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I am personal assistant to a marketing manager in a sizeable company. I took this job after university hoping that I would learn more about the marketing business, but I am being increasingly swamped by my boss's demands for me to manage his personal affairs, from booking restaurants to appealing against parking tickets. And, needless to say, he has never ever made me a cup of tea. Should I really be having to carry out my boss's extracurricular work on company time?

The PA's primary function is to make a boss more effective, but to me that means more effective in terms of the workload. I have asked my PA to help me out on private matters but it only happens once or twice a year. And often it will be partly work related — I might need an outfit because I'm going on to a work do that night and it's in the dry-cleaners. Comments like, "He never makes me a cup of tea" are childish. I'll sometimes make my PA tea, but it shouldn't be a big deal. And, if I have a meeting, I'll expect her to make the tea.

But my question is: what are you not doing when you are spending your time running errands? I would be much more alarmed that the real things my PA should be doing weren't being carried out. Does it mean the boss has stepped down a gear to fill up those gaps?

It's time for a reappraisal. What's happened here is that personal errands have become the norm. So you are entitled to say to your boss: "I can do a better job than this. I shouldn't be picking up dry-cleaning, booking tickets and doing a bit of shopping. These are the things I believe I can do to make you more effective in your role, but I can't, because I'm asked to do ABCD". It's not good for self-esteem, either, if you feel all you're doing is "nannying" your boss. Your boss might then think: "You're right. If I let you work on the things you should be concentrating on my life will be easier and more efficient."

Deborah Meaden is author of Common Sense Rules (Random House, £7.99). Read more advice from Deborah Meaden.

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