So odd. A friend of mine gave my digits to someone, saying I might cat-sit for her diabetic cat since we’re in the same neighborhood. She didn’t ask me first, and I, uh, don’t do that. She told me a couple days after the fact, and I haven’t heard from the person who needs a sitter.
I’m not mad, just curious if this happens to anyone else who has a “specialty,” with friends offering their help without finding out if you would even do it first. I’m a vet tech, and work with diabetic cats and train people on how to care for them by monitoring blood glucose and giving insulin, but I only do this through appointments with their doctor. I don’t pet sit, I’m not bonded or insured, and I don’t have any kind of standard contract drawn up. I would be very uncomfortable just taking care of a stranger’s pet without a contract agreement, especially a special needs pet for pay.
I’ve certainly looked after a neighbor cat here and there for a weekend, but that’s no pay and healthy young cats that I had no concern over, plus right across the hall. Taking care of a diabetic cat can take anywhere from 2-4 hours a day if they need glucose monitoring and insulin, and I would charge $20 an hour. (if I were to ever consider a side business) My friend didn’t really take that into account, either.
I’ve had people do that sort of thing to me - volunteer me for something to someone else and then not even tell me. Usually it’s fixing a computer but sometimes it’ll be a pet-sit situation and a couple times I’ve even been volunteered to bake cookies for someone’s fundraiser I don’t even know. Crazy.
And I find out by getting a call out of the blue from some stranger saying “Yeah hi, so and so said that you’d do this for me. Can you come over?” I always refuse - nicely but still refuse - and then I go to “so and so” and give them a piece of my mind. I’m generally pretty easy going, and I do favors if I opt myself in for them - but I get annoyed when other folks volunteer me for things.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to do the cat sitting!
Especially when that’s the sort of thing you do for a living is take care of special needs pets - and someone asks you basically to work for free on your little time off? For a stranger? Nope.
Someone just told a mutual friend I might drive him somewhere. Fuck that! Why the hell would I drive someone somewhere?! It was some stupid thing as well, something about a drumkit, not like a doctor’s appointment. I don’t even have a car!
But recently I was really pissed off. My mum was in a bad way, really overwhelmed with all kinds of crap, and my aunt told some randomer’s kid that my mum would proofread their dissertation for them for free. It was like, fucking a hundred pages or something and I read the first page: it was a disaster! And it was the kid of someone my aunt knows, not a friend or family. Thing is, everyone knows my lovely mum can’t say no. I sent my aunt an email that probably scratched her eyes out through the screen. Nobody messes with my mama :mad:
I used to get calls from various strangers asking for medical advice for their children. I couldn’t figure out how they got my number or why they thought I would give out medical advice, since to do so would jeopardize my nursing license.
I finally had the forethought to ask. It turned out that a neighbor, who I barely knew, was telling her friends that I was a wealth of medical knowledge. Funny part is, she’d never asked me a medical question, nor had I EVER offered her any medical advice!
A few years ago my mother in law had a fantasy of buying a foreclosed home at auction for next to nothing that I would completely renovate for her in my spare time for next to nothing. She mentioned this to my wife a few times who always told her I was too busy with a full time job and a family and numerous ongoing renovation projects in our own home. When she gathered funds and was ready to pull the trigger I did the right thing and called her up to burst her bubble and tell her I didn’t have any spare time and I couldn’t undertake such a project and her expectations were unreasonable and would lead to a lot of resentment and monetary loss and not lead to a habitable home. Of course I was the bad guy for this!
Happened to me all the time when I was working. People would find out I was a prison guard and the next thing I knew they wanted me to do them a favor and lock somebody up in my basement for a few days.
The first few times I tried to help them out but it just got out of hand and I had to start saying no.
I am a total freak about keeping my cell number private. I block caller ID and never give my number out. My friends all know this. The one time someone gave out my number, it went like:
“Ummm. . .how did you get my number?”
“From our mutual friend Steve.”
“We’ll, please do not call again and if you see Steve before I do, kindly let him know I hope he dies in a fire.”
Steve gave her my number when they were both drunk, in hopes of getting into her Levi’s. He apologized profusely, bought me a very nice gift, and apologized some more. He also reminds me from time to time that if he ever happens to die in a fire, I’ll feel really lousy.
Since you admit this outright, I won’t editorialize your anecdote, but I will ask: why? Are you a celebrity? Have the world’s most expensive per-minute plan? Witness protection?
I’m not a fan of unwanted calls either, but I don’t understand that level of control-freakery.
Fair question. I hate using the phone, yet it is a necessity. My hate involves my hearing loss, poor signal quality due to rural location, my personality (or lack thereof), plus a profession that leads to many people seeking advice.
When you own a pickup truck, suddenly lots of people can think of ways you can do them a little favor. Such as: help them move, help them pick up the new couch, help them drop off the old dryer, help them haul gravel for the yard, help their friends’ friends move something, etc.
I don’t like giving my cell # out either, though I am certainly not a freak about keeping it private. But I pay by the minute! Every time you call me with a wasted call, you’re wasting my money and my time!
Yeah, I had a friend who has no boundaries. We had a third friend who needed a place to stay for a few days in between leases. No-boundary friend pipes up, without any prior discussion, “You can stay with Dogzilla!” :facepalm:
From the look on my face, my third friend could see immediately that I wasn’t down with the idea. (You, and your three cats that piss all over everything, and your boyfriend, and which of your three kids will be staying there from time to time, and how long, exactly is ‘a few days’? Erm, no.) I had to pull the no-boundary friend aside and say, “Yeah, I might have offered on my own had I had more details, but it is in no way appropriate for you to promise other people they can crash at my house. The hell is wrong with you?”
