It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Overweight employee keeps breaking office chairs

We have an obese employee who has broken several office chairs. We purchased two new ones just for her with a higher weight ability. She again broke the base of one of them. As a result, she has used other chairs in the office and broken them. I am getting ready to purchase more chairs and another one that goes up to 400 pounds for her.

Is there anything that we can legally say to her? I’m not sure how to go about it, but this is getting close to $1,000 in chairs in the last year. Can we address the money being spent on her chairs, as well as others that she is breaking? I know it’s a fine line because of the ADA, but my boss is getting irritated.

Nope. It’s not certain that the ADA would be in play here, but unless you’re willing to bring in a lawyer to examine the situation and make a determination (and probably spend a lot more than $1,000 in doing that), let’s assume that it is. That means that unless you can show that purchasing your employee new chairs is an undue hardship — which is pretty unlikely — you do indeed need to deal with the chair situation. And that means not only ensuring she has an appropriate chair to sit in, but not making her feel like it’s an inconvenience that you or your boss resents.

But leaving the law aside, I’m sure she realizes she’s breaking chairs and why it’s happening and that you’re having to purchase new ones, and is mortified. I don’t see what you’d gain from saying something, and you potentially lose a lot by humiliating a presumably good employee.

2. My boss won’t give me a budget for the work I organize

I am an admin assistant and my duties are pretty typical of an admin, including ordering supplies and planning office events. My direct supervisor is the CEO, and I don’t really report to anyone else. We’ve had friction in the past and while things are pleasant on a superficial level, I can sense that our communication is way off. I’m not sure what to do about it, but that may require a different conversation. I make a point to say this just to give you some insight into our relationship, which I do feel is a little dysfunctional.

Whenever I need to order supplies, my boss wants to see what I want to order and then she approves it. I’ve never been given a budget, even though I’ve asked. Also, whenever I’m planning something, like a staff outing, I’m never given a budget. Because of this, I typically just give my boss a list of options and their respective details and cost, and she’ll just let me know how much she’s willing to spend after the fact. Sometimes, like now, I don’t hear back from her in a timely manner. Sometimes, she finds all of the prices too high and I’ll have to scramble to put something together. This makes it difficult to secure dates and other logistical details. The most recent event I planned was for a fun team-building activity where the activity and food cost less than $800. She initially thought that was too high and tried to get me to find a way to get donated food, which really made me feel icky because it’s not like the staff gets treated often at all.

I get the feeling that this may be her way of budgeting, but it comes off as very haphazard and not very thoughtful. It’s like she’s always exercising extreme prudence when it comes to staff, but when it comes to her spending for herself (on the company credit card) or the board, the sky is the limit.

I do manage the petty cash for the office, but any other budgeting is completely out of my hands. This can’t be normal or an efficient way to work, is it? Am I wrong to expect/want access to budget information for these specific line items? I don’t even so much mind having to check in or get approval, but working without a budget is just seems very inefficient and odd to me. Do I need this information? It feels weird to even be asking this question. If I’m not totally out of line here, how do I go about talking to my boss about this?

It’s not unusual for an admin not to have her own budget in general, but it’s pretty normal to have a general budget for supplies or to only have to get supply orders approved if they fall outside the typical expenses for supplies on a given order or in a typical month or whatever. And it would certainly make sense to at least give you a general dollar range when asking you to plan events, so that you can plan more accurately and not just be flying blind. But that said, some bosses prefer to hear a range of options or to first hear what doing X would cost. It’s not the most efficient way to operate, but it’s not a terrible outrage either.

I’d (a) ask her if you can be authorized to spend up to $X on routine supply orders (or $X/month on supplies) and come to her for approval for anything over those amounts, and (b) start referencing the costs of previous events when she assigns you new ones to plan (“are you thinking of something in the range of what we spent on the April event, which was $750?”). But if she won’t, she won’t, and if that’s the case, your quality of life will likely be better if you accept that this is just a weird thing about the way she works. If it’s combined with other weird things, it’s worth taking a look at whether you like the broader situation, but if it’s just this, I’d roll your eyes and move on.

3. Hiring manager is flying to me for an interview

I’ve applied for a job about 1,500 miles away from my current location. A friend who works for the company informed me that the job would be coming available and also gave me contact info. Once I submitted my interest via email, the hiring manager emailed to schedule a brief phone interview. I called them at the agreed upon time and spoke for about 15 minutes. We left it as he felt I would be a good fit for their organization and he would like to meet with me in person.

About a week later, he emailed me for availability and said he would be scheduling a trip and booking a flight to meet me for lunch. I’ve never heard of a job where the hiring manager is the one doing the travel to meet the applicant. He’s asked me to pick a place somewhat close to the airport for around lunchtime. Is this normal? I’ve not been searching for a job in quite a few years, and I’m still employed.

If he’s interviewing others in your location or is traveling there for other reasons (which could be business or personal), it makes sense that he’d schedule an interview with you while he’s there. I’d be surprised if he’s coming there solely for the interview; if he is, yes, that would be unusual.

4. Asking for severance for staying on when a company is closing

I’m an employee of a very small company that will be closing within the next 6-12 months due to my boss’s retirement. Employees will probably receive 3-4 months notice before the end date.

It is important to my boss — with whom I have a wonderful relationship, which I very much wish to maintain — that his employees stay with the company until the very end, though this is not a contractual obligation. However, planning to stay until the end will make the timing for my eventual job hunt difficult, since I do not want to start the search too early and risk leaving my current boss in the lurch, nor do I want to start the search too late and risk months of unemployment when my current job ends.

Would it be reasonable for me to request severance pay, in exchange for agreeing to hold off on any serious job hunting until the very end of my current job (i.e., the day — or, you know, within a couple weeks ahead of time — that the company closes its doors)? If so, what is a typical/reasonable amount of severance to negotiate in this situation? If I ask and he says no, should I leave the company early when I get a new job, or stay loyal?

Yes, it’s very, very normal to offer severance payments or simply a bonus to employees to stay on when a company is closing. And it’s for exactly the reason you describe: It makes the timing of people’s job searches more difficult, so the idea is that the payments provide an incentive to tolerate that difficulty, or they cushion any period where you might be unemployed because you delayed job searching. In fact, I wouldn’t agree to stay on without that kind of arrangement — as much as you like your boss, it’s not reasonable to risk going without income just to make the closing of the company more convenient for him.

I’d say this: “Because it’s hard to predict how long a job search will take, if I hold off on searching until the company closes down, I risk being in a situation where I’m unemployed for a while. Could we talk about a severance package in exchange for staying through the end? Otherwise, I’d need to start searching sooner, to ensure I don’t have a period without income.” And if your boss agrees, get it in writing now — not after you’ve already delayed your search.

If he says no, then you should feel free to search on your own schedule and leave at your own convenience. That will not ruin a good relationship with a reasonable boss.

5. Impact of minimum wage bump on people already earning close to the new minimum

I have a question regarding cities that are raising their minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour. Right now, I live in one of those cities that plan to to do this. I and everyone I work with make between $15 to $18 an hour, and we are really curious about what is going to happen with our pay when this happens. Do people in this position get pay bumps or do we all now become minimum wage workers?

It’s totally up to your company. There’s no reason they have to bump up the pay of people who are already over or at the minimum. Some companies may decide to do that anyway, but I would assume that they won’t unless they tell you otherwise.