Have you agreed to a favor, only to find yourself stuck in a loop of doing it over and over again for the same person?
My sister, for example, asked me once to go pick up a package from a clothing store, because I live near by it and it’s easier for me to drop by there and pick it up. I agreed, once, wanting to help her out, and since then, I have picked up at least a dozen other packages for her, all on different occasions.
Now, while I love my sister and enjoy helping her out, I am not her delivery person, and at some point, it stopped feeling like I was doing her a favor and became a weekly errand that I didn’t know how to stop. And the most annoying part was, I knew that if it were the other way around, she would have no problem telling me she can’t do it. Me, on the other hand? I was simply too nice to set any boundaries.
I wish I could say that I stood up for myself and told her it was becoming too much, but the reality was that I eventually moved, and the clothing store she liked ordering from was no longer close to where I lived. It became unreasonable to ask me to pick it up, and she caved and started paying for delivery. I am still slightly disappointed with myself that I never told her how I really feel about all her “favor” requests.
At least the employee in the story below decided to stand up for themselves and tell their coworker that her demands are crossing a line. After agreeing to pick up her lunch one time, it became a daily occurrence. Even on days that the employee didn’t have any reason to leave the office, they still spent their lunch time picking up an order for someone else.
One day, they decided it was time to put a stop to it all.
Author: Kayitsi.com
