Who is responsible for lost mobile phone?

[uwila]

Do you give your nanny a mobile phone? If so, who would be responsible for replacing it if she lost it? You? Her? Split the cost?

Incidentally, I own the phone, but it is for her sole use whilst she works for us.

Hi SSD,
The nanny hunt is going pretty well. I don't need her until mid-August so to be honest I haven't put a whole lot of effort into replacing her just yet. But, I did put up one free add I figured I'd just play by ear and then if nothing turned up start a more serious search after baby is born and I'm not at work anymore. But, I ende up talking to two candidates -- one Italian and one Canadian. It look slike the Canadian, although it's not quite a done deal. But, hopefully it will be soon. It will be nice to have everything sorted so far in advance.

Hi Uwila, glad to hear you may have found someone this far in advance. Good luck with that....

Hope you don't think it's too rude of me to say but I think it's a bit unfair to deduct 50% of the cost of the missing mobile from the outgoing nannies final cheque.Unless this was discussed prior to giving her the mobile and this was the agreement you both came to.I know it would p**s me off too, but I think deducting her the money might come as a shock to her as she might not think she's liable for it as you gave it to her.
And you don't want her leaving as she might bad mouth you to the next nanny.....that's presuming she might take another job nearby? As I said ignore me if you think I'm being rude/interfering!

I think even if your next nanny has her own phone, you can't expect her to use it for your benefit unless you're ready to subsidise the cost

If it's a WORK phone then it's your responsibility to have insurance for loss or damage.

I have lost MANY work phones (mostly through being drunk) and I have never been asked to pay anything towards it - if I was, I would just say that I DON'T WANT a work phone in that case!

I wouldn't dock her last month's pay - seems very harsh, especially as you have not got a written agreement making her responsible for it.

Just my experience.

I agree with thar tinker. Perhaps you could come to an agreement of a suitable and fair amount to be contributed towards her phone bill/prepay (whatever she has) in accordance with how many work related calls she is likely to make each week/month.
As a nanny, (in my distant youth when mobile phones were the size of a brick), I think I would have felt a bit taken for granted if I was expected to use my mobile for work, but have no offer of a contribution to the cost.

Well, it all came to a peaceful conclusion tonight when she said "So I suppose I have to pay you for the phone" and I said "Well, how about if we split it. It's not like you did it intentionally. Do you think that's fair?" and she said "ok".

I think if I lost my work phone, my employer would expect me to pay for it.

I always resent having a work phone, so there's no way I want any responsibility for it.

I managed to lose two down toilets (always kept 'em clipped into the back of my trousers, and then just as you pull up your trousers and turn and flush - SMACK! - there goes the phone in a torrent of water).

Mind you I always had total crap work phones (not surprisingly).

Mine wouldn't. But then mine are trying to take them back off us on the basis of cost cutting. Real reason is they know most people have their own (I don't) and are exploiting that. I had a laptop stolen - didn't have to pay for it, thank God.

Oh Tinker, of course. I never meant to suggest that should pay for the calls which are for work purpose. If she wanted to use her own phone (and only if it was HER preference) then I would accommodate by reimbursing any calls made for her work as nanny (talking to me, organising activities, any calls realated to her work here). The truth is I want her to have a mobile because I want to know I could contact her any time any where if I wanted to. SO I'm happy to supply the phone.

What I did with this nanny and will do with the next one is put x£ on it per month and if she wants to use the phone for personal calls as well she is free to do that, but she will need to top up the phone to cover those calls. And if she finds that £X isn't enough to cover her work then let me know and we'll adjust the monthly top up.

Sorry if I led people to think I expected her to fork over for the calls. Definitely not so.

That's good Uwila!

(I meant your reply about settling things amicably with your present nanny)

Sounds fair enough to me too then on both counts.

uwila, what phone do you have? Are you on contract? Because if you are willing to accept a crap phone (I do, because I know I would never use the PDA/camera features) you can get your slef a decent phone on contract, buy a crappy one on e-bay and swap SIMS (as long as they are on the same network)

uwila, i didn't mean the new nanny's contract, i meant what's in her contract re: losses/breakages? glad you've sorted it out now

Bundle, neither contract says anything about it.

Do other nanny employers have a clause in the contract about this sort of thing?

i think if it bothers you, and are going to expect them to pay for certain things out of their own pocket while they are working for you, then you should definitely have a clause. it would stop you having to worry about it after the event and you could negotiate eg if the new nanny lost her phone/had it stolen and wanted to upgrade she could pay the difference.

from all my latest interviewing etc, regardless of what job they do, the vast majority of people in the UK under 30 expect to own and run their own mobile phone and keep it on them at all times-even my au pair Inertia arrived from her country with a working phone of her own from her previous stint here-she never complained about that at all (I did say in the contract I would provide one), never needed to call me on it as no emergency arose (I would have reimbursed her if so), I called her once or twice-mostly if she needed to talk to me it could wait until she got home and she used my landline -Uwila I think your older technophobe nanny is unusual in this regard nowadays, and that may play a part in her difficulty keeping track of the dreaded object. It's taken me years to adapt, but now I love my beautiful new treo I recently bought myself FROM EBAY! and it is always with me, on and in constant use for all sorts of things.

from all my latest interviewing etc, regardless of what job they do, the vast majority of people in the UK under 30 expect to own and run their own mobile phone and keep it on them at all times-even my au pair Inertia arrived from her country with a working phone of her own from her previous stint here-she never complained about that at all (I did say in the contract I would provide one), never needed to call me on it as no emergency arose (I would have reimbursed her if so), I called her once or twice-mostly if she needed to talk to me it could wait until she got home and she used my landline -Uwila I think your older technophobe nanny is unusual in this regard nowadays, and that may play a part in her difficulty keeping track of the dreaded object. It's taken me years to adapt, but now I love my beautiful new treo I recently bought myself FROM EBAY! and it is always with me, on and in constant use for all sorts of things.

Well, much to my surprise, I discussed the phone with new nanny last night and she said that she doesn't have a mobile phone, and has very little interest in them Said she didn't mind whether she had one or not. She is from a little tiny town in ritish Columbia and said she's the only one in the town who doesn't have a mobile phone! So, I thinkI'll go with bottom of the line Nokia, and if she loses it I'll just replace it with a crap one. If it turns out she suddenly loves the thing and wants to use it much more than I'll look at upgrading. But, as she doesn't really mind about it, I guess I'd be wasting my time/money. Who'd have guessed? A 22 year old who doesn't have an interest in a mobile phone.

Hi Uwila - Snap my 18 year old Canadian has no interest in having one! If you're after a spare phone, I've got a Nokia you can have (decent one - don't need it anymore). I got a PYG sim card for £5 for another redundant Nokia and our AP uses that when she's out (just for me to be able to call her and for her to be able to call us in an emergency). It's had £8 on it for over three months now. Other than that she uses our home phone to call home - using call18866.co.uk - and at 1p a minute to Canada (landline or mobile) its cheaper for her to call home than me to call my dh on his mobile. We put no restriction on her calls back home and my phone bill is no more than £10 a month using 18866. Mail me if you want the phone and I'll find out the model number for you.

Glad to hear you've found a replacement - and even more so that she's Canadian!

Oh also - she's not from anywhere near Langley in British Columbia is she? That's where my ap's from.

I guess the midwestern americans aren't as switched on to "cell phones" as the Euros either, though I mostly hear from the older generation. The coverage isnt as good across the US.

They are horribly expensive in the US, MS

Hey now, I am a midwesterner and I am perfectly switched on.

And, heh hem... so are you MS.

I mean those who are still there that I know, admittedly not a huge sample since I left in the Jurassic Period. Mostly my deeply odd relatives. hmmm