So I work at a small private-owned medical clinic. A couple of weeks ago, the practice founder/owner said she had a project for me. She had bought some fabric and knowing that I can sew, she asked me to make her a dust cover for some medical equipment using this fabric. I enjoy sewing, so I agreed, naively assuming that this would be paid extra work. It’s also a small and fairly easy project so I wouldn’t even expect much pay, just my hourly rate for how many hours I spent on it would’ve been fine with me.
I spent about 3.5 hours of my off-time making this stupid dust cover. When I brought it into work for her she was very pleased and thanked me a bunch but never asked for the time I spent on it or offered to pay me anything for my efforts.
I’m painfully non-confrontational and awkward so I just couldn’t figure out how to ask her if she was going to pay me for it in the moment. Now, about a week has passed since I made the cover and I still haven’t brought it up and neither has she. I also know that the clinic isn’t making money so it does feel weird to ask to be paid for this silly little side project.
Am I wrong to think it’s kind of shady that she just expected me to do this for her for free? Or am I in the wrong for expecting to be paid for this? I know sewing has nothing to do with my job title, but this is still something she asked me to do for the clinic, so I feel that I deserve some sort of compensation.. I know I should’ve confirmed that it would be a paid project before agreeing to do it, but I just assumed that was a given.