overtime

Hello everyone,

could you please tell me whether you charge for overtime and allow parents to swap days? I just had a discussion with a parent and she is not happy that I don't let her swap days (for example contracted days are Monday and Wednesday) and she wants to bring her child on Tuesday instead of Monday. When I have a space I take the child but parents have to pay for extra day and for their contracted days too.
Also I write down when children come in and leave and I charge for early drop offs/late pick ups too.
I count the minutes at the end of month and charge normal rate, but again the parent is not happy about it and says her previous childminder didn't do that.
I would appreciate every advice
Many thanks x

I have to say this. If I had a parent say "my previous CM didn't do that", I'd have to fight a strong urge to suggest she take 4 weeks' notice and use it to get her old CM back. It's such a stupid thing for a client to say, as you know she won't mention all the great things you do that her old CM never did. :mad:

You're perfectly entitled to do what you do.

I would add that handling parents is frequently harder than handling the mindees. Often a matter of giving that bit extra, but without allowing them to make a doormat of you. Sometimes worth going the extra mile. eg. A lot of people shop at M&S because they know they can return unwanted purchases, not because the have a legal right to do so, but because of the company's policy.

Generally speaking, I'm happy to swap days, so long as I'm always doing it on my terms. It has to be the exception rather than the norm. If they want that day regularly, then they should be adding it to the contract and paying for it. I try to never give the impression that they're entitled to swap: it's a favour, not a right.

Bear in mind that a swap can sometimes be convenient for the CM as well as the client.

I won't swap a child to a day that would otherwise be child-free, nor one that might mean me turning away another parent who wants it as an additional ad hoc day. IOW I've no intention of losing a day off or a paid-for additional booking.

In practical terms, that means I won't confirm the swap until as late as reasonably possible. If that's not good enough for the client (eg. they need to tell their boss now) then I'll confirm it now, but it will be charged as an additional booking and not a 'free' swap.

This works well for me, but that might just be because of my clients and their work patterns. They aren't being told by their bosses that they must do a particular day at work, they are asked if they can do it, so less pressure on them.

Thank you bunyip for your answer, that help a lot and I like your approach! Can you please tell me if you charge for over time too?

By "over time" do you mean late collections?

I don't charge for that, but my clients know they aren't to take the P. I do have a contracted 'late fee', but it's something I prefer not to use. It tends to get waived, as my emphasis is to get the right times sorted out rather than the client feel penalised.

IMHO 'late fees' should be a discretionary deterrent rather than a cash-cow.

There are lots of reasons why a parent might run late, entirely beyond their control. Frinstance, I have one who works in a hospital and it can take 20 minutes to get out of the car park. :eek:

I ask them to call or send a message if it is safe to do so. If they are to be 30+ minutes late, I ask them to stop the car and call me. AT 30 minutes I'd be starting on emergency contacts.

Tbh, the last thing I want is to incentivise making a parent rush, drive madly, run red lights and eventually have an accident (which makes matters far worse) just to save the odd quid.

I know some parents will try to take advantage of this in various ways, but the answer is quite simple, especially if I address it before the contract is signed. I always point out the contracted pick-up/drop-off times might need to be amended over the first few weeks once mum works out her true journey-to-work timings.

If a parent is consistently late, I insist we change the contracted times to something more realistic.

This has worked so well, I can't remember having had to charge a late fee.

Thanks for the reply. By over time I meant time outside the contracted hours (I charge per hour not per day as lots of parents don't want 8-6) e.g. a parent have contracted hours from 9-5, I charge what's on contract but when parent comes at 8.40 and picks up at 5.13 I charge extra but at normal rate. So a parent might end up paying £8 extra at the end of the month for all these extra minutes.
I started doing it after one parent was never on time because she often stopped in the corner shop to get her shopping done and I found it unfair that I still care and have responsibility for her child and its unpaid.

I also don't charge for parents being late. I do stress at initial interview that they must be on time or I will charge at an inflated rate. However, a current parent who was meant to collect at 5.15 startied getting nearer to 5.25 so I plucked up the courage to say something and we agreed to change the contract to 5.30. However, he's now slowly creeping up to 5.40. He collects 3 nights a week and I said last week that on Mondays/Tuesdays I need him hear at 5.30 as I've got to drive my son to his evening job and if he's not here his daughters will be with me in the car and he'll have to wait outside by the back door and the journey could take anything up to half an hour. (All fibs). So we'll see how long that lasts before I need to speak again. When he was late, it was because he was at his allotment!
Some parents are genuinely late and are very apologetic. I don't charge for this as it seems to gain me some 'brownie points'. But I would start charging if I thought It was becoming too often.

I would not be very happy with parents turning up 20 minutes or so early every morning. It might be time to send an email to all parents saying you will be charging a higher rate, every 15 mins, for early arrival & late collection.

If I can I will swap days. But I would only if it suited me. Don't feel you have to. You are in charge. Don't give the parent the feeling of power. But I would say that they must stick with their contracted hours. Try not to let her upset you by comparing you with the last cm.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tulikraska

Thanks for the reply. By over time I meant time outside the contracted hours (I charge per hour not per day as lots of parents don't want 8-6) e.g. a parent have contracted hours from 9-5, I charge what's on contract but when parent comes at 8.40 and picks up at 5.13 I charge extra but at normal rate. So a parent might end up paying £8 extra at the end of the month for all these extra minutes.
I started doing it after one parent was never on time because she often stopped in the corner shop to get her shopping done and I found it unfair that I still care and have responsibility for her child and its unpaid.

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That's fine if you're happy with it. Please take the following an alternative view, not as criticism.

I wonder if parents might think of it as 'nit-picking' to keep adding up every little minute across the month.

OTOH my other concern is that you're giving the parents de facto permission to be consistently late and just pay-as-you-go for lateness at the standard rate. So they're likely to do a quick bit of maths and figure it's worth stopping off to do a bit of child-free shopping for an extra £or3. The effect is that you may never quite know when to expect them. This can be distressing for the lo's who seem to know when mum is due, and would cluck you up badly on the odd occasion when you have, say, that hot date with George Clooney and can't keep him waiting (oh, you know what I mean.) :(

I have some clients whose children go to nursery on other days. The nursery charges £20 if they're 5+ minutes late and has a policy of calling social services at 30 minutes (one does this after 15 minutes. :eek: )

Thank you both for the replies.
It's true that I feel like I'm being silly when I count every minute that's outside contracted hours while doing invoices at the end of each month. But with 8 children in the setting (I work with an assistant) and most parents being always a few minutes or even 20 minutes early/late, it can give me amount of £50 which shows how often parents don't come on time or come early.
My contra

ct states that if they are late (after 6pm) I will charge £5 for 15 minutes but I never used that as it doesn't happen often and it's usually due to traffic. So I charge at normal rate when they come early/late between 8am-6pm (I don't open the door before 8am).
It's true that this way I give them permission to be early or late and I'm gonna think about changing the way I do it. So do you think it's a good idea to speak to them and change contracted hours and if they refuse charge them
late/early fee

I find some parents a little tricky at times so I personally would send one group email to all parents asking them to remember their contracted hours of arrival and departure as from xx (state a date) you will be charging £x for every 10 mins late, or whatever it is you decide to do. You could go on to say your commitments outside work have changed, that and having to pay your assistant overtime means this new policy has come into place. But if you do this you will have to be adament to stick with it. One slip up and you'll be back to square one. Also prepare yourself for some parents objections.