We have a gifting policy

The "Gift" of Unused Paid Time Off

There will come a time when each of us face personal difficulties – personal illness, family illness, death. During these difficult times we need to be away from work. We have had situations where employees have needed time away from work that has exceeded their paid time off bank. In these situations, we have had employees generously inquire about giving their coworker time from their paid time off bank.

You may ‘gift’ unused time from your paid time off bank to another employee. This is not a ‘borrowing’ situation where your coworker will have to pay you back in the future, but a true gift - an expression of caring during a difficult time.

During tough times we often want to help and just don’t know what to do. This may provide an important and tangible opportunity to assist. Should you become aware of such a need by a

fellow employee and be in a position to give time from your bank, please contact Human Resources. You may give your gift of time anonymously if you choose.

We do not have an official PTO donation policy, but we have just recently begun letting employees donate PTO to employees who find themselves on an unpaid leave due to serious family situations/illnesses.  The employee just notifies our HR person of the # of days they want to donate to the employee in need and we update our HRIS system for vacation scheduling purposes. 

Hi, Sheryl. We allow an employee to receive up to 480 hours of donated PTO that runs concurrently with unpaid FML. We will only pay PTO donations if the person is approved for FML, if FML applies. Accrued PTO must be used before PTO donations can be used. Most of the time STD or LTD covers personal medical situations, so PTO donations are almost always for a non FML absence (such as Hurricane Harvey) or FML for family member.

We found this very helpful for staff that wanted to help others in need but also, just couldn't use all of their time in year.  We still wanted staff to have a work/life balance which is why you had to have a minimum in your bucket and could only donate a percentage.   We had staff sign their rights away (giving a gift).  That way they could not come back and say they did not give it.  We also sent a letter to the receiving employee that an "anonymous" donor gave them X PTO hours.  I have template if you would like them.

Donation of Accrued PTO hours (Paid Time Off)

An employee with accrued PTO may make a donation of a percentage of their PTO time to another employee who (a) will or has exhausted their PTO time and (b) has a serious health condition that makes that employee unable to perform the functions of his or her employment     position or immediate family.

The “serious health condition” and “immediate family”  for the purposes of donating PTO is defined as follows: serious health condition as       defined under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA); immediate    family consists of spouse, partner, child, sister, brother, parent,           parent-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild.

In order to qualify to make the donation, the donating employee has to have accrued PTO time of a minimum of  8 days or 64 hours and will be able to donate a maximum of 25% of the accrued PTO time in 8 hour increments.  An employee will be able to donate their PTO a maximum of 3 times in a calendar year. Donations will be counted in hours.