Employee refuses to pick up a coworker from 20 miles away without compensation, sparks debate

Setting boundaries in life can often come across as being mean, rude or even narcissistic. However, it comes across as even worse when you choose to set some healthy boundaries at your workplace because it seems like you aren't a team player. In a similar story shared by u/WaterFriendsIV, they tell us how they set some boundaries at their workplace and how it turned out.

The person began their story by telling us how they lived only a few miles away from their workplace. One day, they had a co-worker who was having some car trouble, which meant that getting to work wasn't going to be possible for them. Now, that coworker lived about 20 miles away from the workplace, but they were both scheduled to come in for the same shift. The writer then went on to explain how their manager asked them to "swing by" and pick up the coworker on their way to work from home.

There was only one problem with that: the other co-worker's house was nowhere near the individual's house. Explaining the same to the manager, they said, "I explained that it's not even close to being on my way to work." They further added, "I asked if they would punch me in for an extra 40 minutes since I'm going to have to leave my house that much earlier to pick up my coworker." Along with that, they also inquired if they would be compensated for mileage at 55 cents per mile for 40 miles. The employer chose not to include their own time and mileage, which they use for their commute to work, which was fair.

To that, the manager promptly replied, "I was hoping you would be a team player and just pick them up. I guess if they need to be picked up more than just today, we can discuss that." Hearing this, the employees took a stand for themselves and told the manager that they wouldn't be picking up the employee if they weren't being compensated for their time and mileage. The employee also went on to suggest they arrange an Uber for the coworker, to which the manager immediately laughed and said, "I'm not paying for an Uber!" When the day arrived, the coworker didn't show up which resulted in the company being shortstaffed. The conclusion remained that the manager seemed to be okay with the employee using his time and money to be a less expensive Uber driver for the coworker than paying for an actual Uber for them. The employee confidently asserted in the end and said, "I can guarantee that if my coworker needed a ride again, he would just keep delaying extra pay." And it sure seemed that way.

u/fenriq said, "A forty-mile drive to be a team player and he'd have 100% forgotten about it by tomorrow until he needed you to do it again. Good on you for not giving him free labor." u/wakim82 shared a personal story and said, "When I had a car accident, my boss came to pick me up at one of my old jobs, she was such a nice lady. At another job, my boss scheduled me to come in at 4 a.m. after I was coming back from a vacation, along with a dude who didn't have a car and a dude who lost his license because of a DUI. I slept through my alarm because of just coming back from vacation and was the ride for the other two guys. I didn't get written up; my boss did for her scheduling idiocy. Or the district supervisor was like, 'Do not schedule someone to come in for a 4 a.m. shift after their vacation and don't rely on one person to be the ride for everyone else for a 4 a.m. shift... transit isn't running yet what are you thinking?'" u/easy10pins said, "Picking up a co-worker on the way to work, fine. Going 20 miles out of my way to pick up a co-worker, nope."

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 4, 2024. It has since been updated.