Was asked to handle someone else's personal tax forms --- was I wrong?

[GoestoShow]

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Edited by GoestoShow - 1/6/11 at 8:31am

[rivkah]

I think you made the right call.

I sometimes copy or scan personal items at work, in which case I always do it myself, and never ask my assistant to do it.

[lynsage]

It sounds reasonable to me that she might have needed copies of those for something related to her job. If she said it was work-related, I would have scanned them for her and not made a big deal of the issue- if you're worried about a "slippery slope" you can simply tell anyone who asks in the future for proof that it's work-related and refuse to do it if it's not.

[GoestoShow]

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Edited by GoestoShow - 1/6/11 at 8:31am

[D_McG]

I would have scannd them It wouldn't have taken more than a couple of minutes (presumably?) and I think refusing makes you appear nitpicky/petty. That's my gut reaction. I'm interested to see what other people think though!

[GoestoShow]

Originally Posted by D_McG

I would have scannd them It wouldn't have taken more than a couple of minutes (presumably?) and I think refusing makes you appear nitpicky/petty. That's my gut reaction. I'm interested to see what other people think though!

That's not true. The scanner isn't in our office and is very, very slow because it's old and only scans things as jpegs. It once took me 45 minutes to scan two pages with it and then to e-mail it to the appropriate person because it took forever for the files to upload. And that was clearly work related (conference materials.)

[maryeliz]

I'm in higher ed and I do think you are correct in this situation. I would never ask a departmental admin to handle my personal financial documents unless it was part of some process only that person could complete. She should be more concerned about protecting her own privacy, in addition to the issues of wasting your time. And really a person with a Ph.D. on a college campus should be able to find a scanner and use it. I think that many academics have trouble understanding that an AA who works for ten people is not the same as a personal assistant.

The bigger issue of where to draw the line is really tricky. You don't want to get a reputation for being fussy and unhelpful and it can certainly help your career to be perceived as flexible. However, if you say yes to everything you will get stuck parking cars, walking dogs, babysitting, buying coffee, getting dry cleaning, and helping professors' kids with their homework (these are all things that I have seen personally). In your case, I would try to be pleasant but firm with the people who step over the line, and super nice and helpful to the people who are aware of boundaries. If you do that you should have some good allies in the department if the line steppers start complaining.

[Ellien C]

I did this sort of thing for my one boss when I first started out. BUT - she was the only person I worked for and we both knew it was more of a favor. I think I faxed them for her because she really didn't know how to use the fax machine.

I think in your position it is very good to set boundaries and it's a hard thing to do without setting someone off. She probably stormed off because she knew the request was iffy. Do you have a manager that you report to, or an HR contact that you can go to for guidance? Just so they understand the situation and hear about it from you first.

[MeepyCat]

I've worked as an admin and I'd have scanned them, but given the detail about the slow scanner, I'd have told her that she needed to set up a time with me when I would *have* time, because those docs need to go straight from her to me to the scanner and RIGHT back to her, and the scanner is slow. I admit that part of my thinking is that this way she doesn't feel like I'm refusing, but the process of getting her scans from me is sufficiently annoying to her that she's likely to back out and do them herself.

In my work as an admin, I have done a ton of very personal things for my bosses. Everything from making coffee, to fishing family members out of difficulties to getting cash from the bank. I don't think it was inappropriate of my bosses to ask for those things. But I never had more than two bosses at a time. If you're working for a crowd, you really cannot afford to be indulgent about that stuff. (Also, there's a big difference between being a specific person's assistant and being the assistant for the department.)

[TCMoulton]

Originally Posted by D_McG

I would have scannd them It wouldn't have taken more than a couple of minutes (presumably?) and I think refusing makes you appear nitpicky/petty. That's my gut reaction. I'm interested to see what other people think though!

I have to agree with you.

[almadianna]

We have admins in our office, a very high end engineering consulting firm and they do this kind of thing all of the time for all of us. Most of us are expats so we have to deal with our taxes forms/visas/etc. and that is not out of the ordinary for our job.

I dont see how scanning a document is in the same level as cleaning an office.

[pinuchkin]

If it were clearly a personal request, then - at least in IL - you would be bound by state ethics laws to decline on the basis of being a state employee (profs can't ask you to pick up their personal dry cleaning, for example, b/c that would be using state/federal funds for personal benefit). However, with the prof being an expat, she may have had a good case about it being work-related. I could see expressing your discomfort with handling the documents - maybe ask if those were the only copies she had - and clarify that she knew how long it could take and how far away you would be with her personal information.

[LynnS6]

How about "Hmm, I'm not sure this falls within the duties that I'm supposed to perform. Can I check with my supervisor on this and get back to you?"

Since it's theoretically possible these were work related, this is much less clear to me than being asked to clean a professor's office (really, they asked this??).

I would play the "I'm new and I don't know" card as much as you can. You can get away with that for about 2 years!