Pay It Forward
Last year, I posted the following on my Facebook page on the day before Thanksgiving:
"My employer offered me the afternoon off. Four hours for which I'm getting paid but doing nothing. Taking my wages for that time to the grocery store, buying that much food, and dropping it off at the local food bank. Namaste."
At the time, it seemed like an interesting thing to do, and I posted that I was doing it not because I wanted to toot my own horn so much as I wanted to trickle the idea into social media.
It's a simple idea, really: employers give their staff time off, and they pay it forward in some fashion. A much more common thing for the employees to do instead of purchasing donations with their wages is to volunteer their time.
I mentioned this idea to a friend of mine, and she told me, "That's not a bad thought. Big companies have been doing things like that for years, but the problem is, they're all disappearing now." Since I live in California, a land teeming with start-up ventures, this is one point that resonated with me.
Start-ups might be a little too resource-starved to send off their labor to volunteer at non-profits, but somewhere between them and huge companies like Walmart lies an assortment of small- to medium-sized retailers, service businesses, and private practices. Surely some of them could afford to give up their employees for a few days out of the year.
If these businesses insist on doing it to get something in return, here's some bullet point benefits (made up by me):
1. Good publicity
2. Employee satisfaction (less turnover)
3. Team building
4. Tax breaks (?)
For smaller companies, I think this makes a lot of sense. At least allow your employees to try this once. Giving is a powerful feeling, and I think a lot of people would be more willing to try it for the first time if they could do it at the expense of their employer.
Failing all of this, it's something to keep in mind if you get to go home from work early today.
"My employer offered me the afternoon off. Four hours for which I'm getting paid but doing nothing. Taking my wages for that time to the grocery store, buying that much food, and dropping it off at the local food bank. Namaste."
At the time, it seemed like an interesting thing to do, and I posted that I was doing it not because I wanted to toot my own horn so much as I wanted to trickle the idea into social media.
It's a simple idea, really: employers give their staff time off, and they pay it forward in some fashion. A much more common thing for the employees to do instead of purchasing donations with their wages is to volunteer their time.
I mentioned this idea to a friend of mine, and she told me, "That's not a bad thought. Big companies have been doing things like that for years, but the problem is, they're all disappearing now." Since I live in California, a land teeming with start-up ventures, this is one point that resonated with me.
Start-ups might be a little too resource-starved to send off their labor to volunteer at non-profits, but somewhere between them and huge companies like Walmart lies an assortment of small- to medium-sized retailers, service businesses, and private practices. Surely some of them could afford to give up their employees for a few days out of the year.
If these businesses insist on doing it to get something in return, here's some bullet point benefits (made up by me):
1. Good publicity
2. Employee satisfaction (less turnover)
3. Team building
4. Tax breaks (?)
For smaller companies, I think this makes a lot of sense. At least allow your employees to try this once. Giving is a powerful feeling, and I think a lot of people would be more willing to try it for the first time if they could do it at the expense of their employer.
Failing all of this, it's something to keep in mind if you get to go home from work early today.