How insane is this (my co-worker's duties assigned by my boss)?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Quick background - I work in a horrible little insurance office. Company employees are ME, “Pam”, and the owner (female 50 years old and filthy rich).

The owner has Pam doing personal duties. Here are a few examples.

  1. Grocery shopping for her family (that’s right - the owner’s family)
  2. Gas up the minivan.
  3. Determine how many chairs should sit at their dinner table at home (4 or 6, can’t decide which looks better).
  4. Go to store, buy black magic marker, and come to the house (owner’s home). Color in the letter “Y” on the rug that sits on the front porch (their last name starts with the letter “Y”, hence the mat with the “Y” on it). Apparently the “Y” was gray, and boss now wants it to be black.
  5. Help clean/rearrange their closets.
  6. Constant returning of expensive merchandise the owner buys “on a whim” then decides that she doesn’t like it. (is whim a word?)
  7. Figure out if her medical/dental bills are accurate.

Myself, I’ve tried to train her on e-mail use etc but she refuses to even try.

I am NOT MAKING THIS UP - she says that she can’t use a mouse because it hurts her finger to “click” . . . :confused: – due to a “freak college injury” some 30 years ago.

WHAT A FREAKING JOKE. How does one not start laughing when they hear this?

The office serves no purpose other than for her social status (her husband has $500,000 annual salary - no kidding, he’s a tax attorney at a major firm, and a helluva nice guy too).

I’ve been looking for another job, but it’s been hard, given that I can’t use boss as a reference (she would FREAK OUT if she knew I was looking for a new job), especially since no one’s ever even heard of this office either (it could be ‘made up’ as far as anyone knows). Plus, she pays just enough that I’d have to take a pay cut etc to take another job.

My entire life, I’ve never hated anyone…until now. Okay, I guess this turned into a rant. I’m sorry…oh yeah, what to do about my co-worker’s personal chores. She won’t stand up to owner, and I don’t blame her - boss will fire her on the spot and find someone else to do it. I’m a male, so I don’t have much in common with the owner, hence the personal chores were easy to avoid, as I’d just “accidentally” do them wrong or simply not do them at all. Now Pam is getting all of it.

2

Hmmm. Well, if these expected duties weren’t told to Pam when she took the job, she can try and say she doesn’t want to do them anymore and that’s not what she was hired for, but the owner could easily come back with, “Okay then, I’m afraid I’ll have to let you go so I can hire someone else who will do them.” There’s really not much Pam can do about it. What is her title? What was she hired to do, exactly? Is she an assistant of some sort? If she were an actuary and is being asked to clean the boss’s closets, she might have a “case” if she were fired for refusing to do so. Whether it would make sense to spend all that money suing is debatable. An assistant or secretary could have a much broader range of expected (although not specifically numerated) duties, including doing personal work for her boss.

I work in what is called a “family office” and if you heard some of the things I’m asked to do, you’d think I was employed by crazy people. It’s nothing dangerous; just a lot of personal stuff that annoys the hell out of me. And if I don’t like it, I am free to quit. Pam might be in the same boat, unfortunately.

3

yeah, unfortunately that what we keep concluding too…it’s just so disheartening…her job duties were supposed to include answering phones and running insurance quotes for groups/individuals.

4

I wonder if her freak accident in college involved a NLE?

5

Okay, I have to ask: NLE?

Or do I want to know?

6

NLE

Near Lesbian Experience.

7

I don’t get it - what does an NLE have to do with this woman’s injury? Even in a funny way? Am I missing a joke somewhere?

8

I’m not sure there’s anything to “get”, but that’s why it’s so funny…I mean, I laughed anyways. Then again, I wasn’t privy to the whole NLE thing beforehand.