Manager tried to force me to give a coworker a lift after my shift ended. Was I actually in the wrong for saying no?
This is not something I usually post, and I do not even know if this is the right place to ask, but I need confirmation that I am not losing my mind here.
I had an argument with my manager right as my shift ended. I was literally in the middle of leaving when he stopped me, which annoyed me even more because at that point he was wasting my time, not company time.
Earlier that day, the coworker in question asked me for a lift home. I said no. The simple reason is that I do not like him. I am 25, I am grown, but I will admit I'm not grown enough to let shit go and can still be petty when someone repeatedly does snake-like stuff and is a lick ass. This guy is the type to act like your best mate one day, then report you the next for being in the toilet for five minutes. He has done other things as well, but the point is I do not like him, and I have made that clear. He knows it, everyone at work knows it, end of story.
My guess is that because he was standing next to the manager when I was stopped on my way out, he had gone crying to him about it and tried to get him to force me into giving him a lift.
The manager is known for abusing what little power he has. He makes things up on the spot and has a way of making it clear he can make your job harder without directly saying it.
This manager also does not like me, and I am 99% sure it is because of a woman we work with. We have worked together for about four years, get on well, have good banter, and it is one of those typical “work wife” situations. She is way out of my league, I think that's why she's comfortable with how we talk to eachother but this guy has obviously heard how we talk and thinks he can talk like that to her too and when she basically says no he does the most crybaby shit and goes "But you let him say things like this so why can't i?" With that said He is not the first guy to try it with her, but he is the first manager to do it. He is always finding excuses to pull her away with “I need your help with something” just so he can spend time with her. She has told me herself that she does not like him and knows exactly what he is doing. I honestly would not put it past him to cross boundaries if he thought he could get away with it, he just doesn't seem to know how to take a hint or he simply doesn't care.
So with all of that irrelevant character description in mind😂, what I want to know is this: can a manager actually force me to give a coworker a lift home, especially after my shift has ended? And what should I do going forward?
For the record, I did not give him a lift. The woman I mentioned saw it starting to escalate and said she would just take him instead. Even after that, the manager kept going and said, “Next time I ask you to do something, you do it, or you’re gone!”
That is where my age showed a bit because I had to get the last word. I told him, “Next time you ask me to do something, make sure it is actually in my fucking contract, or the one who will be gone is you when I take it higher!” I also told him he was paying me for the five minutes of my life he had just wasted with his little power trip.
This happened today which is Friday as I type this so I'm just trying to prepare myself for Monday.