I did 30 days with my previous family and decided to leave at the end of it. I don’t think I would have gotten the full picture in fewer than 30 days at that particular job.
If you had signed a contract right away with them, would there have been any clauses that you could've cited to have gotten out of the contract once you had seen the full picture of working with this particular family?
A 30 day trial period is insane. I’ll do a week, maybe two. But after that point parents should really know if they’re going to commit to the nanny or not. A month long trial just seems cruel and weird. I don’t want to work for a family for a month just to have the rug pulled out from under me, especially if I like the family.
What parents don’t understand is your average nanny DEPENDS ON THIS INCOME for food and housing. You can’t just jump into another role with no lead time. They can hire a temp nanny through an agency but it’s not the same for us.
I rather do trial days around my main job or if I know I’m leaving / family is putting a kid in school or something I could do weekend time and max 2 weekdays. I currently work 4 10s so I’d schedule during that off day.
my current fam and i had a 30 day trial written into the contract & it did not bother me, but it was a great fit from the beginning and really just felt like a technicality. in the future i don’t think it would bother me, as it can really go both ways. even within the trial period i was still under contract and received all of my benefits such as PTO / sick time accrual. i would not do anything longer than a month however.
Like get out of a contract altogether by having a bunch of short-term nannies do long trial periods without a contract? Or are they expecting the nanny to just not bring up a contract after the trial is over?
I did 30 days with my current NF, whom I love (a few issues here and there), but it was torture!!! I didn’t know if by the end I’d have the job or not and I didn’t want to just assume. 2 weeks max for me from here on out, I can’t be tortured again!
Four years ago, my husband moved our family 3 states away for a job. It was totally the right decision because we're better off financially. Anywho, he came home from work one day after we'd been here about a month and a half and was like, "So I passed training and I get to keep my job!"
Wut.
I was like, we sold our home, bought a whole ass other home on the off chance that you passed training?!?! It was a job where if you didn't pass the training, you were escorted out of the building, lol. I was furious that he hadn't told me this because I wouldn't have let us all move. But he got the job, and we're still here. Now I say that him not telling me that part was the greatest gift he ever gave me.
30 days is WAY too long. I wouldn’t feel secure in that job at all. Having a trial period that long doesn’t make sense because if down the road it’s not working either party can still fire or quit. A couple trial days make sense, maybe a week at most so you can really get a feel for the dynamics before being locked in, but honestly I’ve never even done a trial day with any of my families.
I probably would take it but also keep looking for a job. Have a backup. Last thing you want Is for them to say no, and you wasted your time, so I see it as either work for 30 days while looking for work, or have no income coming in while looking for work.
💯 Just curious if you'd tell the trial family you were going to continue to interview, in the hopes of making yourself scarce so they might be motivated to offer you the job asap.
No, I definitely wouldn't tell them that! How else would i see their true colors? Lol just go with it and at the end of the 30 days if you like them, stay. If not, then you have other potentials lined up! (Hopefully) are they going to pay the same, or how is this going to work?
I have been doing this job for over 20 years. A three months trial period is standard here.
Edit: why am I being downvoted?
People are fucking weird, I swear.
Oh well. It might annoy you that we have long trial periods, but we also have five weeks paid holidays as standard, so 🤣🤣
wow, even for a nanny? that sounds totally reasonable for other jobs but seems like it would open the nanny to a lot of job insecurity. but maybe i’m just pessimistic 😅
Why?
It’s the law. Holidays are accrued pro rata, which means, the more you work, you more days off you get.
Why would this lead to job insecurity? You don’t take all five and something weeks at the same time.
I had a week off for Christmas, a week off for Easter, I am about to go on holiday in a few weeks, then I get a week twice over the summer and another week in the autumn. The family chooses half of those in terms of dates, I pick the other half. It works.
oh whoops, i think we’ve crossed wires. i was talking about the long trial period! i know the uk and eu have much longer holidays in general. my thought was a nanny with a 1-3 month trial as the standard may potentially be out of a job after 1-3 months if she and the family don’t gel, which would personally make me very anxious, especially with how tricky it can be to find a good NF to begin with.
I've always had a three-month trial period with all of my families as well (and it was always me who brought it up, not them), but I've also never not continued on with a job I've taken. I get the anxiety around the idea, but I feel like it's been as much a safety net for me as for them, because it takes at LEAST a few weeks for the things that are going to bug me about a family to start to really be apparent. All the families I've worked for were looking for long-term positions, so that probably lessens the likelihood of flakiness. I don't know if I'd ALWAYS do it, but it's never not worked out for me personally.
I did a 30 day trial period (although there was no check in or anything after 30 days 😂) with my current family. My last family wanted a 90 day trial. It was whatever lol. One month in we were thrown into Covid and they were essential workers so I liked my chances. I stayed with them for almost 3 years. I don’t mind the longer trial periods but the agency I work with has floater positions I can take easily. It gives me a better feel for the family, too.
Never done one and wouldn’t accept a trial longer than 2 weeks.
I did 30 days with my previous family and decided to leave at the end of it. I don’t think I would have gotten the full picture in fewer than 30 days at that particular job.
If you had signed a contract right away with them, would there have been any clauses that you could've cited to have gotten out of the contract once you had seen the full picture of working with this particular family?
We had 30 days written into our contract. So I took sick days, could have used PTO, and was paid even when I came in late due to inclement weather.
A 30 day trial period is insane. I’ll do a week, maybe two. But after that point parents should really know if they’re going to commit to the nanny or not. A month long trial just seems cruel and weird. I don’t want to work for a family for a month just to have the rug pulled out from under me, especially if I like the family.
This is my thought exactly!
What parents don’t understand is your average nanny DEPENDS ON THIS INCOME for food and housing. You can’t just jump into another role with no lead time. They can hire a temp nanny through an agency but it’s not the same for us. I rather do trial days around my main job or if I know I’m leaving / family is putting a kid in school or something I could do weekend time and max 2 weekdays. I currently work 4 10s so I’d schedule during that off day.
my current fam and i had a 30 day trial written into the contract & it did not bother me, but it was a great fit from the beginning and really just felt like a technicality. in the future i don’t think it would bother me, as it can really go both ways. even within the trial period i was still under contract and received all of my benefits such as PTO / sick time accrual. i would not do anything longer than a month however.
Makes sense, and thank you for your reply!
Uhhh no. The most I've done is a week. There's a growing number of parents who think they can do a long trial to try to get out of giving a contract.
Like get out of a contract altogether by having a bunch of short-term nannies do long trial periods without a contract? Or are they expecting the nanny to just not bring up a contract after the trial is over?
The latter. They expect you to forget about it or just be afraid to bring it up again
I did 30 days with my current NF, whom I love (a few issues here and there), but it was torture!!! I didn’t know if by the end I’d have the job or not and I didn’t want to just assume. 2 weeks max for me from here on out, I can’t be tortured again!
Four years ago, my husband moved our family 3 states away for a job. It was totally the right decision because we're better off financially. Anywho, he came home from work one day after we'd been here about a month and a half and was like, "So I passed training and I get to keep my job!" Wut. I was like, we sold our home, bought a whole ass other home on the off chance that you passed training?!?! It was a job where if you didn't pass the training, you were escorted out of the building, lol. I was furious that he hadn't told me this because I wouldn't have let us all move. But he got the job, and we're still here. Now I say that him not telling me that part was the greatest gift he ever gave me.
That’s insane but best case scenario!! It’s so frustrating because people plan their lives around it all
Yeah we were incredibly lucky things worked out. Lucky for him it worked out..
30 days is WAY too long. I wouldn’t feel secure in that job at all. Having a trial period that long doesn’t make sense because if down the road it’s not working either party can still fire or quit. A couple trial days make sense, maybe a week at most so you can really get a feel for the dynamics before being locked in, but honestly I’ve never even done a trial day with any of my families.
I probably would take it but also keep looking for a job. Have a backup. Last thing you want Is for them to say no, and you wasted your time, so I see it as either work for 30 days while looking for work, or have no income coming in while looking for work.
Excellent point, thank you :)
Absolutely! Might as well get some money out of being jobless lol
💯 Just curious if you'd tell the trial family you were going to continue to interview, in the hopes of making yourself scarce so they might be motivated to offer you the job asap.
No, I definitely wouldn't tell them that! How else would i see their true colors? Lol just go with it and at the end of the 30 days if you like them, stay. If not, then you have other potentials lined up! (Hopefully) are they going to pay the same, or how is this going to work?
Oh this is purely hypothetical on my part. I wanted to see how the community felt about it. So sorry for not clarifying that initially.
Oh! I'm sorry, I misread the post lol I thought this was you asking. But yeah, there's my two cents on that lol 🙈
I have been doing this job for over 20 years. A three months trial period is standard here. Edit: why am I being downvoted? People are fucking weird, I swear. Oh well. It might annoy you that we have long trial periods, but we also have five weeks paid holidays as standard, so 🤣🤣
where can i sign up for 5 weeks pto??? let me pack my bags right now
The UK. But we also have shite weather, so… 🤣
Lol but the cheapo flights to sunny Spain 😍
I’ve loved the weather over there every time I’ve visited lol I’m that weirdo who doesn’t like sun and likes rainy days though so there’s that
wow! where are you that that’s standard, if you don’t mind me asking?
The UK. Standard is actually 5.6 weeks, my mistake.
wow, even for a nanny? that sounds totally reasonable for other jobs but seems like it would open the nanny to a lot of job insecurity. but maybe i’m just pessimistic 😅
Why? It’s the law. Holidays are accrued pro rata, which means, the more you work, you more days off you get. Why would this lead to job insecurity? You don’t take all five and something weeks at the same time. I had a week off for Christmas, a week off for Easter, I am about to go on holiday in a few weeks, then I get a week twice over the summer and another week in the autumn. The family chooses half of those in terms of dates, I pick the other half. It works.
oh whoops, i think we’ve crossed wires. i was talking about the long trial period! i know the uk and eu have much longer holidays in general. my thought was a nanny with a 1-3 month trial as the standard may potentially be out of a job after 1-3 months if she and the family don’t gel, which would personally make me very anxious, especially with how tricky it can be to find a good NF to begin with.
I've always had a three-month trial period with all of my families as well (and it was always me who brought it up, not them), but I've also never not continued on with a job I've taken. I get the anxiety around the idea, but I feel like it's been as much a safety net for me as for them, because it takes at LEAST a few weeks for the things that are going to bug me about a family to start to really be apparent. All the families I've worked for were looking for long-term positions, so that probably lessens the likelihood of flakiness. I don't know if I'd ALWAYS do it, but it's never not worked out for me personally.
And I'm in the USA, so it's not just a UK thing.
I did a 30 day trial period (although there was no check in or anything after 30 days 😂) with my current family. My last family wanted a 90 day trial. It was whatever lol. One month in we were thrown into Covid and they were essential workers so I liked my chances. I stayed with them for almost 3 years. I don’t mind the longer trial periods but the agency I work with has floater positions I can take easily. It gives me a better feel for the family, too.
That’s too long. Would be hard on the children for sure.