Theory --> Real Life
For the past two years at Illinois, I have worked part-time
as a nanny, caring for the children of a couple of university professors.
Taking on this role at the start of my junior year required me to adjust my
schedule significantly; I no longer had the freedom after class to leisurely do
homework at my own pace, or to put it off entirely and instead choose to hang
out with friends. In a sense, the ‘transaction cost’ of assuming this role was
my time. I chose to trade in leisure for an hourly wage. In this example, my
transaction costs are equivalent to the opportunity cost of my time.
The idea that there is a wage where people are willing to
forego some of their leisure for more money is a topic we discussed at length
in econ 303. This idea certainly holds true in my case; perhaps if my wage were
less, I wouldn’t be willing to work because the value of my time might seem
greater than the dollar amount being offered. Even though I am content with my
wage, there is still an opportunity cost. I am having to forego a certain
amount of time that could be spend on studying or leisure to work.
As a nanny, the structure of my organization is quite
different from a traditional business model. I have two bosses, the children’s
parents, with equivalent authority, but my interactions with them are uneven. I
tend to deal with the father 90% of the time. Another unique point about my job
is the scheduling freedom I am allowed. While my set days to work are Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Fridays, my bosses are very understanding of the fact that I am
a college student and my family lives out of state. If I need to take a day off
for school obligations or because I want to take a trip home they have never
denied my request (to date). The trade off to this freedom is that, if my
schedule allows, I’m always willing to put in extra time. I frequently work
later nights and weekends than what is demanded of a typical 9-5 office job and
the sum of my weekly hours varies dramatically from week to week.
When I’m at work I am unsupervised, but expected to follow a
set of fluid guidelines. As the children have aged and I’ve become more
familiar with their family dynamics, the rules have evolved to accommodate
these transformations. On a small scale, this is an example of organizational
restructuring, like what we’ve been discussing in class. Enduring this process
has shown me the benefits of being receptive to change, as it results in things
like increased efficiency and satisfaction in the work environment.
If I look at my work like a supply chain, I am the
distributor of parental guidance. The parent’s manufacture the rules for me, I distribute
them to the children, and the children are the consumers. Like the Northwestern
Company, the authority in my work is somewhat decentralized. When I’m with the
kids, their parents are busy at work and I can’t always contact them
immediately when situations arise. The parent’s trust me to make judgment calls
in those moments that are in the best interest of their children based on the
information I have. Unlike textbook economic theory, these decisions are
imperfect because I don’t always have ALL information or enough time to act
‘rationally’ in the economic sense.
A recent example of this happened when I was at the youngest
child’s horseback riding lesson. It was a beautiful day; we had been at dozens
of lessons like this before. The protocol from my boss was to drive 20 minutes
to the stables, supply all the appropriate riding gear, snacks and water, sit
through the hour lesson, and then safely return home. 15 minutes before the end
of this lesson, the child’s horse became unruly and bucked her off into a nearby field. Rushing to the scene, I found a shocked child whose wrist already appeared quite swollen. Unable to reach her parents, I had to make the judgement call to
rush her to the hospital for x-rays. Had I waited in this instance for specific
instructions, the child’s swelling and pain levels would have only increased
and the outcome may have been significantly worse.
We discussed last week that the assumptions behind basic economic
theories don’t always hold. Especially in business organizations, individuals
are often faced with limitations (time & money constraints, to name a
couple) that affect their rational decision making. As we go forward in this
course, it will be valuable to remember the components that make organizational
economics unique from the theory-based economics courses we’ve taken up to this
point. Real business decisions do not come out of a text book, but the concepts
from the text can be translated to our everyday experiences.
This is a novel story. I haven't had a prior student who was a nanny, though I have had several who did baby sitting. I wonder if you might distinguish the one from the other in how this works.
ReplyDeleteI was interested to read that most of your interactions were with the father. But you didn't elaborate what those dealings were about. It would have been interesting to note what those were to see if gender would matter for those. Also you said this was for university professors. Were both parents professors or only one? That might have mattered.
I wonder how you found this work. When my kids were young we sent them to daycare. When we needed a baby sitter at night we would often hire one of the daycare teachers for that purpose. And if not that we would use a grad student in the Economics department. In each case we knew the person ahead of time, which made it kind of easy. Had you taken a class already from any of these people? Trust in this situation is kind of a big deal. You obviously have that for the people you nanny for, but I wonder how that came to be.
This said, your example is a bit of a stretch from an organizational viewpoint, unless there is some nanny service that you are a part of but didn't describe. It seemed more that you are an independent contractor working solo, although if you think of the family as an organization and you then are part of it, I suppose that fits. Your story about the kid who fell off the horse seemed like it fit the notion that boots on the ground need to make decisions in real time. You might have finished that story by telling about discussing it with the parents after the fact and how they reacted.
There is one other issue that occurs to me, whether this work might serve as a credential for something else or if it just about the wages, as you described it near the beginning of your post. Being a responsible person whose first instinct is to the right thing as the situation demands it is something valuable, what every employer would want in an employee, quite apart from the other skills needed for the job. So it would be good to know how you see this work and whether it ties into any of the aspirations you have for after you graduate.
I had quite a bit of experience babysitting leading up to my first nannying job. I was in the market for a job that would be flexible with my school schedule, when a friend who previously worked for this family introduced me to the opportunity. At the time I applied, I wasn’t completely sure what the position would entail, but I’ve since learned that the key differences lie in the scope of responsibilities. More than just entertaining and ensuring the safety of the kids, I’m also the chauffeur for them and their friends to and from school, practices, and appointments; I pet sit, prep meals, tutor, clean, and coordinate scheduling.
ReplyDeleteFor the parents (who are both physicists at the U of I, to answer your question), this translates to higher associated transactions costs, because the services I provide are more highly specialized than a regular babysitter. The resources necessary to train another person to do my job would be higher than a parent who is just hiring a sitter for date night, for example. The most obvious input is the time it would take to educate this person in the family practices, important locations, and each family member’s schedule. A less obvious input is the trust we’ve established over time, cultivated through responsibility and communication.
When I started this position, I will be honest it was mainly about the wages. Reflecting on my two years of experience, I recognize it has become more than that. The relationship I’ve created with this family is not something that will soon be forgotten after graduation, and the skills I’ve gained are truly life skills -- more so than many things I learn in class. Things like time management, organization, risk management, and prioritization. Being a mom was something I always saw in my future, but now I feel more confident in my ability to be a working mom who balances work and family, because I’ve seen how important that is. There have been so many days where I call my own mom after work with a newfound appreciation for all the things she did raising three kids, managing a home, and working.