I work for a private sector company and they do offer Donation of Time off for employees needing them.Anyone can donate as long as they have enough for themselves. The other company I worked for required a valid/medical/emergent reason and it has to be approved.
I never donated although I thought about it at one point. My coworker did and she wasn't happy because that person who received it never thanked her personally, my coworker donated 8hrs of vacation, she only makes about $18-19/hr,she's a CNA,the receiver is a longtime RN, so just imagine how much she's making if you try to compare.All in all, I would not suggest this unless you really maxed out your sick or vacation hours and needed to donate, or just give in kind, it's feels better, it's cheaper too...

A number of years ago when I worked for a state agency, I regularly gave a few days here or there to coworkers since I had built up such a large balance and was rarely sick. That is until a fairly new employee became pregnant and requested that we donate to her so she could stay home with her baby for a couple of months after it was born. Many of us did and two weeks before she was to return to work, she notified us that she was quitting and that she only took the job to get the health benefits while she was pregnant and that she never intended to return. Can't say I donated much after that. What is it they say about one bad apple?

Our private sector company now allows us to donate up to 16 hours of our accrued vacation time to another employee in need for extraordinary reasons (such as illness/injury recovery and FMLA beyond their own accrued leave). There is no limit to the number of times we can donate--as long as we have hours, we can give them.
I have gladly donated hours to several coworkers and will continue to do so; if I should need the same in the future, I hope the favor is returned!

I think one way this could work well is if associates donated anonymously to a pool that was managed by a representative in HR or a group of people. The HR rep could evaluate need based on certain criteria, and give accordingly. The donors would know their hours were given to someone truly in need. There would be no pressure to give since its anonymous, no expectations of a proper thank-you, and no concern that someone was going to abuse your gift.

I work for a government agency and routinely give leave (vacation or sick) to people in need. To my knowlege, the person receiving the leave never knows I gave, which is fine with me. I don't give with the expectation of being thanked, but just helping out someone who might need it.

To JJ: It's a shame your co-worker took advantage of your kindess and generosity, but my experience has been that most people genuinely appreciate the thoughtfulness of their co-workers.

I work for a city agency that has a policy of allowing shared sick or annual leave for approved purposes. I'm a supervisor and have donated twice (the only two times things have come to my attention in seven years). Once was for someone newly hired who was too new to borrow sick time and who had breast cancer. if she wasn't able to extend her leave, she would be terminated, with no health benefits. I gave her ten days of my 30 or so vacation days and asked others to donate what they could (One co-worker cautioned that I might end up giving or causing her to get more than she "needed" but I didn't stress out over it). Another case was of someone I supervised whose baby had toddler had just died and who now needed to take time for the birth of her second child. Again, I gave ten days and didn't stress out over it--I'd accrued more, I had enough time off to keep my sanity. And I would have preferred that they didn't even know I'd given it--one less thing for them to worry about (my employer will now allow me to ask people directly to donate time because they feel it might seem like coercion--again, fair enough--when I asked, I did it through a peer of the sick person).

I'm sorry about the person who screwed the system. I would not have given time to someone who just wanted to stay home with her baby--sorry. Not an emergency.

sorry about typos! That's "my employer will NOT allow me to ask people I supervise to donate time", etc.

I work for an HMO that allows you to donate only vacation hours, not sick hours. And you can only donate it to someone who is on an FMLA.

FMLA is offered and FLA and you need to use the first three days out of your vacation bank and then anything after that comes out of your sick pay.

I guess it works for some people. I like your story of being able to donate the sick and vacation pay. I would be more prone to give my sick hours away than my earned vacation.

But with FMLA and FLA, I know lots of people abuse it. And it makes it unfair for people who truly need to use the FMLA to have to jump through hoops and loops to just get an FMLA granted. Someone can be on an FMLA for having headaches yet my son has a genetic condition and on top of having an approved FMLA, I'm only granted so many hours off a week and if it goes over, I need a doctor's note. Yet someone can have a headache and call in and get paid for the whole day. Sometimes those people just need to be kicked out of a job!

I work for State government and there is an official announcement goes out via agency e-mail. ("Sue Smith in the Olympia office needs 320 hours of shared leave.") For privacey, 99% of the time no reason for the request is mentioned so you cannot measure chemotherapy against bunion surgery. If it is important to you to know the reason for the request, you have to call around or you have to trust them to make a request only under extreem conditions. You fill out a form and can donate anything over your banked 240 hours of sick leave or over your banked 80 (not sure on number) hours vacation time. Your boss has to sign it too. I had always assumed the donation was anonymous but one day I was thanked in-person and was very uncomfortable. From then on, I specifically wrote in "as an anonymous donation" on the forms. When a sick person has more donated time than they need, the surplus from later donators gets returned. The sick person does not get to bank it for themselves. There is a limit. At a certain point, a sick employee cannot accept any more donations and (in at least one case that I know of with a fatal illness) leave the agency and go on disability. Admit that I do pick and choose and if I know someone routinely spends down all of their sick and annual leave without saving for a rainy day, I'm more reluctant to share my banked hours. I'm most concerned that someone with BIG problems is not in risk of having their health care or retirement coverage lapse for lack of hours. Less concerned that co-worker getting a full paycheck each week.

I'm a teacher in a public school system and rarely use my sick leave. I'm certainly glad it's there when I *do* need it, but don't hesitate to donate excess days to coworkers who have had to take extended time off for illnesses and surgeries.

My company has a shared leave policy. While I commend my co-workers who have donated, shared leave policies seem like a way for companies to appear generous without having to assume any real responsibility for their employees. I fail to see how me donating time to a co-worker in another department eases the company's burden. My job duties, as well as my co-worker's, still need to be fulfilled -- and me "donating" time doesn't do anything to facilitate this. A truly employee-focused company would simply cover the time for those who need it most, instead of preying on the guilt of their employees.

I work for a public agency with a shared leave policy. Some months ago a request went out for donation on behalf of a colleague for a total in excess of 200 hours; I thought she must be very ill and I worried for her and her family. After she returned to work, I happened to overhear someone asking her how her "sabbatical" had been. She replied that it had been wonderful to sit at home and do nothing but watch soap operas for six weeks, not even to have to think about work. If I'd donated sick leave to her I'd have been furious, and I think that HR played us all for suckers equating this woman's desire for some slack time with a medical need for time away from work. So I am now in the One Bad Apple camp too. My own policy is that I won't donate, since I can't ensure that my donation will be spent non-frivolously, and I won't ask for donations either.

I work for a small private company. one of my co-workers recently had to take time off for a transplant. We were allowed to donate vacation days/ hours. we could not donate sick time as we were supposed to save that in case we needed it.

I think it is reasonable to donate this time to others for illnesses that have come up. However, I would not donate vacation days, or expect people to donate vacation days for a pregnancy, since that is more of a planned health event, with 9 months to prepare for taking this time off.

I worked for a private company that had a big layoff that required all those laid off to work for 3 months after it was announced. This was required to get the severence package. End dates were aligned with project needs. One laid off coworker was on FMLA for the birth of her child when the layoff was announced. and she was going to have to return to work for 4 weeks in order to get her severence. Another co-worker volunteered her remaining sick time to the woman on leave, but HR would not hear of it. It was rediculous to think this person on leave could be effective for 1 month after she had been off for 4 weeks. HR could have done something good to increase moral at a time when it was at it's lowest, but instead they decided to act corporate and refuse the donation. So much for a sense of community.

I work for a state agency. When I was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo chemo and radiation, I was very ill. My co-workers generously donated their sick/annual leave and I was most appreciative. The last thing I needed to worry about was not being paid. I have used the leave carefully, as there are still times when I don't feel well and I am glad the leave is on the books for me, if needed. Whenever I share the story with someone about my co-workers being so generous, I still tear up a little.

I work for a state university and we have the shared leave program and I donate regulary as I see issues in the office arise. My feeling is if you are doing it for a thank you then you probably not need do it. Yes, you might be helping someone out of a jam or even something more serious but it was your choice to donate and not their choice to be absent.(usually) They are dealing with various issues in their own life and maybe thanking their entire office isn't yet high on their priority list. I feel great doing it knowing that someone has one less thing to worry about, not now worring that they must thank me. I will most likely be in a similar situation at some point and I might miss a thank you or two to those who donated. Yes I might attempt it but will most likely not be able to thank everybody.

I can't believe an agency would appeal for leave for someone just to take a "sabbatical"--maybe the asker was being a little facetious and the respondant said--in all candor--that it was wonderful to sit around watching TV and not have to think about work--but that still could have covered recovering from surgery or a health crisis?

My government employer lets you donate one day of vacation for one day of vacation. If you want to give sick days you have to give two days for them to have one, and you need to have at least 30 in your bank afterwards. So--kind of a disincentive to give sick time, even though most of us have more of it!

Since I'm employed by the government, I realize their largesse--maybe more so than in private industry--is really funded by the taxpayers, ultimately. That's an interesting point someone made about how the employer really should just deal with the sick employee instead of playing on the guilt of co-workers. In government, of course, you would just have to leave eventually, you can't take every sick day and stay forever (sometimes they'll do it to tide someone over if they have a few months for full retirement, etc). But if the person leaves employment and goes on some kind of assistance, the taxpapers pay for that in the end, too.

I have never heard of it not being fairly urgent where I am. The person who said you have to ask around and trust the people telling you--you're right! When the low paid single parent who handled my timekeeping told me SHE was donating time, I knew it was serious.

I work for a company that does not have this policy of donating time to employees. I am in the process of working with an Hr Rep to present to our Vp why it is good for morale and it makes sense. I used to work at American Express in the 90's and there was a friend of mine named Sean while on a mini-vacation in Ny City got into a bad accident, wrong place at the wrong time. He was out for well over a month due to surgery and pt that occupied alot of his time. We at work felt really sad and decided to donate a day to him. I am grateful this policy was in effect, Sean was able to have some time but more then anything we boosted morale, came to the aid of a fellow employee and he was so appreciative of this from co-workers and friends. Sean made a 100% recovery and has done well with his life. I am hoping and praying that in 2009 this Strictly Volunteer program of one employee helping out another in emergencies will be enacted.

I am attempting to convince a large for-profit company to enact a program that would allow employees to donate a portion of their vacation time to another employee in need (e.g. terminally ill, etc.) or allow a donation to a bank of time for future needs. If you work for a for-profit company that has such a program I would appreciate your contacting me at deaconron@yahoo.com

I agree with grumpygus. It is wonderful that some many people are willing to give up their vacations. But it makes no sense unless one employee can actually do the job of the other. It just sounds like another way for a company use people and skirt any responsibility for its employees. It's disturbing that companies that do this are paraded as "caring". Compare that to other European companies and you'll see how generous Americans are being abused by these "caring" employers.