Every January, the week after New Year’s, we get flooded with calls from families whose household staff just gave notice. Nannies who’ve been with families for years suddenly announce they’re leaving. House managers who seemed fine in November tell families in early January they’re done. Private chefs who worked through the holidays hand in notice the first week back. It’s not random timing. January resignations are a predictable pattern in household employment that happens for specific reasons most families don’t see coming. Your household staff aren’t quitting because they had bad holidays or because they made New Year’s resolutions to find new jobs. They’re quitting in January because the holidays gave them time and space to evaluate situations they’ve been unhappy about for months, and they came back in January ready to make changes they’ve been avoiding. Let me explain what actually drives the January resignation wave and what families can do to prevent becoming part of it.
The holiday reflection period
Holidays give household staff time away from work to think about their situations. They’re spending time with family and friends who ask about their jobs. They’re getting perspective that’s hard to have when they’re in the daily grind of work. That reflection often leads to realizations staff have been avoiding:
- They’re not being paid fairly compared to market rates
- They’re not happy with how families treat them
- They’re burned out and have been for months
- They want different work situations
- The placement isn’t actually a good fit anymore
None of this is new in January. Staff have been feeling it for months, maybe longer. But the holidays create space to acknowledge it and decide to act on it. Then they come back to work in January and give notice. Families are shocked because from their perspective, nothing changed over the holidays. But from staff perspective, they just finally admitted to themselves what’s been true for a while.
The year-end bonus was disappointing
Lots of January resignations trace directly back to year-end bonuses that didn’t meet staff expectations. Your nanny thought she’d get two weeks’ pay as a holiday bonus like last year, but you gave her one week without explanation. Your house manager expected meaningful acknowledgment of the extra work they did all year, but your bonus felt perfunctory. Your private chef was hoping for substantial year-end compensation reflecting their contributions, but what you gave felt like an afterthought. Staff don’t usually complain about disappointing bonuses directly. They thank you politely, go home, and quietly decide they’re done being undervalued. Then they give notice in January. If you gave less generous bonuses this year than previous years without explanation, if you gave token amounts that didn’t reflect staff contributions, if you skipped bonuses entirely – expect possible January resignations. Los Angeles is an expensive market where household staff have options. Disappointing year-end compensation often becomes the final straw that pushes staff who were already considering leaving to actually start job searching.
The holiday work experience was rough
Working through holidays when families need extra support often clarifies for staff whether placements are actually working for them. Maybe your estate manager handled intense holiday entertaining and felt completely overwhelmed without adequate support. Maybe your nanny worked extra hours through December dealing with chaos and got minimal appreciation. Maybe your housekeeper managed impossible cleaning standards for holiday guests and felt taken for granted. The holidays spotlight how families treat staff when stress is high. Staff working through your family’s most demanding period notice whether you’re appreciative and considerate or whether you’re just demanding and difficult. If staff felt exploited, unappreciated, or mistreated during holiday season, they’re probably giving notice in January.
They got job offers
January is prime hiring season for household staffing. Agencies are busy, families are actively recruiting, excellent candidates are on the market. Staff who’ve been quietly unhappy often start casually looking in November or December. They interview during their time off over holidays. They get offers. They come back in January ready to give notice and accept new positions that offer better situations than what they currently have. Your household staff giving notice in January probably already have their next position lined up. They didn’t wake up January 2nd and impulsively quit. They’ve been planning this for weeks while appearing normal at work.
The New Year reset motivation
January brings fresh-start energy that makes people feel capable of changes they’ve been avoiding. Your household staff deciding to leave isn’t that different from people deciding to change careers or end relationships in January – the new year provides psychological permission to make changes. Staff who’ve been unhappy for months but felt stuck suddenly feel empowered in January to actually do something about their situations. The calendar change creates mental space for big decisions.
They’re exhausted from the holidays
Some household staff are genuinely burned out after intense holiday work periods. The holidays require so much extra work – additional entertaining support, extra cleaning, holiday meal preparation, managing family visitors, handling chaotic schedules. They get through it professionally because that’s their job. But by January they’re exhausted and done, and they give notice because they can’t face another year of this pace. This particularly affects staff in high-demand roles – private chefs doing constant entertaining, house managers coordinating complex holiday operations, nannies managing kids plus extended family dynamics. The intensity makes them realize the compensation and situation aren’t worth the stress.
The warning signs you missed
Most January resignations aren’t actually surprises – families just weren’t paying attention to warning signs over previous months. Your household staff became less engaged or enthusiastic about work. They stopped going above and beyond. They seemed tired or stressed consistently. They mentioned being unhappy about specific things that you brushed off or didn’t address. They asked about compensation adjustments that you dismissed or delayed. All of those were signals that your staff were increasingly unhappy. But families miss them because they’re focused on whether work is getting done, not on whether staff are actually satisfied with their situations. Then staff give notice in January and families act shocked, when actually there were months of indicators that things weren’t working.
What drives retention versus resignations
The families who don’t experience January resignations are usually the ones doing specific things right: They pay competitively and adjust compensation regularly to stay current with market rates. They treat staff with genuine respect and appreciation. They acknowledge extra work during holidays with appropriate bonuses and thanks. They maintain reasonable expectations rather than constant demands. They communicate openly about concerns rather than ignoring problems. The families who get hit with January resignations are often the ones who’ve been undercompensating staff, taking them for granted, ignoring problems, and generally treating household employment as something they don’t need to actively manage. Your household staff staying versus leaving isn’t random. It’s usually predictable based on how you’ve actually treated them over time.
The cost of January turnover
Replacing household staff costs thousands in agency fees, training time, productivity losses, and family disruption. Losing someone in January means starting your year dealing with hiring and transitions rather than having stable household operations. For families in Los Angeles where household staffing is competitive, replacing excellent staff takes time. You might spend months with coverage gaps or temporary help before finding permanent replacements who work as well as the people who left. The families who invest appropriately in retaining good staff spend way less over time than families who constantly deal with turnover because they weren’t willing to treat staff well or pay them fairly.
What to do if you get January notice
If your household staff give notice in early January, handle it professionally even if you’re frustrated or caught off guard. Ask directly what drove the decision. You might learn useful information about issues you weren’t aware of or concerns you could’ve addressed. Even if it’s too late to retain this person, feedback helps you avoid repeating problems with future staff. Don’t try to convince staff to stay if they’ve clearly made their decision. Desperate retention attempts usually fail and create awkwardness. If someone’s genuinely done, let them go professionally. Do ask about timing and try to negotiate reasonable transition periods so you’re not left without coverage. Most professional household staff will give standard notice (two weeks minimum, ideally a month for senior positions). Start your replacement search immediately. January is actually good hiring timing because lots of candidates are looking, but waiting until your staff member actually leaves means longer coverage gaps.
Preventing next January’s resignations
If you want to avoid January resignation surprises next year, pay attention to staff satisfaction year-round instead of just hoping everything’s fine. Do actual year-end reviews where you discuss how things are going and whether staff are happy. Give meaningful year-end bonuses that reflect actual contributions. Address concerns staff raise rather than dismissing them. Pay competitively for your market. Treat staff well during high-demand periods like holidays. Communicate openly about expectations and satisfaction. The families who retain household staff long-term are the ones who treat retention as something requiring active effort, not something that just happens automatically because they hired someone once.
The silver lining
If you lose household staff in January and it genuinely surprises you, use it as a wake-up call about how you’re approaching household employment. Maybe you’ve been undercompensating and need to adjust your budget expectations for what good household staff actually cost. Maybe you’ve been treating staff poorly and need to change your behavior. Maybe you’ve been ignoring problems instead of addressing them. Starting fresh with new staff in January gives you opportunity to do things better from the beginning – fair compensation, clear expectations, respectful treatment, open communication. Don’t just hire replacements and continue the same patterns that led to turnover. Actually fix the underlying issues so you retain the next person instead of dealing with resignations again next January.
The long-term pattern
Families who experience January resignations multiple years in a row aren’t just unlucky. They’re doing something that drives staff away consistently, and they’re not learning from the pattern. If this is your second or third January dealing with household staff turnover, that’s your signal to examine your employment practices seriously. You’re probably undercompensating, or you’re difficult to work for, or you’re creating situations staff can’t sustain long-term. High-quality household staff have options in Los Angeles. They leave situations that don’t work for them and they find better placements. If you keep losing staff regularly, you’re the common denominator that needs to change. The families who keep household staff for years and never deal with January resignation drama are doing household employment differently than families caught in turnover cycles. Figure out what they’re doing right and start doing those things yourself. Otherwise you’ll be calling agencies every January wondering why you can’t keep anyone, when the answer is usually right in front of you if you’re willing to look honestly at your own practices.
