Question for all

[lexin]

I've also asked around the managers of my office about this, but this came up in my union work recently and I thought I'd find out what everyone thinks.

Poll #7675 Reasonable ad-hoc tasks

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 57

You employ a person whose normal job is to do post opening, stamping, preparation of papers, scanning - adminstrative tasks, in other words. Would you regard it as reasonable for them to be asked to do "sweeping out the filthy basement" as an ad-hoc task?

Yes
3 (5.3%)

No
9 (15.8%)

In the context of an office move or "tidy friday" when everyone's mucking in, but not otherwise
44 (77.2%)

Something else I will tell you about in comments
1 (1.8%)

Comments

[commodorified]

*changes votes*

No, on second thought, not even in the context of everybody mucking in. A space people work in daily, yes, in that context. A basement, no.

It's too physically demanding to dump on someone whose job description did not include it, and if you don't know what you're doing cleaning out a filthy space can be hazardous as Hell.

I'm not physically able to do that kind of heavy repetitive work *and* I am so allergic to mold that I developed an ugly chest infection from inability to clear my own lungs and then sprained a rib coughing earlier this year due to a nasty mold outbreak in my part of the world.

[lexin]

Interesting you should raise this. The admin person concerned has asthma, and I thought it was a particularly unsuitable task for them.

[watervole]

IF they're asthmatic, consider my vote a 'no'. (though in the general case, my vote would actually depend on whether there was plenty of admin work that needed doing. I'd regard it as fair to ask anyone - not just admin - to do it if they hadn't got enough other work to do)

[lexin]

He'd got plenty of work - more than enough, in fact. This was an extra task he was being set that the other admin wasn't.