Context: I work a hybrid job. I’m normally in the office only 2 days a week, and work the rest of the time from home. We are a very small team and we just hired our 4th member. She was flown in from another country to train for this week and half of next week. Since I am her main trainer, I am expected to be in office this week and next. It’s particularly important that I’m in next week as my boss will be on vacation then and we don’t want to leave the new girl alone in the office. My commute to the office is about 40 min to an hour depending on traffic.
Yesterday my boss saw it might snow heavily on Monday night next week. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue as I would just work from home. But as I said we don’t want to leave our new employee alone in an unfamiliar country to somehow train via video chat. So she asked if I’d be willing to stay in a hotel near our office on Monday night so that I can walk in if it snows. The hotel and breakfast would be covered by the company. But that’s it. Normal pay for normal 8 hours work. Keep in mind this was always phrased as a request not a requirement.
I told her sure no problem. However my boyfriend thinks this is overstepping and that she shouldn’t control what I do outside of work unless she offers extra money for it. I don’t see it as her controlling my off work time. I see it as her expecting me to be in the office on Tuesday, and offering a free hotel stay to make that expectation easier on me. We’ve been going back and forth on this so I’m curious to hear other opinions.