Is making coffee for boss illegal?

Is it now illegal for an employer to ask his or her employee to make coffee?

Rita Risser's response:

Absolutely NOT. It is completely legal for an employer to ask employees to make coffee, wash the cups, clean out refrigerators, make copies or do whatever else needs to be done to keep the business running. It is also not illegal for the boss to ask you to run some personal errands, although if the amount of personal duties is excessive, it may violate company policy as a waste of corporate assets.

It is illegal for an employer to discriminate on the basis of sex among people of equal job status. For example, asking a woman engineer to make coffee, while not asking the male engineers, in and of itself is not illegal, but it certainly would merit a close look at the pay and promotional opportunities for that woman as compared to the men.

Miss Manners once suggested that if you do not like being asked to make coffee, you should do it cheerfully but incompetently, spilling it all over, dumping the sugar, forgetting the cream, etc., all the while apologizing profusely for your clumsiness. She promises no one will ask you to get the coffee again.

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