Personal Errands for Bosses
There is nothing wrong with your boss asking for you to do him or her a favor or run an errand, especially if it is your job to do so. Makesure you check your job description because refusing an order could be cause for insubordination and/or disciplinary action. However, to have a boss that makes you do their personal errands either on the job or after hours is a bit much and should be an issue that you tackle right from the start.
You will first want to check with your union steward, if there even is a union where you work. There are clear guidelines that management must make sure are followed by all staff and violation of these is cause for you to file a possible grievance. Make sure that you document each time you are doing something that is outside of your normal job description. Without supporting documentation, you will not have a clear case and it will be much harder to win a grievance. All of the facts need to be there too so be honest with who represents you. This is not only for your own benefit; unions want to assure that no one else has to go through a similar issue, especially if your employer is the one who messed up.
If there is not a union where you work, you may want to first discuss the issue with your boss then. Let him or her know that you do not mind doing a task that is work-related, but any personal errands are outside of your job description. If your boss insists that you continuing what you’re told or there will be discipline, then it is time to seek help from the human resources or personnel department where you work. There should be someone available to help you and get to the bottom of this.
Another option you may want to consider is telling your boss that you will do their personal errands on one condition: overtime or compensatory time. After all, why should you be inconvenienced especially if it’s outside of work hours? You should be able to get some type of credit for havingto do all of this. Don’t just settle for nothing else. It is your time too. This will allow him or her to think about it and if they really do not want togive you overtime or compensatory time each time you run an errand on your own watch, then they will probably stop asking you. In the end, that is the goal.
