Nancy R.

As of this writing, Nancy refuses to do dishes, even when asked. She claims that she washes dishes that the children use (but only while they are in her care), yet twice I found that the dishes my two kids used while she was there were left unwashed. Furthermore, she resigned abruptly when she disputed her paycheck, which included pay for time she technically did not work. She was paid at a $25/hour rate for that week, to which she had agreed. I had rounded up between 15-30 minutes of time if I had arrived home early to relieve her. For the times when her only task was to pick up or drop off my kids on commutes no more than 15 minutes, I offered 30 minutes of pay—a point she had asked about during the interview, and I had clarified for her. Nevertheless, she expected to be paid a flat rate of $40 for one morning drop off. When my children’s father was unexpectedly available to care for the kids, requiring her only to drive them from camp to his house (a 15 minute task, which I still counted as 30 minutes) she also expected to be paid for the time she would have been paid (2 hours) had their father not been able to accommodate them. Had she been paid the hours she had expected to work that week, had unforeseen changes not occurred, she would have been paid $287 plus a gas stipend. With the changes that did occur that week (i.e. kids staying home all day with colds, their father unexpectedly being available), she ended up clocking in enough time to be paid $462.50 plus gas. Yet these extra hours, plus paid rounded-up time, plus gas, *plus* the fact that my children stayed in bed and had little to no interaction with her for several hours, **plus** the fact that I allowed her to stay within my employment despite her refusing my request that she do dishes—these were not enough to stop her from resigning abruptly, citing her “gut feeling” that “pay day will be an issue.” I recommend that any family considering hiring her to make any and all expectations clear, in writing, prior to making an offer for employment.