Maternity nanny advice

[nannyzim]

Hi I am a qualified maternity nanny and been a nanny to 3yr old twins since they were 9months old and 11wk old twins since they were 8weeks old. been in the childcare business for 15years......Anyway been offrered a maternity job through gumtree went to london for interview, she text just b4 Christmas to say yes she wanted me and would confirm wether i would be starting on Fri or sat in New year.1 week before start date, she text to say she doen't want me, no offer of payment for travel or nominal amount of wages due to short notice, she said she hadn't recieved contract so wouldn't pay anything. Am i right to feel a little bit annoyed? This is the second time this has happened when getting last minute jobs through Gumtree. Do any other maternity nurses have this problem and what do they do?? I have found a 6week placement so not completly up the creek but that not the point

do you have proof she offered you the job?
A contract does not have to be written to be breached. I'm going through the same thing now with someone who offered me a job way before christmas then decided to text me that she wasn't going to be employing me... But thats a whole other story...
Anyway, I digress.
You can ask her to pay you whatever the notice period was as she is in breach of a verbal contract.
... She prob won't though!

I have a text with her offering me the job, but she as saying as she didn't sign contract,shes not paying. what do i do in the future, do you turn up with contract or ask for deposit, seems a bit presumptious to ask for all of that after one meeting.... what are you doing about your job?

My advise is I am never accepting anything without a signed contract, until they produce something for me to sign, nothing is definite lol.
I've been temping so I haven't had a chance but I'm going to go to my local CAB office to see what they say. It prob won't be worth it but what have I got to lose?

No advice now but in future leave a copy with a SAE for them to either post and send or scan and e-mail. I also used to make parents sign at interview a letter which said that they understood making a firm offer of employment verbally or in writing meant they agreed to certain conditions, both signed copies and took one/left one. If the offer was verbal then I got them to text or e-mail me precise start-dates so I had hard (electronic!) evidence. For the maternity jobs I've had I also said that I wouldn't consider myself booked until the deposit had landed in my bank account, and the written agreement had my details on so no excuse really. I once turned someone down because I found another job and she hadn't completed the paperwork or paid the deposit so as far as I was concerned I wasn't booked.

Doesn't help you right now but might stop you getting burnt in the future.

My maternity nurse would not confirm the booking until I paid a deposit (I think one weeks fees). She made it quite clear that until she received the deposit she would take another booking if another potential client offered it.

If I changed my mind after giving the deposit - she would only give it back to me if she found alternative work for that week.

It seemed quite a reasonable approach to me.

Thanks everyone, guess i know for next time. what happened to trust

It's business, no such thing as trust.

I know that sounds callous, and we're supposed to be lovely caring people, but it's your livelihood.

as a mn i would turn up with contract and get it signed when they offer me the job

or get a weeks deposit

its a god eat dog busines and you do have to look after your own intersts

I too now ask for a signed contract and one weeks deposit before classing myself as booked.

The deposit is then taken off the last weeks booking.

Similar thing just happened to me - I was offered a nanny job before Christmas (verbally and in an email) and just got another email saying the mb had changed her mind now

god, its like some bizarre trend isn't it??

I am DEFINITELY going to adhere to all of the advice in this thread, hopefully we won't get burnt again.

good luck to everyone who is now job hunting again

I work as a self employed nanny as well as an employed nanny. For my self employed work if a parent wants to "book" me the way they do it is by depositing half of the amount into my bank. If they don't do that by the time the next person comes along then hard luck. When I meet them I also take along my "policies" one of which involves cancelling a booking - if they cancel 48 hours or less prior they still have to pay (I do adjust though depending on reason why they cancelled, one mindee had to go to hospital ). I also sign contracts as soon as they let me know they want me to work.

Like you I was finding it a right pain being left in the lurch at the last minute. This new way has been happening for about 6 months and works so much better!

I also ask for contract to be signed and deposit in my bank before I consider myself booked. It is a dog eat dog world - we've all been let down by potential employers. At least if you have a deposit you haven't lost everything.