Oh no!!! Help, help, help!! Nanny signed contract with us but has rung to say she has got a better offer and won't be coming!!

[BoffinMum]

So the BoffinMum childcare saga continues. We are just back from holiday, and the nanny who took five weeks to sign the employment contract at the end of July has just rung to say she has been headhunted and someone has made her a better offer, so she won't be starting on 1 September after all.

I have to say I feel sick to my stomach about this. The kids are very upset - they were looking forward to her coming. I phoned the agency straight away, and they are very shocked and trying to find me someone else, but I could have done without this on top of the usual upsets and anxieties about returning to work after maternity leave. I have also now lost the backup nursery place at work I had applied for, as I offered it back one she had signed on the dotted line.

What an unholy mess.

Ferber
I am really confused by your post.

"As a nanny I never signed a contract that said I had to work for this employer, the contract was always designed around the actual job itself once I had started."

Surely you signed a contract between yourself and an employer? THat is what a contract is? Maybe I'm missing something.

Boffin - shoot. It would have its downsides but I wonder if you could consider enforcing notice by making her work for you for a month until you sort yourself out? What would going to the courts achieve? Could you get financial compensation?

Sorry trying to do too much at once!!

What I meant to say was although I was bound to the contract and the notice period etc.when I was working for the family the notice period would never have came into force until I had actually started the job and was being paid.

Well Freber, I agree with what some of the other posters have said. If I had rung her today and told her not to bother turning up, I would have been liable to pay her money in lieu of notice, I imagine. Anyway, I would never do that to someone as I have more respect for other people tbh. Nor would I sign a contract in my line of work and then fail to turn up. If I was made a better offer I would explain it to the employer and offer to work for them until they found a replacement. And that is the decent thing to do. Nuff said.

I would never have expected an employer to pay me money in lieu of notice if I hadn't started working for them, I still don't now!
Although it is easy to say we would work for an employer until they had the cover no one would actually do it if they had another job to go to.

Well I have and know other people who have done so.

But that's the whole point of a contract - whether it's for buying a house, or hiring for/accepting a job - it's a commitment, and once the commitment is made, if it's broken then there are (usually financial) penalties. A nanny is an employee, and legally is entitled to pay in lieu of notice if she/he is let go before starting a job, but after signing a contract, and BM should be entitled to recompense also. Not sure why you wouldn't seek to get it (it doesn't sound like there are any extenuating circumstances), and if nothing else the Nanny needs to learn that's not how to behave. I'm not saying that you should be vindictive, (at all!) but from what you say you have been let down, and there should be consequences..

Sorry to hear your news boffinmum but don't panic. These things have a habit of working themselves out.
Keep nagging the agency
Speak to the nursery
Can any SAHM friends help?
holiday clubs in the short term?

Sue the non-nanny. Go on, it will be worth the small court fee just to make her poo in her pants for a bit. . I don't suppose you know where she is going to work instead? - it would only be a courtesy to the new employers to know the sort of nanny they are dealing with Did you get references for her, has she asked the same person to be referee again?

Unless it is stated in the contract that notice of not starting is a requirement you are not legally obliged to start. We do not sign contracts in blood!!

She has given a weeks notice which even after starting is all that is required for those in employ under a month.

People do pay in lieu of notice. I know of one example of this - think esp if you go via an agency you'd get pursued big time to do so. What if a nanny resigned from a job to come work for you?! I don't know what the official rules are - maybe some companies get out of it by saying the contract is offered subject to refernces for example?

The nanny will probably be black listed at the agency and will probably not be offered work through them again. Which is as it should be.

I have never said I agree with how she has gone about not starting the job, I have just said she has the same rights as any other person who wishes to change their mind.

for someone who charged onto the thread like a bull at a gate shrieking about nannies' employment rights, you seem very cavalier about the employers' right to be afforded the courtesy of honouring a legally signed contract, feber

The only point I was making is that I don't believe that a signed contract only becomes enforceable on the first day the employee actually starts working. It's not workable for it to be like that - there are too many risks either involved for both parties.

Maybe flowery will be along to clarify things.

It is unfair to leave someone in the lurch with little notice, but it is it illegal when over a weeks notice has been given?

I neither recall charging or shrieking, not a capital letter in sight, I was giving my opinion which is what this site is for is it not? Without 2 sides to an issue all there is is platitudes.

LOL Senua!! I would only ever go after her for a duplicate agency fee if it had been unavoidable. But I agree, I do think she should be aware of the consequences of signing something legally binding and then reneging. I gave her loads of chances to wriggle out of the arrangement before she signed on the dotted line and with hindsight it is now clear she was playing me off against someone else. And yes, I will be ringing her referees to tell them about this.

OH NO

((HUGS)) boffin mum

I bet you are so pissed off, you gave her every chance to not sign your contract and I would take her to the small claims court if you can and it wont leave you seriously out of pocket, ie if only £50 or so.

what she did was so UNPROFESSIONAL and if it was the other way around, that you then decided to employ a nanny who wanted less,she would be furious and demand the agency do something

I am so angry on your behalf

as the nanny hasnt started you can get ALL your fee back from the agency (tho not much help in finding you childcare)

wonder if she got the new job through the same agency?

You have had such a nightmare finding a nanny, and I prmise you that though at the moment you are prob cursing her and want her blood boiled once you have got good childcare sorted then you will look back and think thank god she hadnt started

try putting an ad on gumtree, netmums and NJ as well as contacting agency

Also, FWIW she was supposed to give four weeks' notice. We changed my working arrangements to accommodate her personal preferences and so on, and I am going to look pretty flakey at work now, not being able to sort out childcare properly despite having had months to do so. So it's a big stressful faff.

I am not a corporation and there is nobody else here to pick up the slack like there would be in a business, which is why we committed to having a nanny in the first place. I don't see why I should have to justify myself and my desire to honour the contract when I have conducted myself decently and thoughtfully in the first place. It is she who has been thoughtless and rampaged on our family's peace of mind.

Flowery has already advised me to move on, which is probably the right thing to do. But I certainly hope she doesn't cross my path again.

I was hoping you would come on, Blondes. I am very upset about all this. I want a nice nanny like you or NannyNick. I am fed up being messed about. I can't see what more I could possibly do to try to get one.

BTW I meant about the nanny not crossing my path, not Flowery, who is loveliness itself.

nick and I are lovely and modest

i am not suprised you are upset - you are lovely and if i wasnt so happy in my job and i lived a little closer to you, i would work for you, tho you might not be able to afford me

what have the agency said, and have you got your fee back yet?

Don't stress. Everyone bar one (glares in a certain direction) is sympathising. I'm sooo glad that my DC are beyond this stage.

Do you have to go back on the 1st of Sept? They have dealt without you for a few months, will a few weeks more be asking too much (are you in academia? sorry, can't remember) but I know what you mean about feeling flaky & unprofessional if you haven't sorted the childcare.

Oh how horrible BoffinMum - I remember all the stress you went through trying to find her in the first place and then when she wouldn't sign. I think what she's done is dreadfully unprofessional and also pretty immoral. A contract is a contract and once you have a job offer you generally stop looking! I echo everyone else who says it's a total pain but you really are better off without her.

If you can offer live in then I'm free to temp for a bit from the 8th of September! I'm nice and reliable (and I've just had swine flu so I won't be going off sick).

BoffinMum, maybe this was your 'mistake'. When she was delaying in signing the contract it was obvious so you should keep looking aswell - like she did.

I have the impression that the Agency now will get you new one quickly to avoid returning their fee to you. And the new one might be more suitab;le so it might all turn out ok.

I really can't see how Boffin made a mistake. Once she signed the contract that was supposed to be it. I'm sure she would have kept looking until it was signed. Wasn't this ages ago anyway? Had you had contact with her recently?

Frannikin, that may be useful and we do have a huge and lovely bedroom available. If you like, send me a CV at [email protected].

I do have to go back because it's the start of the academic year and there's shedloads of work, plus my boss is expecting me and it will look awful if I wriggle out of my obligations. Plus it would be so unfair on my colleagues, who have been endlessly supportive during a very difficult pregnancy and maternity leave period.

Blondes, I would never poach anyone, never, even if it was you. Poaching nannies is evil. But I appreciate the sentiment.

Harriet, the word 'mistake' was in quotes. I didn't mean she was wrong, just too nice.

But i think i remember her previous thread about the nanny not signing and my personal approach in these situations is 'good bye'. If someone is not hot enough and willing i just leave it. (i mean before the signing, not after. in those days/weeks when BM was wondering why the nanny doesn't sign)

But I did keep looking while she was doing all the awful dithering, just to be on the safe side, and I told her I was doing so just to cover myself in case she changed her mind for any reason, even though I was very happy with her application and preferred her. I kept her informed at all stages and told her about the people other agencies were offering me, whilst giving her the chance to change her mind, but emphasising how pleased we had been with her and how much we were looking forward to her starting work. I was totally transparent and upfront. I assumed her prevarication was because she was a little unworldly about human resources procedures.

After assuring me repeatedly she was certain about taking the job, she signed the contract just before we went on holiday. I then told her I was letting the other three contenders know we wouldn't be hiring any of them. We then went on holiday and the other applicants all went off and found jobs elsewhere. The day after we get back from holiday she then rings me to say she has had a better offer and won't be starting next week. Great, hey?

The agency have now sent us details of two nannies with very little home childcaring experience so I am serioiusly considering resignation from my job - career death but I can't live like this any more, with childcare disaster after childcare disaster.