What is the strangest thing your boss has asked you to do? Spy on senior management? Work on her daughter’s science project? How about loan him money? Nearly three-in-ten workers (28 per cent) reported that their bosses have asked them to perform tasks that are not related to their jobs, according to a new CareerBuilder study.
Grading the Boss
Workers are split on whether they like reporting to their current boss. When asked to grade their boss’s performance, about half (48 per cent) gave an average or below average rating:
- A – 22 per cent
- B – 30 per cent
- C – 31 per cent
- D – 11 per cent
- E – 6 per cent
While many workers reported they respect their boss (57 per cent), only 25 per cent said that they learn from him/her, and 18 percent feel they are smarter than their boss.
Forty-six per cent of respondents say they are friends with their boss, however, two in five reported that the boss doesn’t know their birthday, the names of their children or what type of foods and music they like.
Above and Beyond
When it comes to day to day projects, some workers feel assignments from the boss fall outside of their job description. Workers provided the following real-life examples of the most unusual requests they received from their bosses*:
- Boss asked employee to spy on senior management
- Boss asked employee if she knew of anyone who could “hook him up” with illegal substances
- Boss asked employee to come up with a science fair project for her daughter
- Boss asked employee to fire his (the boss’s) brother
- Boss asked employee to lend him £400 for a down payment on a car
- Boss asked employee to be better friends with him
- Boss asked employee to scour an abandoned office building for furniture and supplies they could use
*CareerBuilder US and Harris Interactive March 2013 survey of more than 3,600 U.S. workers – credit – onrec.com
