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.

I'd be tempted to turn this around on your boss and get it on the record that she expected you to do this and muttered threatening remarks when you refused. Someone isn't being a team player but that's not you.

Putrid animal is enough to make me vomit.

Haven't read the thread and someone may have already said this but it is a health hazard to you and your colleagues to do such a thing. You should be ringing the council and getting them on it, it is after all, their job to remove dead animals, not yours!

I work for a small firm, and muck in - washing up, emptying bins etc.
But there is NO WAY I would ever deal with a dead animal in the car park.

Just ring up the council or something..

cleaty Sat 21-May-16 19:10:37
You would call the police? WTF

I think it's the right thing to do in this particular case.

We have here someone unknown having put poison down, and said poison is also an unknown quantity. Ther's no telling how much poison still remains out there, and as it's unknown there's nothing to say whether it's harmful to humans.

Whoever put the poison down has put people at risk here, and there's nothing at present to stop this person doing it again. And next time the consequences could be greater.

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

BOLLOCKS! I grew up on a very rural farm and have shovelled shit and buried dead animals. I also worked in a unit for patients with behavioural problems so have cleaned every fluid, from every surface possible, including having cum thrown at me and NO WAY would I have lifted POISONED purified fox for a dick of a manager that wouldn't do it herself.

I'd have done it. I think you are very brave.

Why is she very brave to say no?

You would have really moved something that contained an unknown poison? Then taken a huge risk of transfering Unknown poison?

Do people saying she should have done it understand that poisons can also be well deadly to humans as well?

Still think I did the right thing in saying no, team player or not.

I will update you all tomorrow.

Decomposing poisoned corpses are a significant health hazard. The bodies should have been removed and disposed of by trained professionals. This could, of course, be staff members but no way should an untrained and inadequately dressed employee be exposed to this hazard. The yard also needs proper decontamination. If the boss's dog (or any other animal) were to sniff around the poison or another dead animal they could get poisoned themselves. Chances are the poison is a warfarin based substance, very nasty.

You were asked to participate in disposing of a rotting, potentially illegally poisoned animal with no protective clothing or materials and whilst wearing open toed shoes? And you want to know if you were BU to refuse? Erm, let me think...

The thing that gets me is they were apparently fine with someone smelling of ROTTING POISONED FOX being on reception. That's some image you're going to give out for the company! I know that when I'm anywhere for business purposes, the first thing I look for is that the staff should have the whiff of death about them.

'Mucking in' would be taking typing home in a busy period, covering a shift at short notice if you can, working through lunch now and then, that type of thing. You shouldn't have done it and your manager had no business either asking you or doing it herself really.

Someone would have called the police. Headdesk, wtaf?! It's no wonder they're in crisis with attitudes like that. What the hell would a police officer do?

Gide As I posted earlier, there is an unknown poisoner around, unknown poisons, and real risk of people coming to harm. Whoever the poisoner is, s/he needs to be ID'd and stopped before something else more serious happens.

This is why it's good to involve the police. And on taking a look at my own local newspaper archives, I can see police involvement in similar cases, for similar reasons.

I'm all for being a team player and doing over and above your job description BUT I'd say that is a step too far ......... I couldn't do it

I don't think this is about your job description or whether you are willing to be a team player. This is about whether you're willing to pitch in with a task that is disgusting. Not everyone can or will pitch in to help with something disgusting. I think judging this action is a waste of effort.

Yeah I think you (collective you, as in your company) are going to have to do something about the poison in terms of reporting it and getting it cleaned up.

I am in charge of the building, health and safety, etc at work and I would never have expected one of my staff to do something I was not prepared to do myself. In fact we had a live fox once tangled in some netting, the poor thing, its leg was hanging by a thread. Because it was alive the council animal welfare team were going to come out and deal with it, but it managed to get away before they arrived (and before any kids saw it - it's a school).

Can we have a meet up on your boat

Many years ago DD was injured by some industrial strength bleach that FIL (a slaughterman) had bought home from work. Once they knew what it was the hospital staff had to call the police because of the risk of poisoning to other people/animals. So actually the person saying it should be reported is correct.

I'd be a bit concerned that this is a company where several foxes can be dead and rotting, probably illegally poisoned, in what sounds like a pretty well used area for a fortnight before anything gets done. And when it gets done, the first response is to pressure untrained staff into disposal, and, when this fails, a more senior but still untrained staff member helping to shove possibly poisoned corpses into binbags and leaving them in a shed for two days. With apparently no protective gear and no investigation into whether there might be any more poison about the place.

I really think you've got to raise that Keith, not just to justify your decision but also because, you know, what the actual fuck.

YANBU.

Of course there are limits on what you can reasonably be expected to do as part of your job! The company should call in specialists.

I have worked in small organisations, at junior and senior levels. It has always been the unwritten rule in these places that if something gross or out of the ordinary happens then someone senior deals with it. None of my managers would ever have asked me to do something like this without mucking in themselves.

What is happening to the corpses in bin bags now?
Where is this mysterious 'waste ground'
Have we gone back to the 1950's era of fly tipping?

You can't just bury random poisoned shit in deep holes on someone else's land you know.

You are at risk of being dobbed in to the Environment agency - and then substantial fines could follow.

Is this really in the UK - if so, a sad state of affairs for UK businesses if this is what they think is appropriate.

Those who think the OP is BU, if you were the office manager would you instruct your receptionist to dispose of a large dead animal?

Nobody was being unreasonable as such. Bagging up half liquid foxes won't be in any of your job descriptions. Your manager was trying to keep the business open to customers that day and showed poor judgement.

I used to work for a large pest control firm. For anything like this I had to instruct the client to contact their local environmental health department. The issue here is that none of you seems to have stopped to think.

But no, they can't hold your refusal against you in this instance.

I'm not sure how the manager wasn't being unreasonable, or at least unwise. Not only was she taking the piss trying to delegate a revolting job to OP because she didn't feel like doing it, she was also being daft. It doesn't take a genius to comprehend the health and safety concerns here, and from what OP has said, she doesn't appear to have done anything about checking the place out for more poison. I think you're on stronger ground unsullied when you say nobody stopped to think!

And yeah, poisoned corpses on wasteland?! Is this private land OP or public? All sounds very unsafe! The more I think about it, the more I think you have to raise it tomorrow.

I don't think you did anything wrong. Where I work if something unpleasant needs to be done that isn't part of anyone's job description then the most senior person present steps in to deal with it. Other staff would then step in to support if need be. As other people have mentioned there is a sort of unwritten rule that that's the way it works. I'd assumed it would be the same everywhere but apparently not. I am shocked that there are some managers out there that would expect a member of staff to pitch in with a task like that that they weren't willing to help out with themselves. I think it would be different if she was out there pitching in and asked the OP to help but to expect the OP to do it when she wasn't willing to is taking the piss. I hope the boss puts her in her place.