CAREER COACH

I was recently laid off even though my boss previously told me that I had nothing to worry about, and that as long as he was there I’d have a job. Well, he’s still there and I’m not. Do I have a claim?

I doubt a court would rule in favor of you just because of what your boss said. My strong guess here is that at the time your boss made that comment, he meant it as a compliment to demonstrate how strongly he felt about you. But things can change, and clearly something did. Maybe your performance was affected or the business conditions altered. Maybe he just changed his mind. But a verbal comment does not prevent him from firing you even if he is still employed there. That said, if you relied on his assurance and subsequently turned down other job opportunities, you might be able to use that to negotiate a better severance package.

My boss said I can’t get paid overtime for the extra hours I worked last week because they weren’t pre-approved by him. However, he asked me to get a project done that required me to work those extra hours and he knew I was there late. Is that fair?

It’s not only unfair, it’s unlawful! It is true that non-exempt employees can’t just make their own hours and rack up overtime pay if the company policy says OT has to be approved. But allowing someone to work extra hours while knowing they are doing so is implicit approval and the employee must be paid for the hours worked. It’s a tricky wage-andhour law to navigate because these laws were written half a century ago and primarily for factory-type jobs where every minute was monitored on a clock and you punched in and out. That’s not how people work in most corporate jobs today, especially since sometimes a person may stay late to demonstrate their commitment, particularly junior level staff.