Thursday

Another Nightmare Employer...

UPDATE: OP re-wrote her Post June 7, 2009
Received Wednesday, June 3, 2009

RANT on I SAW YOUR NANNY Hopefully this will be easier to understand. :)

I have a very, very long recount of a horrible experience with an employer. We spoke over email several times, as she lives about 3-4 hours from me one state down in Southern Jersey. Several things were discussed over email which prompted me to meet her and possibly accept the job--she was a single mother with a special needs son soon to move to a large house, she offered the basic vacations and also use of the car.

I get to her apartment, that she was currently living in. It was tiny...and it was FILTHY. The kitchen was so disgusting and she just started cooking right on that dirty, crusty stove. She'd told me to draft up a basic contract that we could then alter when I got there. I did, and added nothing unusual to any nanny, or parent used to having QUA LITY nannies---paid sick time, vacation, holidays. Over email, she said she paid her current nanny less, but that we could negotiate. I said fine. She mentioned quite a few times over the phone that her current nanny that she was firing was a slob and that is why she was firing her. That should've been my clue, but I ignored it because I wanted to live out of my current state, and out of my current living situation.

Then we got to the car. She never informed me that there was only one (which is fine, sure), but what was "you can use the car when I'm not using it" changed as the conversation went on, when she actually decided to hire me. Now it was "you can use the car during the day for errands and my son, and on weekend nights, but I have to have it during the day." Okay, fine, only one car, that's fair, especially since she offered to drive me on weekends to the various, but far, places around her area. Mind you, South Jersey is a dead area. There is nothing to do, and the bus system is hilariously poor. You can bet your bottom you're not getting anywhere not an hour or so away without a car. But, I don't go out a hilarious lot ANYWAY, so I figured that as long as I could get out on some evenings and weekends, I'd be okay.

Then came the salary. I told her 480-500 for everything she needed me to do. Can't do it, impossible. O kay, 450. That is 9 an hour, and I get paid overtime for over 50 hours. She can't do that either. I ask her what she wants to pay, and she tells me a mere $7 an hour. I feel stupid for even accepting that kind of money, but she said there'd be raises (don't know what prompted me to believe that). She also ends up adding several new responsibilities to the job---mailing her letters. Talking to her clients as a secretary. Other several amounts of secretary work. I'm pretty open-minded, so I said it'd be okay if it was just that. We figure things out, and get something working. I'm set to move in three weeks later on the 21st.

I get a call the very next day telling me that I should not use the car or ask her to drop me off and that I should just try to use public transportation (which like I said, is horrific). Uh, are you serious? Why didn't you read the contract, that we'd gone an edited right in front of your nose? I repeat to her that we already discussed this, and that I used the car when she wasn't using the car.

Now, over email, before we met, she mentioned 4 specific weeks; 2 when her son was in camp, and 2 when she and her son went to China. She told me of a job that I could get around that area, that would pay me 10 an hour (she stressed this SEVERAL times) to work a full week with her son, and doing ot her things. I said it sounded nice, and I'd consider it (my thought was that she was just being nice).

About her China vacation, I told her that since we decided I would pick one week of my own vacation, I would let her use one of the weeks in China as one of my vacations. Which is paid. She asked me about the other week she's in China, and the two weeks her son is in camp. I naturally informed her that these are to be paid, as are any week that the parent tells the nanny they aren't to work. She makes this silent little noise, as if I'm ripping her off for expecting her shitty salary EACH WEEK, and not having to go out and work a second job for a measly three weeks to try to get a salary.

I go home, and got a phone call the next day adding another gazillion new responsibilities to the job, and now she needs me to travel with her, too. Oh, and now she wants to test me for two weeks, and "see if it works out", and just let me go if it doesn't. The two week trial was fine with me, but I told her the extra responsibilities would have to be discussed, as I'm not a house whore to do everything you can't do in the house. She said that her current nanny does anything and everything she tells her, but that to discuss it was fine, and she'd see me soon.

I get ANOTHER call the next day telling me she "lo st her job" and cannot hire me anymore. And "I'm sooooooo sorry! We don't know what we're going to do!"

Yeah, I'm sure she freaking did "lose her job" the day after I tell her that she can't rip me off more than she already tried to. Lady, find someone illegal to pay those wages and lock up in your house. And that's not even counting that she wanted me to stay with her son all night while she worked, and didn't want to pay a RED CENT for the five nights a week I was suddenly supposed to stay and watch her son in the house, unable to go anywhere by myself either during the day, or at night.

She's probably searching in the Philly/SNJ area for another patsy, so I'd watch out for H.L.D. She will lie about everything until you get to her place, and then ask you to do EVERYTHING in the house cause "SHE IS SO VERY, VERY BUSY!" and refuse to pay you but pennies more than her cheapskate 300 a month.

19 comments:

twinkiesmom said...

This rant needs to be rewritten...You lost me at the first paragraph...are you the employer, the employee, or someone retelling this story?

Secondly, if you knew the apartment was filthy why would you even accept the job much less be surprised at finding out it was a nightmare?

dave said...

The first line tells you that it is about an employer, so this is an EMPLOYEE/nanny. Yes, it is a little all over the place though, but I still get the gist of the rant and I have to agree with twinkiesmom - why did you take the job to begin with? You couldn't have wanted to get out of state that bad!

syl said...

OP,
There is a lot I do not understand. To be honest, you don't sound very articulate. Perhaps nannying is not for you.

Also, "slob" is a relative term.

Your post made me worried about you as a person.

Momkat said...

She never started the job. The mom changed her mind; and backed out of the contract by telling the nanny that she lost her job. But the nanny doesn't believe her--and thinks this mom should find an illegal nanny who would work for cheap wages, without a car, etc.

mom said...

I was surprised OP agreed to the job at all in the first place. It was everything she didn't want, and then some.
No reason to be angry, OP. Just don't take the job. The world is full of people who take advantage of anybody who will let them. Be glad you're not one of those and move on to a better job situation.

MinuteMuggle said...

well said, mom!

reading tutor said...

Twinkiesmom,
OP's first sentence:
I have a very, very long recount of a horrible experience with an employer.

What is so hard to understand? She is a nanny who had a job interview with a nutty potential employer.

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

In OP's defense, Firefox kept crashing on her while she was sending her messages to me through Meebo.

Nanny Taxi said...

Are you that upset? That you can't write a proper post? From what I can translate it does not look like a good situation for either of you.

twinkiesmom said...

"I have a very, very long recount of a horrible experience with an employer. "

Recount implies something being retold as in something told to the writer. So I was confused about this being told from the perspective of the nanny or the site owner. At first I didn't think it was the nanny because she didn't begin with "I had a very bad experience with an employer."

Also, she brings in China without previously mentioning was this the employer's trip to China.

Also, it's not clear if she actually started working for this woman (or had merely signed a contract) before she got screwed.

Not to beat a dead horse, but said...

"we spoke",,,,"I got to her apt" etc. makes it pretty clear the OP is the one applying for the job.
I agree however, it could use some editing for clarity's sake.

Lola said...

Why is everyone jumping on OP, it's called a RANT.

Rant

Rant\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ranted; p. pr. & vb. n. Ranting.] [OD. ranten, randen, to dote, to be enraged.] To rave in violent, high-sounding, or extravagant language, without dignity of thought; to be noisy, boisterous, and bombastic in talk or declamation.


Sooo, a rant is not supossed to be perfectly grammatically, it is a spouting off of a topic that angers someone.

Wicker Park Nanny said...

I'd be pissed off and write a rant too if I were this nanny! She had been in contact with this mom over the phone, had interviewed, etc. Then when the mom finally moved and was in the area ready to start the employment everything she had been saying turned out to be untrue. Then at the last minute after a contract was written up and wages decided on the mom backed out of the deal and lied that she lost her job.

TOTALLY BOGUS! I feel for you OP. The best I can say though is be thankful you weren't hired, I have a feeling you'd be hating it right now.

OP said...

Oi. I sent this post by IM, and it seems a good chunk of it was missed.

I'll resend it by email this time, so it can be in one entire piece and hopefully edited.

Vanessa said...

Uh... I'm sorry but I can't sympathize. You let her do this out of desperation. I can't blame you for wanting to get out of a tough situation soon but I think a bit more patience and time would've landed you in the right place.


That been said, the woman is a pathetic excuse of a human being who obviously is a bit too knowledgeable in the art of lying and abusing people.

Start looking for another job soon. Soon, Soon, Soon.

I_dont_like_you said...

"Lady, find someone illegal to pay those wages and lock up in your house."

Yes, because you deserve better treatment than someone that did not have the luxry of having been born in this country. You're gross and I think you deserve each other.

Tongue in cheek humor escapes thee said...

I_dont_like, you sound illegal yourself. People DO try to pay illegal residents those type of wages, and many of them accept it because it's hard to get a good paying job when you can't be on the books.

No one, save yourself, has said anything about deserving more than an illegal resident, including the OP, so making up bull about how the OP thinks (hello, logical fallacies!) based on something that more-often-than-not is true says something about YOU more than her.

Reactionaries are annoying.

Lola said...

"There is nothing to do, and the bus system is hilariously poor. You can bet your bottom you're not getting anywhere not an hour or so away without a car. But, I don't go out a hilarious lot ANYWAY."


Interesting use of the word hilarious..


"Yes, because you deserve better treatment than someone that did not have the luxry of having been born in this country. You're gross and I think you deserve each other."


What the heck are you talking about?!?

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