You've Got to Be Kidding!: How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Integrity

How Much Personal Service Is Too Much?

Here are some guidelines and ways to recognize that you’re doing too many of your boss’s personal chores:

• Requests are too frequent. Daily or even weekly requests to run personal errands are generally regarded as inappropriate. But if the requests are infrequent and easy to complete, there might not be much to gain by raising a strong objection. Keep your priorities in order, and don’t upset an otherwise fine job over a trivial matter.
• Compliance costs the company too much. A boss who ties up an assistant’s time with personal tasks is literally stealing a valuable resource from the company, and going along with it makes you an accomplice. Considering the cumulative effect of some of the abusive practices that have evolved in some boss-assistant relationships, this is not stated too strongly. If you have to work extra hours to make up for time spent on the boss’s personal errands, you and the company are indirectly paying extra time and money to support the boss’s bad habit of having you take care of her.
• Compliance costs you too much. Let’s say your boss wants you to perform his personal errands on your time, without financial compensation or compensatory time off. This is a clear abuse of your services as an employee. Allowing yourself to be taken advantage of like this (1) cheats you of your personal time and (2) diminishes your professional relationship with your boss. In the end, your boss won’t respect you, and you won’t respect yourself. ...