To think that this is absolutely not in my job description?

[CatThiefkeith]

I work in an office. As a receptionist / Administrator. Due to a cock up (not mine) there is one man working outside today rather than the usual three, and two women in the office instead of the usual three. And both bosses are on holiday.

Someone seems to have put a load of poison down in the yard, and now customers who store things here (difficult to explain without outing myself) have begun reporting smells. This morning it has transpired that there are several dead foxes out in the yard, and it seems they have been there a while. They are crawling with maggots. Boak.

Anyhoo - Picking them up is a two person job - one with a shovel, one with an open black sack. Office manager has tried to send me out with yard man and I have point blank refused. Surely that is not unreasonable? It does say in my contract I can be asked to perform extra duties, but surely I can't be expected to pick up dead smelly animals? Office manager has gone off with black bags muttering darkly about me not being a team player and waiting til the boss gets back.

You once took a urine sample for the bosses dog?? Your place of work sounds like it has potential as a TVs sitcom

Refusing to do this will probably come back to bite you on the behind, I'm afraid

How? They couldn't sack OP for this. The provision for her to be asked to perform extra duties should clearly be interpreted as duties of a similar type to those in her job description, i.e. reception/office type tasks. In a small company, realistically it's not going to affect her chances of promotion. There is no way you can say it's reasonable to expect a receptionist/administrator to deal with shovelling up liquified putrefying animal corpses. Frankly, if I were the manager in this case I would have been straight on the phone to the environmental health department.

YANBU. You should of rung the council or pest control. Your manager sounds like a diva.

Surely the last thing the firm should want is for the person on reception to be the one covered in liquid dead fox gunk.
Silly office manager.

I have retrieved a dead and stinking fox by myself with a fork, a sheet of plastic and a wheelbarrow. It was grim but not the worst...at least it wasn't clearing up vomit.

CatTheifKeiths whole life could be a TV sitcom, she does get herself into the oddest situations!

I have missed you OP, your life must have been more on the normal side lately.

YANBU.

Whoever laid the poison might well have committed a criminal offence. Removing the dead foxes is removing evidence and could spread the poison.

There are also potential health and safety issues handling dead animals.

I certainly wouldn't be helping with it!

Not in a million trillion years would you have got me helping with that. I remember a bird flying into a window at the small organisation I worked in and my manager briefly looking up and saying "deal with that, will you, Elle?". There were also occasions with various insects and a plague of frogs that I helped out with willingly, but I would totally draw the line at putrefying fox.

Only on MN!

"Pitch in and help clear up the fox's decomposing carcass"

Absolutely not!

Please get your boss to get Environmental Health in to get rid of the poison. You can mention your suspicions about the customer, it probably won't lead to anything but it would help to show that it's not been the company's fault.

As they've been poisoned, the foxes need proper disposal, please don't bury them on the wasteground. Doing that would also make it look like the company is guilty and is trying to cover up what they've done. You could also be fined by Environmental Health for doing so.

Any dead animal is a health hazard. A putrid, liquifying, poisoned fox could carry so many dangerous diseases that they would require careful handling and proper safety equipment. Having open-toed sandals would've exposed you to greater risk, e.g. if the spade had slipped, cutting your toe and allowing the liquid to get in.

YANBU to refuse to do this. Your manager made a mistake in not realising how dangerous a job she was asking you to do. I hope your boss will educate her on that.

I would rather not be a team player any day of the week, and deal with the none existent ramifications. Than deal with a dead, rotting anything.
Any boss who told me to do that would be laughed out of my radar.
We all have a disclaimer on our jd's about doing other stuff. However usually with the words reasonable.
You can spout shite about team player and coming back to bite you as much as you want. Still not going to happen. This is why there are specialised companies out there.

Eww!

One of the reasons I won't work for a small business is the possibility of being asked to do weird things like this!

Waves to MammaTJ. Life has been a bit depressing of late, and I've been busy getting my boat ready for summer.

YANBU dead mouse, bird, fine. But maggoty fox? As others have said, pest control companies exist for a reason, they're specialist for a reason. Stick a bag over it till it can be sorted so it's not unsightly, fair enough. But I doubt pest control will come out with sandals on to dispose of anything let alone that!

You do realise you now have to tell us how the boss reacts to this, when he gets back. Otherwise you'll not be a team player.

I would possibly resign rather than do this. It's one of my worst nightmares. YANBU

If ever there was a time to bring in a specialist company, this was it.

For all the health and safety reasons already mentioned. There is no way OP was being unreasonable to refuse.

This still needs specialist cleaning up. There's no telling how much poison is still there, what the poison is, and so on. And there's the legal side of it, too.

Yeah sadly it doesn't sound like this story ends with a couple of maggoty foxes. PPs have suggested a crime has been committed so the bosses will have to take it further when they're back from holiday. I consider myself to be a team player. YWNBU to refuse that task.

No WAY were you BU. No way. I agree that Environmental Health should have been contacted. You were absolutely right to refuse and no member of staff should have had to deal with that. What sort of arsehole puts poison down under those circumstances?

I am not immune to doing the odd weird job...as a temp (secretarial) in London many years ago, I was sent to rescue an injured racing pigeon from the top of a very tall building . That was most definitely not in my job description!!

YABU

You should have acted like a TEAM PLAYER!!!!!!!

WTAF?

My extent of 'acting like a team player' would have involved calling environmental health and a specialist agency to come & safely remove the dead foxes. I would have suggested very, very strongly that no ones goes anywhere near decaying, poisoned animals without the correct safety gear.

I'd ask environmental health what the best thing is to do about the person you suspect of having done this. If they can't advise you a better route to take, I'd call the police.

Bastard. It's cub season, they mate for life.
Bastards

I'd rather shovel a dead animal into a sack than clean human poo off walls as done of you have had to do!

You would call the police? WTF

Yanbu. I work for a small company I can't imagine even being asked to do this. If youre on reception do they want you greeting customers smelly and covered In goodness knows what? If you left reception someone would need to be on reception to cover you, so why not just to get someone else to do it and avoid more than one person switching roles. Did it really need to be done today? Yes people are complaining but you could say we know it's being dealt with, and leave it till the following day when appropriate staff , clothing, protection etc is available.

Also agree you need to find out which bastsrd is poisoning the foxes.

Baboon...I concur...vile...