Falling ill is not fun for many many reasons, missing work being only one of them. And while staying on the couch instead of going to work might not sound like a big problem, it typically entails other—way more significant—inconveniences, too.

Redditor ‘Wolfslash16’ recently shared an email their buddy received after one of their colleagues encountered health-related problems. The company asked its employees to donate PTO days to help the poor person recover, which sparked a discussion on who should take care of an employee in such a situation. Scroll down to find the full story below.

Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with Professor at FAU Phyllis & Harvey Sandler School of Social Work at Florida Atlantic University, LeaAnne DeRigne, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions regarding the importance of paid sick leave.

Health problems tend to affect not only one’s personal but professional life, too

Image credits: Mikhail Nilov / Pexels (not the actual photo)

This company asked its employees to help out a fellow colleague on their way to recovery

Image credits: Wolfslash16

Image credits: Wolfslash16

Offering paid time off can actually benefit the company

According to Prof. LeaAnne DeRigne, it’s very important for employees to have access to generous time off to care for acute and chronic illnesses. “Most employees can’t afford to be off work without pay if they are put into that position, they become unable to afford needed healthcare. It’s a vicious cycle,” she told Bored Panda in a recent interview.

A recent study carried out by Dr. DeRigne and fellow researchers from Cleveland State University found that paid sick leave was linked with numerous favorable business conditions, such as increased job satisfaction and employee morale, increased employee health and safety, as well as minimized occupational injury and turnover, and decreased presenteeism.

“Paid time off allows employees to stay home when they are sick, thus not spreading contagion and illness at work, and allows employees to access preventative health care appointments such as cancer screenings and vaccines,” Prof. DeRigne emphasized.

PTO donation campaigns are not equally common everywhere

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels (not the actual photo)

According to Prof. LeaAnne DeRigne, such PTO donation campaigns like the one the redditor discussed are not equally common among companies. “It’s common at larger organizations that provide generous paid time off packages to all their employees when there may be a sick leave pool that has many days in it already,” she told Bored Panda. “It is not common at smaller companies or places that offer only a limited number of days off.”

While PTO policies differ from state to state—from company to company, even—it seems to be quite an important factor in regards to employee retention. Research suggests that offering paid sick leave can decrease the likelihood of an employee leaving by roughly 25%, with the link being the strongest for workers without paid vacation leave and mothers.

Paid time off is clearly something many employees could benefit from; however, not all companies are able to or choose to provide it. That often becomes a topic of discussion, and fellow redditors in the comments didn’t miss the chance to share their views on it this time, too.

Netizens didn’t hold back from sharing their opinions in the comments

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Some redditors had firsthand experience with similar situations

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