How to Fire Dogwalker? post 31

[S1969]

I don’t like her wording - way too unclear - but in general, I would not be against paying a dog walker for a week’s paid vacation. That is, of course, assuming they are otherwise a great “employee” and give you that peace of mind that you want to have with a dog walker.

It wouldn’t be federal holidays and such…you might be home from work for those days, so why would you need to pay her? But if a contract asked for a week “off” with pay so she could take a vacation, I wouldn’t find that a burden if the dog walker was worth keeping.

Or, conversely, we gave our dog walkers a week’s pay at Christmas time as a bonus, and at the end of their school year (they were college students) as a thank you. Given the fact that they only made like $10 a day back then, it wasn’t a big deal.

[oliverreed]

I agree, Meup. My cleaning lady is the best there is and always goes the extra mile for me. I always give her one weeks worth of wages at Christmas as a gift.

[Canaqua]

Despite the assumption that I’m penurious with personal service providers…we’re not. I do the same thing…cleaning lady comes once every two weeks. I give her a visit’s pay for Christmas…which effectively amounts to two weeks of what I usually pay her. She has other clients in the neighborhood and we’re the only ones who do that, the rest give her cookies for Christmas. She has some family issues too, with some grandchildren she helps with when their mothers are busy, so we’re very flexible on the schedule, if SHE needs to switch days last minute because a grandchild is home from school, we always accomodate her and change our schedule (which involves getting dogs out of the house while we’re at work, she’s afraid of them and picking up junk that would be in her way before she comes).

Same with the dog guy and the lawn mowing kid (he’s only 14, so getting an extra “paycheck” is a big deal to him!).

We treat everyone well, which is why they keep coming back and accomodate issues of ours ;).

What I object to is demands, in writing, for perks that are beyond the norm for someone self-employed in any given field…provide a good service, be friendly, work with me and I’ll be very generous in return. You become friends with the people who help you out. I’ve been self-employed myself in the past and I got paid for the hours I worked and budgeted accordingly.

[oliverreed]

I do have to add that I would SO not be pleased if my dog walker actually had the nerve to tell me she expected to have a paid vacation. Our dog walker/cat sitter is also awesome, and we treat her well, but that kind of demand is just ridiculous.

[Bicoastal]

I interpreted the poor wording as walker requesting when I go on vacation, no walks that week, she is still paid.

The occasional federal holiday I don’t mind much.

I do think it is a better idea to pay at the end of the month for the days walked rather than the beginning. I will implement that as soon as she produces the much-anticipated contract -or get a new walker.

Recently, she did not show up until 2hrs after the window she states she walks them. I happened to be home so I walked them myself then turned her away. Surprised the heck outta her! I was fuming. Over the course of a year, only twice has she let me down. A couple times she’s gone the extra mile.

She gets a Christmas bonus along with prompt payment, paid federal holidays, referrals, traffic to her facebook page, water, and electricity (she found my cell charger and uses it frequently :lol:. I can tell when it’s not where I left it.)

The check for August is waiting for her -less the week I’ll be gone. I am anxious about her response and will fill you all in tomorrow.

[Zevida]

Nope, she is going to have you pay when she is on vacation.

Now, if by signing a contract you are getting a flat rate that is a discount, say, $100 a week, vs someone having to pay $25/visit, even when you pay for holidays or vacation days, you might come out ahead.

$5200/year for contract - 52 weeks @$100/week

Or

$25/day for 250 weekdays, minus 25 days (10 holiday, 10 vacation, 5 sick/personal/snow) is 225 @ $25/ day for $5,625.

So under the contract, you are saving money ($425/year) by paying a flat rate even when she takes some days off. Now, if you get no discount for the contract, it makes no sense.

I can see what she is doing - if the bulk of her clients are 5x a week, every week, then it just might make the most sense to do it flat rate, same price every month.

[Canaqua]

Agreed, Zevida…that makes sense. If the client is getting something in return for pre-paying and losing a day of service here and there, it’s fair. I’d be curious as to whether that is the story with the new contract.

I’ve been riding at two barns. One has lessons a la cart, always the same price and I can cancel with 24 hours notice and only pay for what I use, I pay after the lesson. At the other, I can do that, or I can pre-pay for four or more a month and save $8 a lesson. I can cancel or reschedule if I’m sick or travelling for work, but I must take those lessons during that month (if I prepaid for more than 4, I can carry the excess over one month). Either way is fair to both the instructor/BO and I. I think the latter is probably better for the BO, as she knows at the beginning of the month what her lesson cash flow will look like, but there is the carrot of the discount to incent people to prepay like that.

[Bicoastal]

August has been paid, less my week of vacation, and walker hasn’t said a peep.

I’m alright with that.

[Kate66]

Let me ask you something - are you paying social security and unemployment taxes for her? If she earns more than, whatever the 2012 limits are, per year, then you probably should be paying them?

Certainly for my nanny, I paid social security, unemployment taxes, paid holidays - both hers and mine! because I obviously had to continue to pay her when we were away on holiday too.

Not sure on the IRS rules for dog walkers.

[Blinky]

Cell phone charger? The using of my stuff would put me out.

Besides shouldn’t she have her phone with her while she is out walking??

Much has been hashed out but I completely agree with Canaqua. When we had a sitter I would send her the month’s schedule of when I needed her. Then pay at the end of the month. That meant no paid holidays and paid vacation for her. As a self employed person that would be up to the sitter to budget their time and money to cover such days. Also-as a client I would expect some sort of subsistute to cover her while she was out.

[Bicoastal]

Need to fire dogwalker

I am scared to tell the current dogwalker, whom I’ve used for a year, that she is fired as of November 1. Advice? I fear as soon as I tell her, my dogs will not be walked or items from my house/key will go missing. The firing will not be a complete surprise because we had a little blow up* Friday. It is time to find someone else.

Soon-to-be-fired dogwalker is currently out of town so her brother is subbing. I am not sure when she is back. Dogwalker is available intermittently via text.

Options. Any more options?

• Give zero notice and tell the walker with a letter on Oct 31 this is your last day leave the key
• Give zero notice and delay November payment until Friday when I have off. Be home when whoever (her or sub) comes to walk the dogs and fire in person
• Give one week notice now via text, text & letter, just letter.

Catch up from last post: she never produced a contract. The little raise she asked for I have not paid because I thought it was hand-in-hand with contract.

[I]*The blow up centered around her brother the sub not walking my dogs Friday because his car was towed that morning. Once home seeing the dogs got no walk, I responded (to her 2pm text telling me about the tow) to deduct the missed walk from next month’s payment.

As I’m walking them, this strange man sprints up to me saying, “XYZ sent me to apologize for today. I’m so sorry my car got towed this morning and…” That’s nice and all. I still don’t want to pay for the walk.

I text XYZ saying it was nice for him to apologize, I know he didn’t intentionally do this. I still don’t want to pay for the walk that didn’t happen.

Multiple texts fly in saying my new location is inconvenient for XYZ but she still does it; I was supposed to pay X amount more and haven’t but she hasn’t said anything because she’s not petty about money, etc.

I wait for all the texts to come in then respond 1. ‘is my new location too inconvenient; do I need to secure a new walker?’ 2. ‘I’m sorry. I assumed the raise was hand-in-hand with the contract that has not been produced. happy to pay raise when you produce contract’ 3. ‘clearly we need to communicate more.’[/I]

I would happily have paid the raise if she spoke up sooner even without her contract- I would have made my own. After August, it was out of sight out of mind. We are both at fault for not communicating more.

[Guin]

Give zero notice and delay November payment until Friday when I have off. Be home when whoever (her or sub) comes to walk the dogs and fire in person.

This, because you need to be sure you GET YOUR KEY. I might think about having your locks re-keyed anyway. What if she gave her ditzy brother a copy of it?
I would NOT be alone in the house when you do this. Get a friend there as a witness.

[JanM]

Guin is right. Fire in person, give payment in cash with receipt only, or check so you have verification of payment. Have locksmith appointment and change all locks before sundown on the same day (mobile locksmiths cost, but are worth it). If you have a hide out key for emergencies change location, because they could come back and copy your key. I may be paranoid, but even when I move into a new house I change the locks (I have a big set of keys I take with me and change the locks to that). I know that the builders change from their universal locks to a new set before closing, but I don’t know how many different sets of keys there were, and who had access to them.

[Bacardi1]

It’s a pain in the ass, but I ditto everyone who says “no notice, fire in person, insist on return of keys, & CHANGE LOCKS!!!”.

While I don’t mean in any way to insult professional dog-walkers/pet sitters - not everyone who starts these businesses can be automatically counted on to be honest &/or not hold grudges. If I had to fire ANYONE who had key-access to my premises, I’d do the firing in person & DEFINITELY change all the locks, whether keys were returned or not.

(Oh - & definitely try to have some sort of signed paper trail re: final transactions. This is always important in case something comes back to try & bite you in the a**.)

[BuddyRoo]

Get your key or change your locks. But you aren’t under any obligation to give notice. Total weirdness IMHO…the whole thing.

[sk_pacer]

I didnt read through the whole mess, but, technically you are not her employer but her client unless you are the only person for whom she walks dogs. If you do not pay required gov’t deductions or wage minimums as would an employer, she is not an employee. Tax-wise, she is a contractor/service provider and can be treated as such. She is getting paid by the job and can be terminated without notice, as can a builder, a plumber, etc.

Fire her ass and ensure you get all keys, etc back and change the locks anyway

[oliverreed]

^^^^ This! You are the client.

[GraceLikeRain]

Ditto the above. Fire in person, get your key back, and change your locks.

[littleum]

1. Fire her. NOW.

2. Inform her if she wants her last payment, she needs to be at your home at X time on X day with your key(s)

3. Have the locks changed within hours of #1, and don’t leave your home unattended during this time.

You need to change the locks anyway. Why? You have no idea if she had duplicates made of the key.

[yankeeclipper]

[QUOTE=Bicoastal;6469453]
Her email is italicized below:
I will write out a contract as I am currently doing with other clients, just so we have a written agreement. In that agreement I will state the following: Increased Rate, Confirm Payments for the First of the Month, State that holidays and vacations will be paid as well, and in the winter I will follow Fairfax County’s schedule regarding closing due to inclement weather.

.[/QUOTE]

Umm paid holiday and vacations, following Fairfax County’s inclement weather closings. So, there’s a winter storm alert, town closings, puppies need to go out to do their business and eat - your away - Yikes!