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Using the "I got family" excuse is discrimination. Everyone should be treated equally. Employers should not care about you "family". They are not on the payroll.
I agree.
But people do that all the time, especially if they know how to talk to the manager; and if the manager likes the sweet talker, that sweet talker would get favor. In the workplace, favoritism, discrimination and unfairness happen all the times. I saw that with my own eyes. I experience it myself too. When you are new, you are learning things, don't know how to play politics and don't know to whom to talk to, you just have to do whatever your manager tells you to do and your co-workers dump on you. Until you are in the workplace long enough, you are more experienced, know who's who and dare to speak up, things will be done differently.
At any workplace, there are always good and bad co-workers and managers. You have to learn things fast, observe and know whom to talk to and get help. You have to be brave and have gut to speak up when you see something is not right happening to you. If you keep being silent, nobody knows or somebody knows, but s/he does not want to initiate to help to solve the problem.
I work for a small government agency in Tucson, AZ. The job has decent pay, but is not really motivating. After a year working on the job, we have started receiving small construction projects in fairly distant cities (up to 300 miles away). Now, my job has turned into a traveling job with up to 50% driving to remote locations all over the southern half of Arizona...some with overnight stays in less-than-desireable areas (small border towns). There are times I can be driving up to 800 miles a week...week after week. Plus, our vehicles are just budget cars.
My problem is that I didn't really sign up for this travel (not in the job description I applied for). Plus, I really don't like repetitious cross-country driving on a regular basis as it requires me to spend nights away from home. Finally, driving really tires me out and it also affects my available work time in the office. Others in my office refuse to travel and that means...more for me. I'm a single guy, but am a serious homebody. How do you cope with a job with lots of "windshield time" for work as there are not many good paying jobs for me in Tucson.
What I've gleaned is that your agency does inspections of some sort. Did your job "description" list as one of the duties as doing onsite visits?
If so, your "travel" was most certainly in the description.
As far as "available work time in the office", does that mean you're doing the traveling and your regular duties, thereby working more than your contracted hours. That might be an issue that could be brought up.
As far as budget cars goes, welcome to the government vehicle fleet. Can you imagine the outcry if people saw a government tag on a Lexus?
You also may be being assigned it for no other reason than you're least senior and the others who aren't now doing it had to in years past when they were least senior. That has nothing to do with families.
When I said to my boss, "That isn't in my job description," he grabbed a pencil and added it.
Yes, theoretically they can always re-write a job description. But that doesn't mean that someone has to stay in a job of they materially change the responsibilities and turn it into a job you wouldn't have taken in the first place.
I hate to drive and if my employer expected me to start driving hours per day as part of my job, there is not a chance I would stay because my mental health is far more important than any job.
Because they set a precedent from the very beginning that they can't travel.
I've know people like this in offices who start off that they can't work overtime, and they must leave at a certain time. Even when you know all their kids are away in college, they still maintained they had to leave exactly on time. If a meeting which was critical was running even 5-10 minutes past the time they usually leave they would show real signs of frustration like they were on the verge to throw a fit. It made everyone uncomfortable and would hurry things along because of this guy.
But if you start out with staying late all the time by an hour or so, then they get use to this and expect it out of you. They even get something for you to do at 5 PM telling you they need it tomorrow morning while others are leaving for the parking lot.
It sounds like the OP has allow himself to be pushed around by the work place about this travel. I would certainly update the resume and look for another job, but meanwhile, I'd tell them you have some personal matters to tend to which won't allow you to travel for now. And if they expect you to travel throw a hissy fit like this guy did when he was pushed to work another 5-10 minutes.
You'd be surprised how spineless management actually can be once you refuse to do something. It is why they move on to someone else who isn't going to give them a hard time to dump that unpleasant work on them.
Live and learn, the next job, make sure you establish what you will and will not accept ahead of time, so you can refuse it when it came about.
Very good advice.
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