The day I stopped letting my boss dump her "quick tasks" on me at 4:55 PM

Every single day my manager would walk by my desk at maybe 4:50 PM with some urgent thing she needed before tomorrow. It was always small stuff like checking a spreadsheet or printing labels, but it meant I stayed late every night for two months. I felt like a jerk saying no, but I was getting zero done during regular hours. Finally I tried something dumb: I told her I had a hard stop at 5 PM because I had to pick up my kid from practice in Westbrook. I don't even have kids. But after I said that, she stopped handing me stuff after 4 PM completely. She started asking around noon more. Has anyone else just made up an excuse like this and had it actually fix the problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennifer9658d ago

Making up a kid to get out of work seems like a lot of work for something that could have just been a simple conversation. Like, "Hey, I'm not staying late for random stuff anymore. Ask me earlier or find someone else." Most bosses aren't going to fire you for not checking a spreadsheet at 4:55 PM. And if they do, that's probably a job worth leaving anyway. The kid excuse works but it's also kind of a bandaid. What happens when she asks about the kid's soccer game next week?

piper9127d ago

Wait, @jennifer965, but isn't your whole "have a simple conversation" approach just kind of assuming everyone has a boss who can handle that? My old boss took everything as a personal attack. If I'd just said no, she would have found a way to make my life miserable through other stuff. The kid excuse works because it's socially bulletproof. Nobody questions a parent picking up their child. It's not a bandaid if it actually solves the problem permanently. She stopped asking after hours completely because the imaginary kid gave me a reason she couldn't argue with.