Can my employer make me share my home address

[NoScooby]

I've worked for a small consultancy company for about 12 years now, and due to the kind of work I do and the hours it involves I've always worked from home.

We also have a small office in town which I only really go into for meetings - maybe once a month. Other staff go in one or 2 days a week as it suits them and their workload - there are some monthly tasks we can only do from the office.

A client wants to send us some samples, and my employer has asked me to provide my address details for this purpose as I'm "most likely to be in".

I really don't feel comfortable about giving our my address to a client (and I'm assuming he's not either since he could equally just provide his own address since he normally works from home too!).

The samples are also likely to be heavy and need to be stored in a fridge, so I would have to make room for them till I could come into the office, and then actually transport them to the office via public transport.

Does anyone know, am I under any obligation to say agree to this? It just seems wrong to force a staff member to disclose their address to a client.

Thanks!

'No sorry, should we get them sent to yours instead...'

Use the fridge excuse, small fridge and large family means that the samples will spoil before you manage to get them to the office. It's not as though your boss is ever going to see your kitchen so he will have to take your word for it.

Thanks for the replies.

I will use the fridge excuse, I just know that he'll feel I'm somehow letting the side down. He has form for this.

We have actually been to each other's houses, and he knows he has a bigger fridge - he obviously just doesn't want to share his own address!

But I'm right, he can't just expect me to do this right?

Why can't the samples be sent to the office and the boss arrange for someone to there to receive and store them?

No you absolutely don't have to provide your home address to a client or take deliveries at your home.

Exactly! I don't understand what the issue is with that either.

it just seems to have morphed into some kind of weird loyalty test, and I wanted to double check that I wasn't being unreasonable about wanting to find a different solution.

Maybe we've just worked together too long..!!

Thank you Forty that's exactly what I was hoping to hear!

I would have no problem providing my home address, but for the other reasons you've stated (limited space in fridge, having to transport heavy things on public transport) YANBU to say this arrangement won't work for you.

No, of course you don't have to. Don't even dream of allowing him to browbeat you into doing this.

I doubt it's that he doesn't want to give out his address. It's FAR more likely that he considers himself much too important to have to deal with the effort and admin involved in storing the samples, then transporting the samples to the office in due course. That is a junior person's work. Preferably a junior woman's work.

Bleugh.

I wouldn’t just say No though, propose an alternative solution that works for you / everyone.

e.g., no, get them sent to the office please and I will collect on Monday.

You might be right actually, maybe there is a bit of a power thing going on there too. I am actually pretty senior in the business, there are plenty of junior staff members he could have asked to do this.

Anyway, thanks to all the advice I've pushed back and suggested that we just get the samples sent to the office and that I'm happy to go in to sign for them if no one else will be there on the day they're due to arrive.

He's agreed to that but I can tell he thinks I've let him down somehow.

You haven't let him down.
The samples will go to where they are supposed to, and nobody has to do any fridge sharing or heavy lifting. You have even offered to go the office, saving him another job.

You've solved the problem without involving him; how you've done it is irrelevant.
If you're correct on the "he feels I've let him down" thing, then there's something else entirely going on.

Aaah, but he can't go TOO junior in this situation as they can't be trusted and/or it could be seen as inappropriate asking them to take responsibility for storing things.

Sounds like it's definitely a power thing. Just making sure you're fully on top of the fact that you are junior to him, albeit not junior overall.

I think you're on to something there!

Thanks everyone, I really couldn't work out if my gut reaction to the request was unreasonable or not. As I say, maybe we've worked together too long!