Originally Posted by
sste
I am not sure it helps the financial situation of low-paid workers to hold them to a lower standard for notice, showing up for work, etc. Presumably, if the attitude and prevailing sentiment is "your nanny should and will bail at a moment's notice" then assuming the marketplace will bear that employers will price that into nanny salary and pay them less.
Last but not least, I am finding it hard to imagine this wonderful other job that would materialize on Sunday night with a job offer requiring her to start the following morning. It seems to me that if another job offer was in play she likely rec'd it earlier and that there might have been a few days or a week's flexibilty on start date so that she could at least offer the OP's family a few days of childcare while they nanny-search.
It's not holding them to a lower standard. It's acknowledging that there is actually a difference day to day between workers at different ends of the wage spectrum. Life is not the same and the norms, trends and unwritten rules are different.
Nannies, especially PT ones hired informally, are already by and large paid significantly less than people who scrub toilets in houses as housecleaners. When I was getting ~$8.50 as a nanny (late 1990s), I was getting more than 3 times that for cleaning. The marketplace is as a result of low wages, undervaluing of people who care for children in general, and poor benefits subject to high turnover. It is wonderful when nannies are worth their weight in gold and truly go above and beyond and exhibit professionalism high above their pay grade. But just like in any other job field, not all are in the top 5% of awesomeness.
Backups are on the parent, not the nanny. I am sure every working parent family at some point has needed to run down a list of backups. Is it hard, inconvenient and stressful? Yes, but that is, at times, parenting for you.
Last edited by kijip; 12-30-2012 at 05:33 PM.
Katie, mama to a pair of boys.