My company asked us to donate PTO to a sick coworker

Yesterday, HR sent a department-wide email asking employees to donate paid time off to a coworker receiving medical treatment.

The email was kind. It did not name the diagnosis. It explained that donated hours could help the employee remain paid after using their available leave.

It also included a link showing who had contributed.

Within an hour, people began posting in the team chat: “Sent eight hours,” “Donated a day,” “Hope it helps.” My manager thanked contributors by name.

I have not donated.

I care about the coworker. We have worked together for three years, and I want her to have time to recover. I also have six days of PTO left for the year and family responsibilities that make those days important. The company is much larger than any of us and has more ability to absorb the cost than employees do.

The request has turned a benefits gap into a public test of generosity.

Nobody has pressured me directly. The pressure comes from visibility. If I donate privately, my name appears on the list. If I do not, I remain absent while coworkers and managers praise one another for helping.

I asked HR whether donations could be anonymous and whether the company would match employee hours. They said the current system records donors for administrative reasons and that no matching program exists. They reminded me that participation is voluntary.

Voluntary is doing a lot of work again.

I am considering sending a supportive message to the coworker without discussing whether I donated. I also want to suggest that HR remove public donor visibility and offer a company-funded emergency-leave pool instead of building one only from employees’ balances.

I am not looking for medical or legal advice. I am trying to separate compassion for a person from agreement with the mechanism offered to help her.

Would you donate, decline quietly, or raise the design concern while the request is active? How can a workplace invite mutual aid without making private leave balances part of a public morality test?