{"id":458,"date":"2013-01-25T21:06:22","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T21:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/?p=458"},"modified":"2013-01-25T21:06:22","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T21:06:22","slug":"thyme-for-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/thyme-for-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Thyme for thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u00a9 Kuvona | Dreamstime.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’re pleased to welcome back Suzannah Thyme for her second post on the Nannyjob blog!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you read my first post<\/a> you might remember that our nanny has been with us for a year. The time has simply flown by and we count ourselves very lucky that Ellie has put up with us for this long. Having a nanny isn\u2019t quite the same as having any other type of employee, particularly when it comes to managing performance and formal reviews. It tends to be an ongoing process – slightly elongated handovers or a sit down with a cup of tea on the rare days that I do work from home while Ol naps \u2013 for us at least and the idea of \u2018managing\u2019 Ellie in that way filled me with trepidation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I turned where most people do these days, the internet, for to gather advice and gauge opinions on what was and wasn\u2019t normal. It seemed a mixed bag, some had a very formal process with a self-evaluation form to comment on their performance, others let it slide by with nothing at all, a good number had an informal meeting or formal chat with a bit of warning that the contract would be reviewed. After canvassing Ed for his opinion, which elicited the information that he was going on a 10 day business trip of which I had no prior knowledge, we (read: I) decided on the slightly more formal chat approach.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The next challenge was when to schedule it. Evenings aren\u2019t the best time for anyone and mornings tend to be rushed, certainly on my part, so we were evidently going to have to put aside a specific time. In the end it seemed most sensible to ask Ellie for the equivalent of a babysit and explain that we\u2019d chat once Ol was in bed \u2013 takeaway and wine included. Luckily she was amenable to this plan, but once again the nagging conscience which insists that she\u2019s entitled to her own life outside of work and this was an intrusion wouldn\u2019t quite go away, as it does every time we ask for a babysit even though she insists she doesn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Time and place set I turned my mind to the content. What does one discuss in a nanny\u2019s review? Evaluating performance over the past year was easy -\u201cYou\u2019re doing a brilliant job, will you stay until Ol leaves home?\u201d was what I essentially wanted to say. There were no foreseeable changes and we didn\u2019t need to modify the contract. Once again I turned to the internet and discovered that nannies typically wanted to discuss holiday and payrises. Ah.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Holiday isn\u2019t a problem as far as I know. Bank Holidays off, 2 weeks her choice, which she tends to take a one week and then a few days here and there, 2 weeks ours, except it\u2019s been more over the last year, and the time between Christmas and New Year. We\u2019ve never sorted our holiday out that far in advance, although maybe we should talk about that and pencil in key dates. And dates when holiday wouldn\u2019t work so well for us. But the idea of a payrise strikes fear into my heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Much as we love Ellie and I would pay her millions if I could we\u2019re stretching our budget already to afford a nanny for one child. It\u2019s a luxury for us and any rise we could afford would be paltry in the extreme on an hourly basis. We gave a bonus at Christmas, which is uncomfortably close to the review given that I\u2019ve not been paid for January yet, but then again it\u2019s not really her fault she started a new job so close to Christmas when I would happily have given a bonus in June. Sitting down with a calculator I worked out we could afford about \u00a375 a month over a year, which doesn\u2019t sound a lot. If anyone has any ideas on extra things I can do to show appreciation I\u2019d be grateful\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re pleased to welcome back Suzannah Thyme for her second post on the Nannyjob blog!   If you read my first post you might remember that our nanny has been with us for a year. The time has simply flown by and we count ourselves very lucky that Ellie has put up with us for … Continue reading “Thyme for thinking”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16,19],"tags":[111,299,322,326,378,492],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childcare","category-nannies","category-parents","tag-communication","tag-nanny","tag-nanny-review","tag-nanny-tips","tag-parents","tag-thymes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}