Built, Not Born by Tom Golisano

Author:Tom Golisano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harpercollins Leadership
Published: 2020-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

Forcing People to Donate

One event early in my career had a big impact on the corporate culture I built at Paychex and ultimately the respect we had, and still have, for employees. It occurred in my late teens when I was a bank teller.

I was checking my weekly paycheck and found a form outlining the bank’s support of the United Way Community Chest. It asked me to authorize the bank to deduct a minimum of 50 cents a week from my salary. At the time I thought little of it. I hadn’t heard of the Community Chest and was not about to support a cause I didn’t know. After all, I was also a good cause—my education was important—so I threw the form away.

Shortly after, my boss approached me to ask why he hadn’t received my authorization form. I explained my situation and that I had decided at this time it was more important for me to save for my education. I was polite and felt my reasoned explanation would suffice. It was then I learned a valuable lesson about how companies sometimes pressure employees to support causes that will bring the firm credibility and publicity.

The vice president of HR summoned me to his office. He told me that the bank expected all employees to contribute to the United Way campaign. I repeated my position and was told that if I didn’t comply, it would go on my permanent record. I remember feeling threatened by someone who should have had my best interests at heart. My heart was pounding, and it felt as though I was back again standing beside my father in the macaroni warehouse.

I promised myself that day that I would never demand any of my employees donate to a charitable organization, let alone threaten them, no matter how good the cause or how important participation was to the company or its image.

Since that day I have given over one-quarter of a billion dollars to charitable causes. I’ll go out on a limb and say I’ve more than made up for not donating fifty cents a week to the United Way while working for little more than minimum wage.

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