The Firings 2015, #1

I had been working for a family for 17 months. They had two children under five and I got along well with all of them, especially the wife. One night she came home crying and as always, I was really nice to her. I set the children up with a movie and asked if I could do anything for her. She kept trying to get it together. She told me that she had read an email from her husband to another woman talking about sex at a hotel and how he couldn't stop thinking about her and was hoping they could get together again next month. I don't think she would have told me had she not been so upset, but also had a drink with a friend after work and two glasses of wine trying to get herself together.  I left about ninety minutes late. I came in the next day and her husband didn't appear to have been there. She took me aside and said, "I have to know you will never tell anyone what I told you, I shouldn't have said anything."  I assured her I wouldn't say anything. That was a Friday. She left for work, my day was as usual. She came home that night and paid me per her always. She paid me my flat salary although I had worked an extra two hours on Tuesday night (and the ninety minutes Thursday, but I wasn't considering that paid working). As we were saying our goodbyes, her phone rang and I could tell it was her husband. She started talking about what he could pick up for dinner on the way home from the train station. I said good night and left. On Sunday night I got a text that said, "Thank you for being a great nanny, but there have been some changes and we don't need you anymore". I tried to call her and she did not pick up. I never even got to say goodbye to the little boy and girl. They had another nanny start a week later. I can only figure out that she regretted telling me anything. But I didn't deserve to be fired in that way. I was really good to them all!

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(Text Message)
J (her dad):How much are you gonna give S (me) for her severance pay?
M (Boss): I am not sure. I know by Friday- her last day?
This was a Wednesday- my last day.. Yes, this is how I found out I was losing my job...

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I had been working as alive-in nanny in Westchester for three weeks,I had just gotten my phone line installed in my room and become acclimated to the very long schedule. (715-730, M-F). One Thursday night the father came home earlier than the wife who was planning to be out until nine. She had asked me if I could work until nine and I had said yes. One of the children was only 4 months old. When the father came home I was feeding the baby and he went to put the 3 year old to bed. He came downstairs to the living room where I was still feeding the baby and said. "Hey do you like Seinfeld?" I said yes and he put it on. He sat on the sofa. I was sitting in a big chair next to the sofa. His wife came home like 20 minutes later. She looked at me in such a way like I was an idiot. I didn't know if I was supposed to work or not work. I indicated that the baby was almost out. She said very bitchy like, "go ahead and put her down, that's all". So I did. I went out with a friend for pizza down the street, came home to a dark house and went to bed. The morning started as always. At 1030, the front door opened and the wife charged in. She demanded my house key. I was totally confused. She told me she was letting me go and I needed to get out NOW. She was very near frantic about it. I went upstairs packed up my stuff and carried it downstairs. As I was walking downstairs, I dropped the housekey and it went sliding across the foyer. She ran and grabbed it, as if I accidentally dropped it and was trying to keep it. It was December 16th. It was fucking freezing. I had to sit outside on my luggage until my friend could come and get me from NYC. She paid me 1/2 of that weeks salary and said I owed her the rest for the phone installation and whatever charges I had run up. I was too in shock to argue. Didn't do anything. Her husband was a harmless nerd.

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I was fired by my boss's sister. She lived on the UWS, my boss lived on the UES. It was a Friday. I had been there only two months. She rang the doorbell, I answered it. I assumed she was looking for her sister. She smiled at me. She was really a nice person. She hesitated for too long so that in that long pause I knew I was being fired. She said, "LaLaLoopsy doesn't feel this is working. She's never had to fire anyone before so she asked me to come and take care of it before the kids came home. I have your paycheck for this week and she put something extra in it." I asked if she said why or if there was a reason. She said, "I don't really know how to say this, but she just doesn't like you personally."  Yep. And the "something extra" was $50.

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My boss fired me by phone for eating her cheese and drinking the last bottle of Perrier water. Perrier water which costs like $1.79 a bottle. I don't know what the cheese cost, but it was just cheese. She told me on the phone that I was "eating her out of house and home." No severance. No warning. On a Tuesday. After almost 5 months.

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I worked my ass off during a trial period knowing I was replacing super nanny. Super Nanny had left after two years to get married. The trial was three weeks. I liked the kids. I liked the family. I even liked the dogs. I was a live in. The agency that placed me called me on the Saturday after I had worked three weeks. She told me that Super Nanny was coming back. I don't know how they convinced her to come back since she now lived over an hour away, but it didn't matter. I suddenly had no job.

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My mom got me fired from my job after almost a year. I was a nanny outside Boston working in a very large, semi formal home. She had come to visit from Oklahoma. When she met my boss, you could tell they didn't like each other. They were like fire and ice. My boss tried to compliment me in her way (she was terse and cold, but trying) and my Mom deflected and made a comment about how nice it must be to have so much free time. (My mom was awkward but trying to make small talk). My mom was going to be a guest in the house that next week when my boss and her husband traveled to CA. To avoid any awkwardness, I put her up at a hotel that first night. The next day, which my boss was planning to leave at 4 that evening, she told me that my she wasn't comfortable with my Mom staying in her house, that she had never been treated so poorly by anyone and certainly I shouldn't expect her to now stay in the house. I tried to apologize. But the more I thought about it I got so mad. My mom was out here for six more days. When I tried to talk to her about it, she told me that she wasn't about to have the nanny make her feel bad, that it was her house and that I was free to leave. I asked her if she was serious. She told me, "At this point, I don't really care". She took her two older children out of school and took them to California with her. After almost a whole year, I left with nothing. I had to fight to be able to stay to pack up my own things. She let me come back at 4 to pack up my room, under the watchful eye of Joban, the gardener, who had a locksmith come and change the locks as I was still packing.

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I went on vacation from Chicago to California with my nanny family after 9 weeks. I was excited. The children were 3 and 9 and we were staying in a staffed beach house. There was someone to cook and two people to clean. I did nothing but play games, play on the beach with the kids, etc. I put the three year old to bed every night and got him up every morning. On the fourth day, I was getting the kids dressed to head out and the Mrs asked me where I was going. I said, "I told the kids we'd go to X and get ice creams this afternoon by the boardwalk". She said, "Oh Melissa, this isn't your vacation. You're working. I will take the children with me. Could you stay and help Oma with the beds and laundry? Thanks a bunch/" By the time we flew home, she wasn't even talking to me. She had even tried to keep the kids from me. At the airport when we landed, we waited for a car service to take us back to their house. I was given an envelope and told I would need to take a cab home "or wherever I needed to go" and that "This is obviously not going to work."   No extra pay. PS Oma didn't need my help and knew she was just a fucking bitch!!!

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Are you a nanny that's been summarily dismissed? Or an employer that has had a nanny quit? Send your stories to isynblog@gmail.com