Not my job!

[Jazzy]

How do I politely refuse a request from my boss to go make her coffee or any other job that is not my responsibility?

 

[Messy]

Put salt in it. She won't ask you again.

 

[tango]

How do I politely refuse a request from my boss to go make her coffee or any other job that is not my responsibility?

I suppose it depends on how far outside your responsibility it falls, how much work you have to do and how much you like your boss.

 

[Messy]

Decades ago a collegue got a new boyfriend and told him our office was looking for a manager. So he became our new manager and he was used to having a secretary, but now he didn't have one, so he said to us (2 guys in their 30s and me): Hey I put these papers here. Order them for me will you. LOL that one guy, who is now a boss elsewhere btw, he got so mad. Who does he think he is? Hilarious.

 

[Messy]

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

"It never hurts to help" -- Eek the cat.
Basically, unless you can't accomplish the task because of health problems (case in which you politely inform her about it), you should always do your best to help others with random tasks.

 

[tango]

"It never hurts to help" -- Eek the cat.
Basically, unless you can't accomplish the task because of health problems (case in which you politely inform her about it), you should always do your best to help others with random tasks.

... except if you do too much of that you end up not doing the job you're paid to do, and get fired.

 

[Messy]

"It never hurts to help" -- Eek the cat.
Basically, unless you can't accomplish the task because of health problems (case in which you politely inform her about it), you should always do your best to help others with random tasks.

But this is a boss who wants coffee. That's not a task. It's just showing who's the boss. Take a thermos can with you from home if you have no time to get coffee or hire a coffee miss. I was a coffee miss in the 90s. In one place the really important ones got silver looking pots and cups.
My BIL started his own company and he's really sweet. He gave his brother a job and his wife. It was a computer training center. I couldn't find a job as a cartographer, so he let me make a map for them and make coffee and he paid me for it. There was so little to do, so I also just started to vacuum.
The manager I have now is so sweet, I think everyone doesn't mind bringing him coffee, but noone does, because that looks really slimy and stupid, like the cup a soup commercial with the kid getting his teacher cup a soup.

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

... except if you do too much of that you end up not doing the job you're paid to do, and get fired.

Being righteous can have negative consequences in this fallen world. I think we all know that. But should that deter us from doing the right thing?

 

[tango]

Being righteous can have negative consequences in this fallen world. I think we all know that. But should that deter us from doing the right thing?

I'm not sure that getting fired for ignoring your paid job to make someone a coffee really counts as "being righteous having negative consequences". How is it righteous to take someone's money to do a job and then not do the job they paid you to do?

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

Use discernment. Help with what you can help, go the extra mile, stay overtime if your schedule gets messed up by the extra-tasks etc. Always put others before yourself.

 

[Lees]

How do I politely refuse a request from my boss to go make her coffee or any other job that is not my responsibility?

There is no way to refuse and not offend.

It is just a situation that demands a line being drawn. It's up to you to value the worth of the line. It will have consequenses. Are you willing to bear them?

I was an apprentice in the construction trade years ago. Come break time, two journeyman sent me to the store to pick up their 'apple turnovers' for break. They said be sure to heat them in the micro-wave.

I went and got them but didn't heat them up. They were p****d. I didn't care. I told them if you want them heated go get them yourself. Needless to say, I wasn't there much longer. Which was fine.

Lees

 

[tango]

Use discernment. Help with what you can help, go the extra mile, stay overtime if your schedule gets messed up by the extra-tasks etc. Always put others before yourself.

That doesn't really answer the original question. It's also sad if you end up causing trouble for working overtime when overtime isn't allowed, to do something that someone else should be doing.