more reliable nanny. You have cut her plenty slack over arriving late/leaving early so she should at least be on time. I wouldnt be increasing her hours because she cant get there on time whos to say she wont just continue to be late after that?

I agree she shouldn't be late regualrly but also that a 5 minute handover time is unrealistic. Also 2 minutes lstd is closed enough to list be differently calibrated clocks etc. I wouldn't consider two mins late - I would 5 minites. I think she should have time to take her coat of and chat to you about DC sleep / food / plans etc within the time you pay her for. Our handover "gap" is around 15 minutes but often only takes 2 mins but this way I am not stressed if she is running slightly late (although this is not common).

I found that when I lived walking distance to my jobs (both nannying and nursery nursing), I was more often late as I got complacent about how close it was. When I was in the habit of being late, I found that a pointed look at the clock and an arched eyebrow in my direction was enough to shame me into bucking my ideas up.

I worked in one nursery (not walking distance) that expected us to be there 15 minutes before the start of our shift to allow for bag and coat dumping (unpaid).

You have addressed this, she's still not complying, so you need to address it differently. Either by moving her start time forward 10 to 15 minutes, or picking her up on it every single day. She'll click very swiftly and won't won't to have that conversation, so will change her act.

As a nanny you usually build a familiar relationship with the family you work for, so small things like 2-5 minutes don't seem huge. She needs to know that whilst it's not huge to her, it's impacting your work life.

Age plays a factor too. As a nanny I was in my early to late twenties (I worked for that family from the age of 23 to when I went on maternity leave at almost 29). I was more more complacent about time keeping then. Now as a mum of two and pushing 40, that would piss me off royally if I relied on someone to be there at a certain time (in fact it does, I'm looking at you DH).

I'm not excusing her at all. Just pointing out that timing is of differing importance to you which is probably why she's slipped again. But she needs to bend to you on this occasion.

The fact that she lives quite near you is definitely a factor. The further you have to travel I find the more time you give yourself to get there. If you are only 5/10 minutes aware you will always be a last minute. Just have words again and let her know that this matters, that it messes up your day.

She shouldnt be late.
Say you want to talk to her and arrange a time when no children to interrupt you.
Explain that she need to arrive on time not late.
You dont need a buffer. Children will be 'clingy' they like to test boundaries.
Nanny comes in and you go that simple.
One hug and kiss to child and out the door.
If you are extending the goodbye by encouraging clingy behaviour (unintentionally) then the nanny will be reluctant to arrive early. I know I sit in the car outside until the exact start time to avoid this. Some toddlers cant cope with not knowing who is in charge. Better to be a swift exit. You can always communicate with the nanny in a other way.

Def shouldn’t be late

But if you want more of a time for your child to be able to deal with leaving then needs to be 10m earlier

I'm not sure 2 mins is late, in that case change the start time. Five minutes however is more than a rounding error and can see why you're pissed off when you give her time off (I assume you still pay same!). So I would tell her handover needs longer so earlier start AND do not be late. Although I know I would never do it myself because I can't bear any confrontation with nannies!!!

2mins is late.

If an 8am start be there at 759/8. Not 8.02

You'd need to move her time officially back to give you the time YOU want for the handover.
If it's literally 2 minutes then what you have done is shave as much time off as you can from her time being there so you can pay her as little you can for the hours.
Just because you think you are being 'nice' to her by letting her off here and there because you are at home doesn't mean that she is mind-reading and thinking that she should be flexible with you.
Either give her that time off here and there in good grace, and do not expect her to 'repay' you by being early for work for nothing.