Have you ever had an unreasonable, audacious, or disrespectful boss? Well, you're not alone. According to a study by Gallup, 50 percent of surveyed US employees who quit their jobs said that they did so "to get away from their manager" with the hopes of "improv[ing] their overall life."
Employees are searching for leaders who are more engaged, set clear goals, and encourage open communication, the study said. They are not, however, interested in companies that put performance needs over their employee's wellbeing. But some companies, like the one below, didn't get the memo:
In a letter posted on a workplace wall, the president and CEO of this unnamed company asked for everyone's attention, stating, "We have a long-term employee of 17 years from our dietary department who has been in the hospital and rehab for several months. She has exhausted all her PTO days, and her benefits are running out. As you can imagine, this has been quite the drain on her family's income."
If, for some reason, you thought the letter would continue with efforts the company planned on making to help the person they've gotten to know and depend on for nearly two decades, then let me stop you right there. The note continues: "If there is anyone who would like to donate one or more days of their PTO, please let [management] know in writing of your intent. Thank you for your consideration."
(Sigh.)
After an image of the memo was shared on Reddit, it quickly went viral and spawned thousands of comments. Most of them can be summed up in three simple words posted by user u/Sea-Writer-5659 who eloquently said, "Fuck that CEO."
For the most part, commenters didn't understand why the President and CEO of a company could not simply feel sympathy for someone going through a hard time and offer them more PTO while they recover from an obviously serious life circumstance.
"If anyone at any company has the power to just give PTO days to a 17-year veteran of the business, you would think it would be the president and CEO. But. I. Guess. Not," user u/Greenfire32 said.
Unfortunately, though, many shared that they were disappointed but not surprised by the CEO's actions — especially given the fact that they've seen similar situations play out firsthand:
"My job did something similar," u/itachiman95 said. "I got hired and was asked if I’d be willing to donate part of my check to some company fund to help 'those who can’t work.' Like, bruh, I was only being paid $12 an hour at part-time hours."
A few commenters — who were quickly shut down by others — suggested that keeping PTO limited would help ensure the company make a profit. However, this has been widely disproven as more places adopt unlimited PTO benefits and thereby reach high performing employees who seek greater flexibility.
To drive this point home, workers outside of for-profit companies stepped in to point out that this is an issue amongst all management:
"I work in a school district," u/lmidor said. "When I first started about eight years ago, I got these emails maybe one to two times a year. But for some reason, I've gotten six of these emails this year alone.
It's absurd that they would to ask this. And this isn't even coming from a 'for-profit' company but a public school."
And finally, some shared stories of management, presidents, and CEOs who cared more about the people than numbers — proving it can and should be done:
"I had a boss once at a big, multimillion dollar company. Maybe 100-150 employees. One of the programmers lost his child to SIDS. Horrible."
"The boss's secretary was asking in a meeting what type of flowers the company should send. He basically said, 'Fuck that. Pay for everything. Funeral, everything. And when he feels OK to come back to work, he can. No loss in pay.' It was about two months, I think, that he was out."
"We had an amazing worker who went through some serious medical issues and burned all of his PTO and sick days," u/Lobsterbib added. "So, my boss just didn't bring it up, and he was getting paid the whole time."
"'No sense going broke for something that's not your fault' were my boss's exact words. Our whole department will quit if this man leaves."