Is this employer request unreasonable?

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My 18 year old daughter works at a high street mobile phone shop. She has her own car and as such has been asked a few times to cover for sick/sack/incompetent staff at another store about 25 miles away from her normal one. She has been there about 6 months and has done well so far and I although she doesn't like having to do the cover stuff when asked, I suggested she just suck it up and use it to demonstrate she can be flexible and run a store on her own.

Today her manager has asked her again to go to the other store tomorrow, but this time they want her to stop off on the way (it's a 5 mile divert) and pick up a new member of staff and take him to the new store as well.

Not sure how I feel about this - When I was running my business I would occasionally make this kind of request, but her manager has said this is "not optional" and she can't say no. Is it acceptable to ask a 18 year old girl to pick up a man she has never met and take him to work with her?

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Thanks for the replies - They are one of the larger high street chains. They will pay mileage and parking. The issue I had was not these areas of even the potential insurance issue - it was the fact that her manager said she couldn't say no - it wasn't optional. It's not like she has ever spoken to this guy and doesn't know him, she is uncomfortable with picking up a strange man and having him in the car - nothing else.

I have suggested she ask her manager to make the request in writing - although I like the HR suggestion too.

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It turns out that the guy they want her to pick up works at a different store again. The store they need cover for always seems to be struggling for staff. So they want her to go to the struggling store, pick up this other guy who had been drafted from a 3rd party store on the way. They could of course pay for a taxi for the other guy, rather than telling her that this is not optional and she must pick this guy up on the way.

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Her Manager is a woman.

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surveyor said:

I think grumpy PH director type blokes would have less difficulty standing their position than a 18 year old girl. I know that my daughter would be unhappy, but would probably take some encouragement to actually stand her ground.

This indeed is the issue. She is going to end up doing it.

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Well she ended up picking him up this morning.

She tried to discuss it with her boss many times and asked her to make the request in writing explaining that she had no option. Her boss refused to do this, told her she was being ridiculous and she was helping out her colleague and the company. When she push her boss further, she got angry, made comments about not signing off her expenses etc.

She did this in front of other staff members, who confirmed they had heard her insist that she must do this. I am going to suggest to her that she writes an email to the HR department (it's a large network operator) that explains the position she was put in and asks if it was reasonable and if she was within her rights to refuse it.

I found it very frustrating talking to her via whatsapp yesterday because she was constantly worried about making her boss angry and didn't want to push it. It's a hard balance to let her make her own mistakes / learn to deal with things like this vs wanting to get involved myself. Despite being her first job and being only 18, she is still an adult and whilst we will of course offer support, she needs to learn how to deal with stuff like this.

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Ezra said:

A lot of the posts here are why this country is in such a state. I don't mean the OP's question - just a lot of the responses. We're going to disappear up our own arses if we're not careful. His daughter has occasionally commuted to the other shop before - it's not become a daily thing, there's no need for biz insurance - she's commuting, there's no safeguarding issue - she's giving a colleague an ad-hoc lift. Of course she should agree to the request.

If I ran a biz like this and a new employee, who should actually be showing flexibility and trying to make a good impression, started kicking off as many posters here suggest, showing all the signs of an entitled, woke, gen z'er, she'd be out straightaway. If she said 'of course, but any chance of some petrol money to cover the extra miles' - that's very VERY different.

I'm very sympathetic to this and it was the main reason for my post in the first place. I have run my own company for many years and especially in the early days, expected staff to go the extra mile. But it was reciprocal, I would take liberties and often ask them to do things like this, work on their own time, come in on the day off etc, in return they knew the could get time off at short notice, use company property & vehicles, expense the odd night out, that kind of thing. Secondly, we were a start-up environment, it simply wouldn't have worked without this flexibility.

The situation my daughter is in is very different, sadly her ability to excel at her job is probably one of the reasons her manager is doing this. It's one of those little ivory tower scenarios where although the business is part of larger, household name group, within the little bubble of that shop is about 7 staff, including a manager and an assistant manager - the area manager has requested that my daughter do the training of new staff, help troubleshoot problem stores etc, so her manager probably feels threatened. I am also lead to believe that women will often see other females as competition.

I did send her a link to this thread last night and she was amused at the Harry Styles comment, I messaged her today to ask if he was indeed Harry Styles, but have not had a response as yet.

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Sy1441 said:

Super Sonic said:

So a) you think it's funny - I Said I found the thread amusing.
b) you don't care wether she gets
sacked. - I didn't say that if you read back, I was giving my advice.

I bet you're a great manager - I am thanks, and a pretty effective multi organisation director also if my P&L's are to be believed.

Powerfully built multi organisation director no doubt too.

Although your advice suggests a huge amount of naivety around people dynamics - you suggested she refuses to do it and that would invoke two possible outcomes - a) She is "left alone" b) she gets fired. The reality of this and many other similar situations is that if she was to do as you advise, the only certainty is that neither of your predicted outcomes would be likely to occur.

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craigjm said:

So….. OP what was the eventual outcome? Has she been told to pick this guy up more than the once?

She picked him up. (sadly not apparently a Harry Styles lookalike) The next day, she told her manager that she wouldn't do it again so not to ask. I am lead to believe that her manager accepted that and agreed not to.