This CEO Denies Every Request for PTO - Her Amazing Reason Why Has Gone Viral

According to a Deloitte report, over the past five years, there has been a hike in the number of corporate workers who have been negatively affected by their job.

Out of the 3,304 corporate workers, more than 65 per cent said that they had experienced at least two adverse mental health symptoms sourced by their job role. More than half reported having at least three symptoms, the study revealed.

The signs of a negative mental health included, depression, emotional exhaustion, irritability, sleep issues, anger and anxiety.

Lauren Howard is the CEO of Family and Medical Leave Act, Maryland (FMLA MD), the 50-state virtual model platforms that sets out to simplify the process to support patients with chronic illness and serious illness get the leave they need for treatment and recovery.

Howard, who launched FMLA MD in January this year, went viral on LinkedIn after she revealed that she denies every request she gets for personal time off (PTO).

"My staff knows that they don't have to ask to use their PTO," the CEO wrote in a LinkedIn post.

"They tell me when they're taking it. It's not my time to dole out. It's theirs. It always was."

Howard said that she only expects her employees to schedule in their chosen days off onto the staff timetable and that they can do so, without reason.

"My job is to run a team that has the resources to function without one person for a reasonable amount of time. Give me a heads up. We'll make it work," she added, explaining that a staff members reason for taking time off is "none of my business."

This is the full transcript of her viral post:

"I deny every request I get for PTO.

At first.

Usually, it's an email or a Slack message asking if they can take this time period of for *explanation.*

And I invariably respond with "Nope. Denied."

I am also kidding every single time.

Why?

Well, I don't have that many jokes and so I reuse the ones I do have when I can.

But more than that, my staff knows that they don't have to ASK to use their PTO. They tell me when they're taking it. It's not my time to dole out. It's theirs. It always was. My job is to run a team that has the resources to function without one person for a reasonable amount of time.

Give me a heads up. We'll make it work.

I don't know need to know why you need the time. I don't need to approve of your reasons for using PTO. I don't need to verify that you're sick enough to need sick time. Not my business.

Go frolic through fields in the Alps or rage at a music festival. Go to your family reunion or your best friends wedding. Whatever, friend. It's your time.

Trusting employees to use their time as they see fit means they almost never leave you in a lurch. Treating people like adults has this amazing way of confirming that they will.

No, you can't have my permission to take your PTO.

Mostly because you don't need it. Also because I got jokes.

It's your time. Take it."

This news comes after children's fashion brand Kyte Baby, a company that sells sleeping sacks and baby garments made from bamboo materials, was slammed for the way it handled an employees request to work remotely.

The staff member, who was identified as Marissa, was asking to work from home while her newborn baby was being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.

After the company had denied Marissa's parental leave, Ying Liu, the founder and CEO of Kyte Baby, issued a public apology via TikTok.

Liu, who is a mother of five, said: "Hey guys, it's Ying. I wanted to hop on here to sincerely apologise to Marissa for how her parental leave was communicated and handled in the midst of her incredible journey of adoption and starting a family."

"I have been trying to reach out to her to apologise directly as well."

The viral apology video, which gained more than two million views, was met with criticism from some TikTok users who threatened to boycott the brand. Other accounts pointed the finger at Liu, claiming that the video was inauthentic and arguing that the company should be doing more to support Marissa.

In a second apology video posted on TikTok, the Kyte Baby founder went on to admit that the first apology video was "scripted" and "wasn't sincere."

"When I think back, this was a terrible decision," Liu said.

"I was insensitive, selfish and was only focused on the fact that her job had always been done on-site and I did not see the possibility of doing it remotely."

The second video also went viral, this time, receiving six million views.

"I think a lot of comments are right. We need to set the example because we are in the baby business," the founder said."I want to [go] above and beyond in protecting women and giving them the right protection and benefits when they're having babies."

Marissa has since left the company and said that she feels it would not be "appropriate" to return to work.