HR publishes leaderboard to show how much PTO each employee donated to coworker and shame those who didn't: ‘People who donated 0 had their number highlighted in red’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Aug 30, 2026 7:15 AM EDT

Why would the company with millions in revenue be the one paying for one employee's PTO?

When an employee finds themselves having to take time off work while they don't have enough PTO to cover it all, they are basically at the mercy of their company. Whatever the higher-ups decide is what will happen, which can make or break an employee's future with them.

A decent company with empathetic management might offer to help an employee themselves. If a worker has to go on medical leave, the best-case scenario for them would be if their company offers to cover that PTO so that the worker could focus on their health and nothing else. 

A less decent company, like most out there, will pull all kinds of stunts to avoid the responsibility of an employee in need. They would do everything to avoid carrying the weight of someone else, even if they value the employee and want them to stick around. That is the kind of company described below.

One of its employees is going to be out for a while for a medical reason, but unfortunately, she doesn't have enough PTO to cover her leave. Instead of the company covering that time off, HR decided to ask her coworkers to donate some of their own PTO hours to this employee. It's not a great solution, but not horrible either. Employees can decide whether or not they want to donate, and hopefully enough volunteers will get the job done.

However, this is not where the company's stunt ended. In order to pressure employees to donate their time off, HR decided to publish a leaderboard with everyone's names and how much they decided to donate. Those who didn't offer anything were up there too, names highlighted in red. What a nice gesture, right?

The only question left to ask is: where are the company itself and the lovely HR manager on that leaderboard?

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  • HR manager with a clipboard.
    via Getty Images

    HR manager with a clipboard.

    Representative only.

  • HR made a public leaderboard showing how much PTO everyone donated to a coworker

    One of my coworkers is going to be out for a while after surgery and apparently she doesn't have enough PTO to cover all of it.
    via Forward_Ad2668
  • Instead of the company just giving her the time, HR sent everyone an email asking us to donate our own PTO hours to her. Fine, whatever, people can choose if they want to.
    via Forward_Ad2668
  • Then yesterday they posted a spreadsheet in our Teams channel with everyone's name and how many hours they donated. People who donated 0 had their number highlighted in red.
    via Forward_Ad2668
  • Our manager followed it up by saying participation was completely voluntary but that it was nice to see who was willing to support the team when it mattered.
    via Forward_Ad2668
  • So basically voluntary except everyone gets publicly shamed if they don't do it.
    via Forward_Ad2668
  • A company with millions in revenue making employees pay for another employee's medical leave is insane
    via Forward_Ad2668
  • enough. Making a leaderboard out of it is another level.
    via Forward_Ad2668
  • Company CEO looks pleased.
    via Vlada Karpovich

    Company CEO looks pleased.

    Photo is a representation of scenes.

  • Keleborn Put the company name at the bottom of the list.
    via Keleborn
  • Aggravating-Wind6387 Is anyone from HR or CSuite on the list as donors and as more than 8 hours?
    via Aggravating-Wind6387
  • obsoletevernacular9 That's not supporting the team, lol, it's asking employees to give up paid compensation
    via obsoletevernacular9
  • nunofmybusiness First, this leader board is the definition of creating a hostile workplace and encouraging harassment and retaliation.
    via nunofmybusiness
  • My company asked for PTO volunteers. I am a manager and I make 2 times the hourly amount of the person that needed the PTO. Initially I didn't have an issue with donating until I asked HR if the
    via nunofmybusiness
  • recipient would be compensated at my salary rate or theirs. The answer was that PTO would be on a 1 to 1 ratio, meaning that I donate 8 hours
    via nunofmybusiness
  • and the recipient gets 8 hours of PTO (and my company would get the benefit of paying out at a lower rate for my donation).
    via nunofmybusiness
  • Saldar1234 > but that it was nice to see who was willing to support the team when it mattered. Very nice to see that the company does nearly nothing to support it's own team. Very nice indeed.
    via Saldar1234
  • DoubleShott21 People need to start calling out how weird this is in the workplace. You can't be the only one that thinks this is in appropriate. I'd make it a point to donate nothing and then publicly state my reasoning for why.
    via DoubleShott21

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boss employee hr manager work coworkers PTO workplace company paid time off
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