Company Asks Employees To Donate Their PTO So Their Coworker Can Spend Time With His Dying Wife

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Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Oct 28, 2023 8:00 PM EDT

Paid Time Off is a funny thing. Workplaces act like it's a finite natural resource and not something that can be pulled out of thin air if necessary. Of course, not everything necessitates taking PTO. If someone wants to go on a month-long vacation, they can't just get extra PTO because they want it. They need to save it up! However, there are some extenuating circumstances that necessitate having some leniency with workers taking a little extra time off. There is a reason why some companies differentiate between sick leave, vacation leave, personal days, and bereavement leave.

One worker recently went viral on Reddit for sharing his coworker's story. His coworker's wife was dying of a brain tumor, and the company asked fellow employees to donate their PTO hours so he could spend time with her in her dying days. I really can't think of anything more heartless than that. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/antiwork u/mganson99 • 1d Friend's company is asking people to donate their PTO so a long time employee (~10 years) can spend time with his dying wife.
    via u/mganson99
  • 02
    Font - Tried to post the screen shot but apparently that's not allowed. The guys wife has an aggressive brain tumor and he only has weeks left to spend with her. HR sent out a letter to everyone in the company asking for voluntary PTO donations so the guy can take time off to be with her... instead of you know.. just giving the guy some time off after he gave you 10 years of his time. Maybe this is common practice? But seeing the screenshot left me speechless.
    via u/mganson99
  • 03
    Rectangle - Shadow_84. 1d Squatter Has he asked how much the company is donating? Reply 42.3k
    via u/Shadow_84
  • 04
    Font - schuma73 22h How much of his own PTO did the CEO offer? Oh, who am I kidding. ... 1.6k
    via u/schuma73
  • 05
    Font - BreckenridgeBandito • 22h ● Most CEOs don't have PTO. They just do whatever the f they want all the time. So I could see a CEO saying "acktually... I don't get any PTO time to even donate "Meanwhile they spent 2 weeks in Italy in March, and 2 more weeks in Austria in the summer. ... 1k
    via u/BreckenridgeBandito
  • 06
    Font - stormycat0811. 1d When my then 4 yr old was scheduled for a 13 hr brain surgery to disconnect half his brain, my husband asked for vacation time. He requested 7 business days off. Hr called to tell him it was not approved.... They told him his vacation time was not approved as they were just giving him the time off, no need to use his vacation time. He was told to take whatever time was needed for our sons recovery. We will always remember that. My husband has a dedicated, loyal employee
    via u/stormycat0811
  • 07
    Font - Noinipo12 1d Oh, you had me in the first half! I hope your little guy is ok. ... 1.6k
    via u/Noinipo12
  • 08
    Font - 71077345p 21h . My husband had emergency surgery a few years ago. When he got back to work his boss told him he couldn't take vacation time since being in the hospital is no vacation! He was out for over a month and received full pay the whole time. That was a wonderful company to work for! 200凸 ...
    via u/71077345p
  • 09
    Font - ramblingamblinamblin. 1d A similar email went out as I was about to leave a long time job. I have been very frugal with my PTO and had several months saved up, but I knew I was going to get screwed out of it. So before I put in my notice I very publicly donated four months of PTO to this random employee I had never met. I made sure this donation was acknowledged and noted, and then put in my notice the next day. The company was super mad because they felt like I was screwing them out of t
    via u/ramblingamblinamblin
  • 10
    Font - CuriousPenguinSocks • 1d It is common and more than anything I wish we could reply all with "It would be nice if a company who made $X profits last year would do the right thing and pay him so he can spend the last few weeks with his dying spouse." Our jobs are not protected and so we all remain silent because many of us are struggling. It sucks! Reply 230
    via u/CuriousPenguinSocks
  • 11
    Font - swordstool 1d ● Maybe this is common practice Sadly, it is. The company's point of view is that it would put them in an awkward position to judge when or when not to give employees "free" PTO for these kind of situation. Reply 575
    via u/swordstool
  • 12
    Font - nerdrock 1d I work in a public school system. I burned every sick/ personal/vac day i had to take care of my dying dad, and a few years later burned every day i had when my daughter was born 3 months early in a hospital an hour and a half away. I had people in my office OFFER their days to me but admin wouldn't allow it. (clarification edit: this is in the USA) Reply 235
    via u/nerdr0ck
  • 13
    Font - Livythe Historian . 20h That sucks. I religiously save my PTO and always carry over the max allowed each year. I typically get a call each year reminding me to use my 1-2 days I can't carry over or asking if Im really sure I want to carry over the full ten days allowed. One of my coworkers had a baby a couple years ago and I had like 8 extra days due to a vacation falling through earlier in the year. I offered them to her and my company was like "no way! Use them or lose them!" So I used
    via u/LivytheHistorian
  • 14
    Font - Alternative Resort477 • 1d PTO is not a finite resource. It comes from nowhere. It's entirely made up. They treat it like a precious metal that's extremely scarce. Reply 101
    via u/AlternativeResort477
  • 15
    Font - 00meems 21h ● I had Thyroid Cancer last year and my boss got mad that I needed 2 weeks off after surgery. Reply 13 凸 ...
    via u/00meems

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Sad boss employee toxic-workplace email work toxic-management time off emails toxic-boss PTO cancer workplace company toxic-work-environment
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