Agreed / the CEO can pay the employee out of his own pocket. It’s not the job of other employees to donate PTO when they might later need it themselves
Maybe employees could be offered twice what it’s worth so that people could opt for additional compensation and could have in addition to FMLA, up to twice the amount of leave donated
Our county had a program where you could donate sick time or vacation time, but was only for employees with significant health issues - cancer or accident. I donated quite bit since i had a lot of accrued sick time, but we has a person who abused the FMLA policy and I verified with HR that it wasn’t going to people with a “frivolous” FMLA claim. One gal actually used her FMLA time to
work a second job. They assured me that this was for individuals with significant health issues.
We didn’t lose any vacation or sick leave every year, it kept accruing. Vacation time also accrued up to 3 months. When you retired they would pay you 25% or your remaining sick time. All unused vacation time was paid when you left. If you quit, an employee would get all their vacation time but forfeit unused sick time.
From the article:
On the notice, the CEO stated that a “long-term employee of 17 years… has been in the hospital and rehab for several months. She has exhausted all her PTO days and her benefits are running out. As you can imagine, this has been quite a drain on her family’s income.”
Because my employer had such a generous time off program, I would have donated to this person. I would usually donate 80 hours to cover one paycheck. Quite a few employees would donate when a request went out - so many that in some cases they would tell people who usually gave a lot that they have enough for now and didn’t need it. All donations were anonymous.
But with “use it or lose it” time off plans, I can get why some people would be upset at the request. I also credit our time off plan for keeping the offices fully staffed at year end…at some companies I worked for people would call in a lot between Thanksgiving and New Years because "it’s my time and I"m going to take it. When I retired I had about 500 hours of unused sick time and a month an a half of unused vacation. The longer you worked there the more you accrued after every 5 years.
I think that a lot of people think that FMLA is paid. it’s not. It uses your existing sick time and vacation time and after that, all it does is protect your employment when you return.
Did they have a Short-Term Disability policy that was available to employees ?
Yes it’s not paid. If you have six weeks of vacation and at least six weeks of sick time, is that paid or does FMLA not allow you to use that time - aka require leave without pay
Also if you have over 12 weeks of sick time, are you limited to 12 weeks of family leave. It appears this individual was beyond the 12 weeks
Great question. That said, if the CEO was concerned about the impact of the finances, they could provide short term disability as a fringe benefit
And there’s nothing preventing the CEO from reaching into his checkbook or wallet. The problem is he’s asking others to contribute. How generous?
Federal employees can go on a leave donation list if they’re facing a health crisis. I’ve given lots of leave to a woman who’s had cancer off and on. I abused my sick leave over 33 years, I would know better than to get on this list if I had a health crisis.
It could be a red flag to HR that you’re unable to perform your duties if you get on such a list
When we donate, we specify who we are donating to.
I have given a lot over the years, but only to people who I knew were in genuine need.
Funny thing , the first time I did it, my wife and I had a discussion before, and she was asking all kinds of questions, and then she just stopped and realized I should just do it because it was right.
Reddit anti work. Most likely a made up story.
We could not donate to a specific individual. The individual or their family had to request it and they remained anonymous, although I know some was to a close friend of mine who had cancer. She’s a survivor.
We did…however…The disability pay was 60% of their income. For some, a 40% cut can have a negative financial impact so we were able to contribute enough of our PTO to cover that other 40%. That was much better than giving them the “you shoulda planned better” speech.
That would have been a deal breaker for me.
I only trust me to determine who gets my stuff.
For us it was cancer or some other severe condition. I donated to people I didn’t know. I wasn’t going to give them the “you shouldn’t have wasted your sick time” speech. My only stipulation was that I didn’t want it going to FMLA abusers who used up all their PTO so that they can continue to get paid to slack off. While I had a shitload of PTO accrued, people like my friend were off for several months and burned thru theirs, so they didn’t necessarily abuse the sick leave policy. And they remain anonymous as some people are embarrassed or ashamed to have to ask for help. It’s the commie socialist liberal in me I guess.
Totally agree. I generally have a good BS meter, can tell who has a greater need.
Ours as for cancer and other such things. Many of those we donated to died, so I don’t think that they were gaming the system. And I prefer it to be anonymous because I don’t want a personal issue interfere. Also, the PTO requests had to pass thru HR. It wasn’t like an employee could ask for it by themselves
This thread reminds me of the late 1Character from the CHB. She worked at a law firm in Washington, DC and talked about how they took care of her when she fell ill with cancer. They said that she had to exhaust all of her FMLA benefits, but after that they would make sure that she was taken care of.
Had this been a post from a government agency, I would be sympathetic, as I am sure that the government rules and regulations would not give the head of any department flexibility to cover an ill employee beyond what he or she was entitled to. I doubt this is the case with a corporation.
I work for a government agency, as did KC and BMW.
I know. I also recall from my days on active duty in the Air Force when there were requests to donate leave for civilian employees.
The original post discussed a message posted by the CEO of an unnamed corporation. That is what I was referring to.