Weird things bosses ask workers to do

Given a chance to rate their bosses, many employees go in for the kill, right?

Actually, no. Most workers give their managers high marks, according to a new study. Job-search firm CareerBuilder asked more than 3,000 full-time employees around the U.S. to grade their higher-ups. The result: More than 63 percent gave their managers an "A" or a "B," while only 14 percent marked them as a "D" or an"F."

What makes for good relations between workers and their bosses? One vital, if unsurprising, ingredient for good relations: being nice. Employees are more likely to respond positively to managers who are supportive, the study suggests.

Perhaps even more important is how bosses communicate, with managers who keep an open line tending to leave a more favorable impression. CareerBuilder found that 31 percent of employees who touch base with their bosses several times a day give them an "A." Not all interaction has to be face-to-face, mind you -- instant messaging, email or texting can also be useful.

Communication must not only be frequent, but reasonable. Bosses who ask employees to complete strange tasks that are outside the person's normal duties generally get a lower grade. More than 1 in 5 employees say their boss asks them to do things that are unrelated to their jobs.

And sometimes, such requests can get downright weird, not to mention seriously unethical. CareerBuilder listed a number of unusual requests that workers reported getting from their bosses. They range from the mildly annoying, like asking employees to "like" their Facebook videos, to graver offenses, such as instructing workers to coach other staff on how to pass a company drug test.

Of those employees who have to deal with odd requests for the sake of their jobs, 51 percent give their bosses a grade of "C" or below, according to CareerBuilder.

The following are some real requests bosses made of employees, as shared by survey respondents.

• Asked employee to order items on personal Amazon account so boss's spouse wouldn't know about it
• Asked employee to pluck a client's eyebrows for a photo shoot
• Asked if employee would be better friends with him
• Asked employee to find out how to obtain death certificate for her deceased ex-husband
• Asked employee to commiserate with daughter-in-law about the death of her cat
• Asked employee to climb on roof to see if there were any dead birds