changing nanny's hours

[gladders]

our fab nanny has been working for us for 5 years, Mon-Thurs.

she has always worked 4 days a week - but we would like to reduce this to 3 now.

how much notice do i need to give her of this change? if i said it was to start in September, is that reasonable?

be prepared for her to leave if you are cutting her pay by 25 %

I'd suggest giving as much notice as possible... at least a month. Have a chat with them about how things are going and how you are needing to reduce hours from September due to whatever your key reasons are.
If cutting due to all children now being at school, consider what you will do on the days your nanny does not work if a child is ill, or school is closed. If nanny gets another job for those days then you won't be able to have them come in for extra hours.

Some nannies may look at leaving, so do consider that possibility. Thus talk to them about the need to reduce hours and get a feel for if they will leave, or stay.

I'd suggest giving as much notice as possible... at least a month. Have a chat with them about how things are going and how you are needing to reduce hours from September due to whatever your key reasons are.
If cutting due to all children now being at school, consider what you will do on the days your nanny does not work if a child is ill, or school is closed. If nanny gets another job for those days then you won't be able to have them come in for extra hours.

Some nannies may look at leaving, so do consider that possibility. Thus talk to them about the need to reduce hours and get a feel for if they will leave, or stay.

It is reasonable but she may decide to leave.

See here for how to approach it.

thank you all

yes both kids will be in school but I also plan to reduce my working week fom 4 to 3 days - so there is no issue with lack of cover on her days off.

her only duties will be drop off and pick up - with a small amount of housework (that she has agreed to) in between.

i was thinking that one way to sweeten the deal would be to offer to do the MOnday morning drop off - so essentially she only works 3-6 on a Monday, but still gets paid for 3 full days?

to be honest, if she won't accept it, then we will carry on as we are - she's too fab to lose.

Hi Gladders, What a nice reasonable employer you sound. you obviously treat your nanny with respect and I hope things work out for you both.

re "carry on as we are" - yes, but once you have mentioned it, you may (or may not, butn run the risk) find that she may decide to look for alternatives, either because she is nervous about how long you will go on paying her for more time than you really need and/or because she may feel uncomfortable about being there with not a lot to do and you there as well. So I would think through very carefully what you really want before you speak to her.

How old and experienced is she? If this is her first job and depending on other circumstances, you could consider offering paid time off for further training if that is what she wants to do. That is if you really, really want to keep her.

I agree with Summersoon. We have just lost our nanny of many years due primarily to reducing her hours. She seemed OK about it at the time we discussed it, and was going to look for something to fit round us. Then she just announced she'd found a better job and so couldn't work for us anymore. I really thought she'd talk to us first as we'd always been really honest and up front with her...but obviously not

we do really really want to keep her. she is (ahem) a mature nanny and there is a strong possibility she will retire when she finishes with us.

i don't think further training would help. am thinking that we could pay her 3 days wages for 2.5 days work, and also increase her holiday to 5 weeks plus Xmas would be more tempting?

if she is adamant she wants to stay at 4 days, then i will have to accept that. we have already outlined to her that we won't be able to afford the current arrangement after Aug 2011, so we all have that in mind as the end date really. so am optimistic that this conversation will not cause her resignation.....

GLADDERS you sound very fair

maybe suggest cutting down 4 to 3 days and see what she says and then offer the 3-6 mon but on full pay afterwards - she may be happy to drop tho obv she will be losing 25% of her salary a HUGE chunk

the 25% cut is massive isn't it?

am wondering if i could negotiate working 3 days in the office and one morning at home - so that my pay cut is only c 10% - then i would have some flexibility to cut her money by less than 25%?

worth an ask

am meeting her at midday.

chicken that i am, i set up the meeting by text, and her reply was rather brief (terse?) - so am now more nervous than ever.

if i upset her and she resigns,i will have no choice but to do the same.......

you dont have to resign if the nanny does

just find another fab one

assume meeting has happened now - so what happened?

i offered a 15% drop in wages in return for a 33% cut in hours - but this still would have cost her over £200 net each month and she says she can't afford that.

so that's it for now really

on the plus side she did say that the 2011/12 school year she had always thought she would do school pick ups and school holidays for us - which would be fabulous!

so short term - if i want to cut my working hours, then i will have to get dh to subsidise me. but medium term she is on the same wavelength as me.

and most importantly, she loves my kids and they love her

Could you find someone with a younger child to share her with so she can still do pickups for you? Or someone to contribute to an after school nanny share to make up the shortfall?

so you said to the nanny that she gets less money as doing less hours and she said she couldnt afford to drop £200 - fair enough

but puzzled if you mean she is still working for you and dh pays the extra salary or that you are finding a new nanny

she will still work for us - on same terms for same salary

BUT - my main aim in this was to improve my work life balance and reduce my own working week.

so - if i still want to go ahead with that then dh will have to start paying some of the childcare costs otherwise i will be flat broke.

its alright though -dh seemed quite open to the idea so am formulating a proposal for my boss!

frakkit - we first met her through a nanny share and it wasn't a good experience for her or us so i'd be reluctant to share her with anyone again.....

so what will you do on the day you wont work but still pay her

be a mummy what lunches

not sure yet - am mulling it over.

whole point of this was to get closer to the kids (and further away from work!) - so might still reduce her days to 3.

perhaps she could do an extra hour one day a week (so i could run after work) and some babysitting to make up some of the hours we're paying for?

she's away now for 2 weeks though so not going to rush into anything.

that would be fair, i would be happy to work an extra hour a day and maybe babysit once a week on a mon/tue or wed so maybe only work 3+days plus babysitting of 4/5hrs so 8hrs worth iyswim

thanks for your insight blondes - am going to mull it over some more, then talk to my manager and if he's happy for me to change my hours, i'll do that. Am hoping have not left it too late to get a few more days with them over the summer hols.....