How to Handle Employee Volunteer During Work Hours Dilemma? #EmployeeVolunteering #PTO #Fairness
Have you ever faced a situation where some employees volunteered during work hours and others didn’t? Here’s a scenario where two employees volunteered at the owner’s kids’ school event and were paid for their time without using PTO. Now, other employees are expressing discontent over the perceived unfairness. How would you deal with this situation effectively?
Possible Solutions:
– Should all employees be given a chance to volunteer for 3 hours without using PTO?
– Is offering additional PTO hours to non-volunteers a viable solution?
– How can fairness be maintained while addressing employee concerns?
– Exploring the concept of a formal volunteer time program to ensure equity in future situations
What are your thoughts on this matter? Let’s discuss how to handle employee volunteer situations with fairness and efficiency.
Did they not have the choice to also volunteer? No don’t offer them something else without the owner’s permission…
tfb. They should have put their hand up. But really, maybe it’s something to put out in a survey around benefits. My company pays me and donates a set dollar amount for each hour I volunteer at an approved charity.
“No”
But seriously, what I’ve done in the past is explain that “fair” is a dangerous word. Fair is different to everyone
Case in point. No, it’s not “fair” that those two employees basically did the owner a favor and got paid for it. But it also wouldn’t be “fair” to reward those that did nothing with extra PTO.
Life isn’t fair. They can suck it up
They also have the chance to volunteer lol just because they chose to say no doesn’t give them a freebie 3 hours of pto. This is ridiculous 😂 they are acting like children. If they want to volunteer, they should have said yes
People are so entitled. Too bad so sad. Don’t give in to ridiculous requests
So was it made clear when the boss asked for volunteers that it would be during work hours and no pay deduction would be made? How many volunteers could have done it versus how many actually did it?
If the boss said UP FRONT “Oh hey, my kids school needs volunteers and anyone who does it, I’ll give them free time off to do it” and there was opportunity for all who WANTED to volunteer to do so, then I’d tell everyone else to kick rocks. IF people wanted to volunteer but were excluded OR if the boss didn’t disclose the free time off until after, I might give those who ask 3 free hours to volunteer.
Eh, I see where they’re coming from to an extent. IMO that’s a bit of an odd request from the owner.
At the same time, the fact that these employees are making a stink over 3 hours indicates that there’s already some underlying animosity.
How much PTO do they get in general?
They were given the chance to volunteer and they said no. All they had to do was impress school kids, not the freaking Nobel panel. Honestly, anything could be made to be fun and educational for kids. Did they indicate any interest in volunteering? Did they make any effort to ask if there were other things to do during that volunteering opportunity? If not, then that is the end of it. I would not indulge them in this or you will see no end to the “I want that too, but on my terms”.
>How would you handle this situation?
The employees volunteering in the school were enrolled in a working activity: employer branding. They didn’t have any day off, by helping students they were promoting the company.
On top of that, the company requested *volunteers*: anyone complaining should volunteer on the next employer branding event
My former company offered every employee 8 hours of paid volunteer time a year. There were several opportunities the company provided to volunteer but you could also find opportunities on your own. Maybe that’s something your company could look into!
People are so entitled. The owner offered a volunteer opportunity during business hours that some people signed up for and some didn’t. It’s not like they got 3 hours of PTO to go do as they pleased.
It might be worth looking at a volunteer hour policy that gives employees a set number of hours per year to go volunteer but no, they should not get PTO when the volunteers didn’t.
The volunteers did not do whatever they wanted in these 3 hours, it was not PTO. Everyone got offered the same opportunity – that’s the ‘fair’ part.
Honestly, this kind of petty griping suggests some kind of team building is needed.