Do You Feel Compelled to Support Your Boss's Personal Interests?

Career Journal tackles the issue of bosses who take their personal interests to work, forcing others to give, play along, etc., though no one wants to. My personal favorite is the boss who forced his personal assistant to take tango lessons with him (since his wife wouldn't.)

Issues like the tango one probably happen rather infrequently, but what about the annual Girl Scout cookie donation? Ever had a boss "ask" you to buy some? Did you feel compelled to do so? Sheesh, I've felt compelled just with co-workers, not to mention bosses.

I've had to deal with bosses' personal interests a couple times in my career. In a rather harmless form, one boss asked me to help his pet charity sell some items, so I gave them some ideas for improving their sales. In a not-so-harmless form, I had a boss early in my career who liked to go to strip clubs when we traveled. As you might imagine, this was not "my scene." (FYI, it was before I was married, but still...) But he forced us to go, so I tagged along, stayed a minimum amount of time, and ducked out at my first opportunity. It was part of my job that I dreaded but had to learn to live with it. In today's corporate environment, I don't think he'd be allowed to take us to such a place, much less force people to go, but this was over 15 years ago and things were a bit different.

Today I'm in a position where I don't really have anything -- not cookies and certainly not strip clubs -- forced upon me. How about you? Are you dealing with this issue at work? How do you handle it?

Comments

[Susan]

When it comes to fundraisers for kids, I buy equally from all employees, including my boss and those under me as well.

[Lily]

Fortunately, my workplace is conservative enough that people tend to keep anything personal at home. At the same time, we're laid back enough that we're not required to support any "causes" which do make it too work. Once in a while I'll get an email along the lines of "Support so-and-so at the 5k run for such-and-such organization," but I don't think there's an undertone of pressure.

[Suze]

I support fundraisers at work -- my contributions are not high, regardless of who is having the fundraiser.

I draw the line at attending outside functions, though. And I think the pressure to attend those has decreased dramatically over the years. Thank heavens.

[Asithi]

I probably spend, on average, $100/year just supporting my co-workers fund raisers. Many of them have kids in the same school district, so I always try to buy from a different person each time instead of just the same co-worker each time. I do feel some pressure. At my last job, you could ask your co-workers to contribute to fundraisers. However, you can post the flyer and forms on the outside of your cube. When I am not asked, I do not volunteer to buy cookies and candies.

[Brandon]

Sometimes someone will have a flyer or something fundraiser related on a table. I have even put some stuff out myself once. I do not let myself feel pressured to contribute though. If I want the item, I will do it. I hope others did not feel pressured when I put some items out myself that time.

That said, my company does distribute several charity related things each year. I ignore them for the most part. Some people have also represented to me that there is a hard-sell to contribute to United Way, but I did not personally feel pressured.

[Tom]

I once worked for a company where the owner was the chairman of the local United Way campaign. As you can imagine, there was a lot of pressure to contribute to the United Way through payroll deduction. It was assumed that you would donate, and you had to specifically decline, as oppose to specifically sign up to do so. If you enrolled your name was even entered into a drawing for extra vacation days and cash rewards.

I declined and was called into my managers office (who was getting pressure from the owner to enforce "voluntary" participation). He questioned me as to why I didn't want to support this worthwhile cause and when I answered that I thought their purpose was noble but had problems with a few of the "charities" they supported (specifically, Planned Parenthood) he persisted in trying to persuade me. I pointed out that I personally contributed time and money directly to a number of the charities supported by United Way, and that by doing so it avoided the "middle men" and 100% of my donations went directly to the need, but that didn't fly.

Anyway, I resisted the pressure and eventually was asked if I would mind if the company made a donation to United Way IN MY NAME so that they could report 100% employee participation and get their name in the newspaper and a little plaque on the wall. I declined that, on principal, and had an icy relationship with the owner from that day forth.

[FMF]

Tom --

I forgot about the United Way!!!!

I had this happen to me in my first job out of school. Exact same situation as yours (my reaction to the pressur/UW, their recation to me, etc.) except I was in a big company. They pressured me and I eventually gave $1 to help our participation rates.