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How do I decide how much to charge my boss for a painting? has been put on hold as off-topic. Some of the comments object that it's about pricing art, which isn't a workplace issue. I disagreed in the following comment:

I think it is related to who you sell it to -- the guy who has a lot of control over your evaluations, work assignments, and general career trajectory while at that company may well warrant special considerations.

That comment has 9 upvotes.

Also, the question includes:

If I give a "boss's discount," does it come off as slimy to mention what I would normally charge?

How is this not a workplace issue? How is it any less of a workplace issue than the many "how do I deal with the annoying behavior from a coworker" questions that could just as easily be about friends or family members or neighbors?

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    @JoeStrazzere it's the same situation as "my boss asked me to do him a favor" or "...fix his spouse's computer" or "...host a visitor from another office in my home" or "...watch his dogs while he goes on vacation" -- all of these are fundamentally about the fact that it's your boss who's asking, not about the price of dog-sitting or fair compensation for unwanted houseguests. I don't think this question is about art at all; that's just the vehicle for the "my boss asked me for something that costs me; how do I figure out what to ask for?" question.
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 18:01
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    I think if you remove "much" from the question title it shifts the focus from asking what specific amount for the painting to how to approach the situation. Most of the answers reflect how to approach the situation instead of how to assign a monetary value to the work.
    – user33201
    Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 18:50
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    @Austin that's a good point. I changed it to "How do I decide how much to charge my boss for a painting?".
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Apr 13, 2015 at 18:53
  • The question has been reopened by the community following an edit to the title.
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2015 at 3:39
  • as far as I can tell, title edit in rev 3 has invalidated this answer (not that it is worthy of keeping)
    – gnat
    Commented Apr 14, 2015 at 8:36
  • @gnat fair points. I'm concerned about invalidating answers, but I'm not sure we need extend that to responses. That post doesn't answer the question in the body of the question (which didn't change). With luck the community will handle that.
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2015 at 13:06
  • agree, it seems to ignore question body, that's why I thought it's not worthy of keeping
    – gnat
    Commented Apr 14, 2015 at 17:43

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I understand SE's preference for "answerable" questions, especially in the flagship forum (StackOverflow). But the policy on The Workplace seems to be unevenly applied, as there are many questions of the "How should I proceed" type that often get answered by some of the same members that are voting to close others. I respect the super-high amounts of rep that the members have, and they generally do a good job of keeping the site a respectable source of answers to many types of questions. It's why I keep participating here. And I recognize they can't get to everything that gets posted here. It would be nice if there were a way to apply the "filters" more evenly.

This particular question could easily be applied to non-work settings, and the current top-voted answer (full disclosure: mine) could easily be applied to non-work settings. However, the question deals with a very common occurrence: co-workers doing business with each other outside of the workplace relationship.

Visitors to the site looking for guidance in this area would surely benefit from this question, and seeing the [on hold] banner in the title might chase them away from an otherwise good source of wisdom for them. There is value in the comments and other answers in this case.

I think policing the "Don't ask for advice" too harshly will end up driving users away from the site, minimizing its future value to the world.

My $0.02.

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