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• ↓ boss wants me to fire an employee if she won’t use a heavy duty chair, coworker only drinks out of caps and lids, and more
• ↓ 1. My boss wants me to fire a heavier employee if she won’t use a heavy duty chair
• ↓ 2. My coworker only drinks things out of caps and lids
• ↓ 3. My manager wants me to donate to his kid’s private school
• ↓ 4. Should I use my full name at work to seem older?
• ↓ I’m struggling with being laid off, but I have to keep working for another month
• ↓ Top Alternatives to askamanager.org

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"I’m off for the holiday today. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives."

"One of my employees is a rather heavy person and has broken four chairs in the past year. My office is pretty flexible about office equipment, so after the first chair, I gave her the catalogue to pick what she needed. After chair #2 and two conference room chairs broke, I suggested getting a heavy duty chair. She burst into tears and said she didn’t want a “fat lady chair” because it was stigmatizing. I get it. Our culture is unforgiving to fat people, especially fat women. Chair #3 met the fate of chair #2, so for chair #4 I ordered her a heavy duty chair. She swapped it with a coworker. That chair broke too. My boss, looking at our supply budget, said that she takes and uses a heavy-duty chair or she is gone."

"So, my question to you is what did I do wrong to get to this point? And how should I approach the “use this chair or be fired” conversation? She’s an otherwise okay employee, not the best, not the worst. I just can’t have her absorbing the equipment budget for six people."

"It’s reasonable to require her to sit in a chair rated for her weight, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve told her yet that this isn’t optional — and if that’s the case, it’s premature to threaten to fire her."

Key Topics & Focus Areas for askamanager.org:

boss wants me to fire an employee if she won’t use a heavy duty chair, coworker only drinks out of caps and lids, and more

1. My boss wants me to fire a heavier employee if she won’t use a heavy duty chair

2. My coworker only drinks things out of caps and lids

3. My manager wants me to donate to his kid’s private school

4. Should I use my full name at work to seem older?

I’m struggling with being laid off, but I have to keep working for another month