Is there a reason why managers love to assign employees tasks that are supposed to be "urgent" for Monday morning, 5 minutes before the office day is over on Friday? Is there a real reason for it? Because it's never truly urgent. And it could definitely have been assigned on Thursday or even Wednesday. So why push it till Friday, and more specifically, why push it till Friday at 4:55 p.m.? What made the task important 5 minutes before the day was over? It wasn´t important, and now it is? Did it create itself just now without any kind of previous notice? Is it some unavoidable task that keeps creating itself always 5 minutes before the employee leaves? I fully cannot understand it. I think there is only one reason why this story keeps repeating itself. Your boss is doing it on purpose.
In all seriousness. We can think of a million fantastic reasons why a task has to always be assigned at 4:55 on a Friday. But the truth is right there, and it can't be denied. The task is not creating itself. It's a tactic created by horrible managers to make employees more overworked and manageable. Is a micromanagement tactic. They have you all weekend working on a task that is not even that important. Now you only think about work. They know that you are always available, and you are not going to have any time to look for another job, as you are always working. That is why standing up for yourself is so important. These people are taking advantage of you. But there is one thing you can do, and that is saying 'no'. It will get you the cold shoulder. People will have more work because of you, but it's worth it. All of it is worth it on the premise that you are actually free now when your office day is over. You are not the person they can use as they please anymore. You are now a person that stand their ground. Be like that.