Their bosses asked them to do what? 15 crazy requests

Sure a finance staffer that goes above and beyond the call of duty is likely to gain your favor. But there are limits.

And these bosses didn’t seem to realize that.

The folks at CareerBuilder recently conducted a poll of more than 3,600 U.S. workers to learn what the most outrageous requests ever made of them by their supervisors.

And they heard some doozies!

While of course there are plenty of things you ask of your finance staffers on any given day (run a report, call a vendor, double-check some numbers, etc.), we bet you’ve never made any of these requests.

Or that they’ve ever been asked of you!

15 clearly out-of-bounds requests

Sharing these with the folks that work for you can inject a little levity into a summer day at the office. (Just make sure to scan it first to ensure you’ve never done anything close to any of them.)

Hopefully none of your staffers can top bosses with these:

1. “Control issues”: One boss asked an employee to be prepared to delete all emails and computer files at a moment’s notice.
2. “Mommy issues”: Another boss asked an employee to be a surrogate mother for her … more than once!
3. “Bond issues”: This boss asked an employee to spy on senior management.
4. “Arms issues”: The boss asked his employee to buy a rifle for him, reassuring that he would reimburse the employee for it. (We bet A/P would love that expense report!)
5. “Substance abuse issues”: The boss asked his employee if she knew of anyone who could “hook him up” with illegal substances.
6. “Adequacy issues”: The boss asked the employee to go online and post false good comments about him.
7. “Academic issues”: The boss asked this employee to come up with a science fair project for her daughter.
8. “Sibling issues”: The boss asked one employee to fire his (the boss’s) own brother.
9. “Mobility issues”: The boss asked an employee to lend him $400 for a down payment on a car.
10. “Medical issues”: This boss asked her employee to remove her stitches.
11. “Tween issues”: The boss asked an employee to be better friends with him.
12. “Scavenger issues”: The boss asked the employee to scour an abandoned office building for furniture and supplies they could use.
13. “Legal issues”: The boss asked an employee to bail another coworker out of jail.
14. “Grooming issues”: This boss asked an employee to clip her dog’s nails.
15. “Commitment issues”: The boss asked her employee to help plan her wedding.

Jennifer Azara

Jennifer has covered business and finance for more than 24 years. She has written for CFOs, credit and collections professionals and accounts payable practitioners and has spoken at industry conferences on sales and use tax compliance.