I saw a post on the website Cheezburger.com, which somehow floated to my SmartNews feed. First of all, writing a paragraph and then posting screenprints of comments from social media does not count as anything close to a news story. Nevertheless, since I have personal experience with the topic, I thought I would weigh in.
The story originates with someone whose buddy sent him a work email. The gist of the email was that an employee who had been with the company for 28 years had medical issues and missed several weeks of work. Presumably, she had used up all her paid time off (PTO). HR sent an email to her coworkers asking if they would be willing to donate some PTO time to the ailing coworker "to make her recovery less stressful and hopefully allow her to focus on her ability to return to work soon." The majority of the comments railed against the company and questioned how such a setup is even legal.
Over fifteen years ago, I was working for a major health insurer in the US, and this very scenario came up. I was on the training team, and someone on the team had a medical issue for which she would be out of the office longer than her PTO days would cover. In the US, we have the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that offers job protection for certain covered situations. While this provision protects one's job, it does not force the company to continue paying a salary. All the companies I have worked for have offered short-term and long-term disability coverage that pays some percentage of one's salary. In the case of my coworker, she had been with the company less than a year and did not qualify for any leave benefits.
The company had a policy that would allow people on the same team to donate PTO for such a cause. I was the only one on the team who met all the requirements to donate PTO. This was at a time when I was Mr. Workaholic, and I had banked well over 300 hours of PTO. My manager did not pressure me; he said he completely understood if I said no. I don't remember exactly how many hours she needed, but it was no more than five days. I didn't really know her that well, but I happily donated because I felt it was the right thing to do. I also considered the idea that if I were in her situation, it would be a relief if someone did the same for me.
A couple of weeks after she returned to work, my manager asked me if she had thanked me or said anything to me. She hadn't. He intimated that she would have known I was the one who donated the time to her. He was more bothered by it than I was.
The story originates with someone whose buddy sent him a work email. The gist of the email was that an employee who had been with the company for 28 years had medical issues and missed several weeks of work. Presumably, she had used up all her paid time off (PTO). HR sent an email to her coworkers asking if they would be willing to donate some PTO time to the ailing coworker "to make her recovery less stressful and hopefully allow her to focus on her ability to return to work soon." The majority of the comments railed against the company and questioned how such a setup is even legal.
Over fifteen years ago, I was working for a major health insurer in the US, and this very scenario came up. I was on the training team, and someone on the team had a medical issue for which she would be out of the office longer than her PTO days would cover. In the US, we have the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that offers job protection for certain covered situations. While this provision protects one's job, it does not force the company to continue paying a salary. All the companies I have worked for have offered short-term and long-term disability coverage that pays some percentage of one's salary. In the case of my coworker, she had been with the company less than a year and did not qualify for any leave benefits.
The company had a policy that would allow people on the same team to donate PTO for such a cause. I was the only one on the team who met all the requirements to donate PTO. This was at a time when I was Mr. Workaholic, and I had banked well over 300 hours of PTO. My manager did not pressure me; he said he completely understood if I said no. I don't remember exactly how many hours she needed, but it was no more than five days. I didn't really know her that well, but I happily donated because I felt it was the right thing to do. I also considered the idea that if I were in her situation, it would be a relief if someone did the same for me.
A couple of weeks after she returned to work, my manager asked me if she had thanked me or said anything to me. She hadn't. He intimated that she would have known I was the one who donated the time to her. He was more bothered by it than I was.