I am the bookkeeper for a plumber client and he is asking me to conduct a search for an administrative assistant for his business because he doesn't have time to keep it all together.

After weeks of him bringing it up, I told him I'd post an ad for him but I'm procrastinating. I realize I don't want to do it. I'm the freelance bookkeeper, should I be asked to do this? I think I'm going to tell him that I'll write and post the ad, but I don't want to be the contact and god forbid, conduct interviews and hire someone for him. (I'm sure he'd love it if I did all that)

When has a boss asked you to do something outside of what you consider the boundaries of your job?

heartbeatocean said:

place the ad, but charge him for your time.

dont do interviews yourself..coz if the newbie turns out to be , it will fall back on you, and put plumber guys detaols as contact.

let plumber guy know all this b4 you place the ad

goodluck

oh, i once had a lazy arse boss who got me to do his paperwork, coz he couldnt be bothered

didnt help that i couldnt leave my counter after a foot operation

i actually gave that same boss a copy of an undated resignation letter, and told him any time he wanted to, he could put it into place, but as i did his work for him it never happened

Lazy sod

We had a manager that use to ask us to do unethical things, so the company would get compensated for something they didn't have, we refused and later she was FIRED and ARRESTED ! I hate people like that.
[Edited 11/13/09 17:49pm]

Wait a minute. You're a freelance bookkeeper and a client is asking you to ask as his hiring agent?

That is just way out of bounds. You are an independent contractor - not his employee. He is a client - not your boss. You need to tell him that human resources is outside of your area of expertise and you don't feel comfortable being involved in it.

It's too bad that you already agreed to post an ad - you shouldn't even be doing that. But prb's right on that score - charge him for your time, at least.

CHAAARRRRGGGGE HIM!!!

RenHoek said:

DOUBLE!!!!!

prb said:

That was the approach I was going to take. Thanks.

Genesia said:

that's pretty much it. He uses me as a sounding board (don't they all?) and I'm very supportive. I'm okay with giving feedback, especially in the financial area, which is appropriate, but somehow it got to this. I only agreed after he kept bugging me about it, and he's obviously desperate for help. I just have to draw the line. Hopefully, when he hires someone, he can dump this kind of crap on them.

Dayclear said:

YUCK!

ZombieKitten said:

I'll charge him for every minute of my time, but I don't know if I could get away with double.

heartbeatocean said:

Don't do it. I was once working as a receptionist and one of the lower level managers wanted me to call the garage about his car. Once I did that, he came with more requests of the non-work related sort. At one point I had enough, since I had the feeling that he saw me as his personal secretary - something he apparently wasn't entitled to since he was basically the loser compared with the other managers who did have a personal assistant. So when he wanted me to call a florist to order something for his wife, I kind of sweetly implied that I would tell the other superiors about it. That stopped the sneeky creep.

heartbeatocean said:

I had a boss threaten my job if I didn't re-create the imaging drops for the station. Imaging is the station identification you hear in between music and after commercial breaks. His ass would NEVER get more imaging from the guy that would get paid for every drop he created. Since I was so nasty behind the boards and won awards and $$$ for my production, he cornered me in the production room and told me if I didn't do it, he could always find more talent.

I pretty much re-created one drop to get him outta my face and never did anything else. He was so unethical. Asking me not to reference the Associated Press in my news because we didn't pay for the contract. Cheap fuckers. That company is falling a part, so I really am not mad about it all. Dirty business will eventually kill you in the end.

But my boss....I feel sorry for him a little. His life has been in decline. Drug and alcohol addiction, his wife getting really sick. Folks, be careful how you treat folks, that's all I can say.