If you are a household employer this may be your first time managing staff of your own, or maybe you feel frustrated by a particular situation with your nanny or household employee and aren’t sure how to approach it and don’t want to offend them. Below are a few situations based on real-life occurrences, the employee’s perspective in each occurrence, and potential solutions to the problem.

Situation 1:

Your employee consistently puts things away in the wrong places or places you cannot easily find them.

Employee Perspective: I want to do a good job, and I know that part of my job responsibility is tidying up. I'm not exactly sure where everything belongs because I'm still learning. I don't want to burden my boss with too many questions, making him/her think I am not able to work autonomously. I will just keep doing things as I have been, since they have not given me a reason to think they are unhappy with it.

Solution:

A) Explain to the employee the current system you have in place for organization
B) The employee can work with you to build an organization system if one does not already exist
C) You can tell the employee to leave specific items (important documents, mail, wallet) where they are, and tidy up around them to avoid things being misplaced.

Situation 2:

You have seen your employee taking extra breaks, excessive personal calls, or overall lounging around when they are supposed to be "on the clock" and their duties have not been completed for the day.

Employee Perspective A: I was given a 30 minute break as outlined in my contract, but 30 minutes is simply not long enough of a break for me with all of the work I am expected to get done. I feel exhausted and I don't know how to tell my boss I am overwhelmed.

Employee Perspective B: We didn't discuss house rules when I started my job, so I’m assuming taking personal calls at work are totally fine. I'm also assuming it's up to me to decide how I take my breaks and which things I get done each day as well as how and when I do them.

Solution:

The first step would be to schedule a performance review with your employee. (Read our blog post for tips on employee performance reviews).

A) Tell your employee that you feel confident that they are very capable of this job and that you would love to find a way to make it more manageable for them, so that they feel you have realistic expectations for them. Ask for feedback on which aspects of the job are most challenging for them and brainstorm together on ways you can overcome the challenges.

B) Gently remind the employee of the house rules as outlined in your contract or use this as an opportunity to have that conversation. Let them know that you understand every family works differently and discuss the expectations you have for them and things that are frowned upon in your household. Remind them that you want them to be happy in their job and that they are free to give you any feedback about the household dynamic.

You’ve got enough on your plate in your day-to-day life — let us make your life easier by handling your unique household staffing needs.

If you are a family looking to hire a household employee or other home service, submit an application with My Household Managed.

If you are a professional nanny, house manager, or other household employee looking for a job, apply at My Household Managed.

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