by Catherine
(Kingston, NY)
I’m expecting to get fired soon. I saw my new boss fire the only other employee at the tiny non-profit where I work. Later she said she had wanted to fire him 2 weeks after becoming our boss, and was happy he gave her an excuse.
Now I think she’s looking for an excuse to fire me, too. She comes from a high stress cutthroat retail atmosphere, and seems to need to create urgency if there isn’t any.
She told me last week that I’m insubordinate, because one morning she told me her car was having the brakes fixed, so I would have to drive the company banking to the bank, or else I would have to loan her my car so she could do it. I asked if I could think about it. Later I said I was not comfortable with either of the choices she had given me. She reminded me I had done it a couple of weeks earlier. I said Yes, and I hated every minute of it. I had just had a fender bender right in front of work, and knew if something had happened while driving the company’s business to the bank, my boss wasn’t going to cover the loss. So I want to know if I get fired for this, do I have a chance to get unemployment?
Hi Catherine,
Does your job description require you to use your personal vehicle for business errands? I know it certainly doesn’t require you to loan it out to your boss to run business errands.
Have you been required to do this in the past? Refusal to comply with a reasonable directive from an employer is insubordination.