Donating PTO

[midjd]

Do any of you have the option to donate sick leave or paid time off to other coworkers? Have you ever done it? (or needed others' donations?)

One of my coworkers is very ill and they're requesting leave donations on her behalf. I'm thinking of donating a week or two because 1) she is a really nice person; 2) I have more sick time than I know what to do with; and 3) I can't imagine anything more stressful while sick than worrying about running out of PTO.

At the same time, the email sent around made very clear that if you donate, and end up needing sick time, you're SOL - and they're not gonna email around to solicit donations for you.

Just curious if others had experience with this.

[swamp]

Since I'm self employed, no.

However, a local school district does it, and it seems to work well.

[wvugurl26]

The feds do it. I think the max donation is half of the leave you would earn in a year. I've never done it bc I have very little built up.

[daisylu]

I have never had a job where this was allowable.

At my employer, we have short term disability that kicks in after one week of sick to handle the illnesses, surgeries, accidents, etc. If you have nothing like that I would worry about what might happen if you suffer one of these. What would happen to you if you became temporarily incapacitated? Would you suffer from just the income loss, or could it turn into job loss?

[wvugurl26]

I don't know about the job loss part. We have no short term disability, that is why we are able to bank unlimited sick leave. Apparently it can be done but I've heard of feds having a hard time buying short term disability policies on their own and work doesn't offer it.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I have not donated because they would only take time out of your vacation time, not your sick time.

When I went out last December, I had over 10 weeks of sick time accrued and another 5 weeks of vacation. I could have applied for the sick leave pool, but it was really a drop in the bucket for what I would have needed (I figure that I'll be out for about 65 weeks when all is said and done).

I just cut to the chase and filed LTD instead.

[Deleted]

Yes, in Alabama for teachers. You can donate any amount of sick leave to any teacher who has previously been approved for catastrophic leave. Once it's approved, they can solicit donations.

You can also "borrow" a certain amount of sick leave if you belong to the sick bank. The sick bank is local and is "funded" by the three sick days that you "deposit" as a member. If you need those days, you can still use them and borrow additional days.

I don't know that much about either program. I deposited into the sick bank, but I've never donated.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

It occurs here once in a while. There's strict rules about who can apply to receive donated Leave time. HR sent an email last month about an employee who had used all his sick/vacation time for a knee surgery and then got hit by a car a few months later!! He was eligible to receive Leave Time donations if we wanted to participate.

[midjd]

Good questions, Daisy... I know we have short- and long-term disability policies paid by our employer, but I'm thinking this employee has probably exhausted at least some of it (she was out for about 7 months a while back). They've only requested leave for one other person since I've been here, and she was also out for an extended period (terminal cancer), so I'm thinking the leave donation comes into play only when STD no longer applies.

I'm pretty sure that even if I donated all my sick leave and ended up needing some, I'd be OK as far as my job being here when I got back - but should definitely make sure, since I obviously don't know much about how the policies work.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

We have to donate vacation time, rather than sick time, sadly. I think more people would donate if we could donate sick time.

[cronewitch]

I had a job that allowed it once for one employee. He became a father then his wife was to go back to work. His new son started having seizures that wouldn't stop. Once in the hospital he and his wife had to take turns monitoring him and logging his seizures for a full day they were every 5 minutes. So not only his wife couldn't return to work but he used up all his vacation and sick leave.

The company didn't want to not pay him but he was out of benefits so they asked for donations.

Short term disability I don't think covers caring for a baby by the father or mother if they are healthy.

[Green Eyed Lady]

I have donated on a couple of occasions. People who I am close to at work who had catastropic illnesses or had a spouse or child with one. It is reciprocal, however. If I should need donations for whatever reason, the same e-mail would go out asking for people to donate for me.

[kgb18]

I've never been in an employment situation where that issue has come up. My mom had that kind of a situation at her work though. She's a teacher. They had a woman who was a substitute in her district, but this woman subbed almost every single day. She obviously only got paid if she worked and had no health insurance. For years everyone thought they should hire her for a full-time position, but for whatever reason, they didn't.

Well, this woman's husband left her and her two sons, and then she got cancer. She was unable to work. The teacher's got together and wanted to donate days to this woman. The school said no, but after a lot of pressure I think they eventually agreed.

[alabamagal]

When I worked on a military base as a contractor, the government employees had a program to do this. They even advertised for sick leave donations in the base paper. There were about 4000 civilian employees on base, and every week there were 3 or 4 requests in the paper. A lot of the employees on base were older with 20+ years of service (no one ever left a government job). Seemed a little odd to me (I was a contractor so not part of this). I guess you waive any medical privacy when you put in your request, but I guess most of the ads would just say "extended illness" or something else vague.

[Formerly SK]

DH has done this - a coworker had cancer and over the course of treatment we donated maybe a week's worth of sick time. It's a smaller company so there isn't an official policy and I believe this was the first co-worker to receive donations.

Unfortunately he died two weeks ago.

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"The feds do it.":::...

We can and I've never been significantly swayed by any of the e-mails that came out. If I knew for a fact that a person fell on hard times and was facing dire consequences, I would consider donating leave.

If the person was asking for PTO because he/she had taken too much "slick leave", I would not donate.

[Deleted]

I have never but both my mom's job and a local hospital did. They have their sick time to women with cancer, both women recovered.

[wvugurl26]

The ones I've seen usually just say medical emergency. If it was someone I knew well and I actually had leave to give I would do it.

[wvugurl26]

Stupid double post!

[Deleted]

I've always worked for companies with separate vacation and sick leave allowances, both being "use them or lose them". I'd willingly donate sick leave- I take about one sick day every 4 years or so.

[NastyWoman]

We can't donate sick time (use it or lose it) or vacation for that matter. I pushed for the vacation donation a few years ago, but they claimed it would be too expensive due to pay rate differences and tax issues which would need to be resolved. The person on whose behalf I pushed (she did not know this) unfortunately passed away before she needed the time donations. Single mom, left a 13-yr old behind

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I've worked in two school districts that allow it, both had limits and there had to be a doctor's note that justified and extensive amount of time off and or FMLA paper work (well, I guess that requires a note too).

The district I'm currently in doesn't have a sick leave bank.

One of DH's districts had a woman with MS who would beg and beg everyone every year for over 40 days (and they didn't work on Fridays to begin with). People got quite annoyed with her, and a new union leader finallynputna stop to it.

[KaraBoo]

My company (a hospital system) has a sick bank that you can donate to. People usually use it when they are flirting with the "use it or lose it" cut off point (we can accure up to 600 hours) to take advantage of the tax break.

ETA: I'm pretty sure the limit is only 80 hours at a time that can be donated - and there is a limit to how often (maybe once a year?). For those who have been in the system a long time, gaining that much time is actually pretty easy as it snowballs (over 10 years, I think they gain 10 hours per pay period - EOW pay period - so they could have 80 hours added back within 2-3 months).

From what I understand, there is a committee that oversees the requests that come in. With well over 18,000 employees in the system, they have to be careful what they approve the requests for - otherwise it will be empty very quickly. I have heard that requests are denied more than I have heard about them being approved.

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

I used to work with a woman who frequently requested donated sick time (She was a fed govt civilian). I wouldn't have donated if I had the option (I was military so we didn't have the same system). She did have a lot of ailments and she did a great job when she was at work but there were also a lot of days when she wouldn't come to work because her favorite sports team lost the night before. What was worse was that she wouldn't call us and let us know that she wouldn't be coming in. She would just not be there and it could go on for weeks. We shared an office so people would constantly be bugging me about when she was coming back (I didn't work for her... we just shared physical space).

Those kinds of things always made me suspicious and wonder about the people who are asking for the time. Did they exhaust their earned time because of the illness/situation (This I would definitely donate for) or did they use all of their time up on "I don't want to come to work days" and now have nothing left for a true emergency (Wouldn't want to donate towards that)? I would compare it to people filing bankruptcy "because of medical bills". Was the entire bankruptcy due to medical bills or were they so far overextended that the medical bills were just one more addition?

[resolution]

May 30, 2012 21:12:28 GMT -5 Mardi Gras Audrey said:

I used to work with a woman who frequently requested donated sick time (She was a fed govt civilian). I wouldn't have donated if I had the option (I was military so we didn't have the same system). She did have a lot of ailments and she did a great job when she was at work but there were also a lot of days when she wouldn't come to work because her favorite sports team lost the night before. What was worse was that she wouldn't call us and let us know that she wouldn't be coming in. She would just not be there and it could go on for weeks. We shared an office so people would constantly be bugging me about when she was coming back (I didn't work for her... we just shared physical space).

Those kinds of things always made me suspicious and wonder about the people who are asking for the time. Did they exhaust their earned time because of the illness/situation (This I would definitely donate for) or did they use all of their time up on "I don't want to come to work days" and now have nothing left for a true emergency (Wouldn't want to donate towards that)? I would compare it to people filing bankruptcy "because of medical bills". Was the entire bankruptcy due to medical bills or were they so far overextended that the medical bills were just one more addition?

My last job had this as well. We could donate our annual leave to someone that was out sick for three weeks or more. HR maintained a list and would send it out once a week. Most of the people on the list would call in every month as soon as they had a sick day, and then when something really serious happened they had no time saved up and wanted other people to donate. I had one employee that would do this every year as soon as she re-qualified for FMLA. She had a doctor's note but it was always something that seemed subjective and the timing was as soon as the 12 months was up from her last FMLA.

I only donated on a few occasions when I knew that the person had not abused their leave before becoming seriously ill.

[midjd]

Thanks for the responses- interesting to see how it's handled (or prohibited) elsewhere. I talked to my boss this afternoon and apparently she just needs 30days of leave to hold her over til her STD kicks in. I'm going to donate a week (I have 4, and they don't pay you for them if you quit or are fired, so no great loss). And they give back any unused time.

I just want her to get better. I wish there was something I could do. She's in a sterile area so we can't even visit...

[Apple]

May 30, 2012 16:36:23 GMT -5 8 Bit WWBG said:

...:::"The feds do it.":::...

We can and I've never been significantly swayed by any of the e-mails that came out. If I knew for a fact that a person fell on hard times and was facing dire consequences, I would consider donating leave.

If the person was asking for PTO because he/she had taken too much "slick leave", I would not donate.

We can only donate our annual leave, and we can only donate as many hours as can be used by the end of the leave year (so, if there is only one week left in the year, you can only donate 40 hours--they get lots of hours donated when people realize they can't use up all their use-or-lose).

I've never donated it since most people I've seen on it use theirs up as soon as they have a couple hours because they're lazy. There are extremely few people I would consider donating to. We can also use up to 260 hours of advanced sick leave, I've seen a few people do that (and even did it myself after several surgeries and other health issues drained my leave).

We've had one girl buy a new truck while she was off and a guy buy a new motorcycle (maybe it's just me, but if I were in a position where I depended on other people giving up their vacation to pay for me to stay home, I'd not obligate money to new crap just in case no one wanted to donate). Another girl took a vacation to Mexico and then came back to work and told people "the doctor just told me I couldn't work, he didn't say I couldn't go on vacation". She worked at another location so I didn't have to deal with it, but her coworkers were pissed.

[daisylu]

May 30, 2012 22:39:09 GMT -5 midjd said:

Thanks for the responses- interesting to see how it's handled (or prohibited) elsewhere. I talked to my boss this afternoon and apparently she just needs 30days of leave to hold her over til her STD kicks in. I'm going to donate a week (I have 4, and they don't pay you for them if you quit or are fired, so no great loss). And they give back any unused time.

I just want her to get better. I wish there was something I could do. She's in a sterile area so we can't even visit...

Some employers are strict with PTO, and abscences after it is gone equals termination. Glad that is not the case with your employer. You are doing a very good thing.

[wvugurl26]

Good job mid! Hopefully she gets the 30 days. It sounds like someone who truly needs it, not someone who has abused the system.

[Wisconsin Beth]

My old job used to do this (Same employer, different dept.) Then stopped and basically said "Use FMLA." I inquired about it because a coworker had an extremely premature baby w/issues and she was struggling. I have a vague thought it might be allowed again but havn't thought about it for years.

Mid, Good for you.