Working for the wrong family/families

I do not want to whinge. Everyone who has ever worked have their own problems too. I don’t deny that. There are people out there who have experience working for really nasty employers. The following is my experience.

Personally, I think that the worst thing that can happen is if you choose the wrong family/families to work for. Many parents may think that they have the upper hand when hiring and firing a nanny, but they usually do not realise that a nanny may also be conducting their own discreet interview process in order to screen out unsuitable families during the initial interview. Since I have never been asked to work for a trial period, I tend to find it harder to screen the parents/family properly. This is especially so if the new family is not introduced by another family that I have already been working for.

Many parents must think that nannies are so poor and short on cash that they will take any job on offer. This is why I try hard to be ‘frugal’ so I do not end up in a desperate financial situation. And, just like selecting a new housemate, the parents present themselves wonderfully during the initial interview. They give you a feeling that theirs is a happy family. And YES, I have been sucked in twice!

I worked for two sisters caring for their daughters for 4 years. It was like my current job where I was shared between two different families in two different locations. The schedule was crazy! At first, I used to spend one day with one family and four days with another family. Then it changed to two days here and three days there. Three years into the job, I was offered the ‘ultimatum’ to pick one family because my ‘presence’ was causing friction between the two mums (sisters). I chose to work for the older sister, who had two daughters at the time. She offered me 4 full days per week. I told her on a Friday and two days later, the other sister was calling me in a bid to change my decision. By Monday, the older sister called to announce that she had found a nanny for her two girls and suggested that I stayed to work with the other sister. I had no other option but to continue to work for this younger sister. The schedule ranged from 4 – 5 full days per week, to as little as 1-2 half days. To make things worse, I was still expected to complete most of the things that I do in a normal week despite the shorter working hours and lesser number of days. The mum figured out that she can save $$ by offering less work while using the help of one of her younger unemployed sister to care for the kids for free. Talk about exploitation, even siblings were not overlooked. I have heaps of horrible stories to tell from working with these two families.

To all the nannies out there, it is important to be alert during interviews to pick the right ‘work environment’. A good match is not just a plus for the nanny, but the children will also be better cared for as well. Now that I have been bitten once, I am especially careful when I agree to be shared between two families. Luckily, the two families that are sharing me now have been great so far. I am better prepared and I made it clear to them from the beginning that I did not want a schedule that changes all the time. I also requested that in the event that one of the families’ circumstances changed, I should be given a genuine option and not left in limbo.