What’s the kindest thing you’ve ever done for someone in secret?

10 comments

1. I have a buddy who made some bad decisions and is serving time. We randomly drop $ on his canteen account and send him quarterly boxes of food and supplies / clothing. Prison sounds absolutely horrific and he’s trying to hold it together in there, getting some decent food and toothpaste and new shoes goes a long way to helping him stay on the right path.

2. During the start of COVID my company was about to go through the process of layoffs since the pandemic had essentially shut down our field.

   At the time, I had a manager under me who was my right hand woman and my all means and accounts there were times I literally could not have done that job if I didn’t have her and I share a very strong platonic bond with her as both a friend and colleague. At the time, she was also struggling with a lot of personal matters outside of work including losing her grandmother to covid a few weeks before and a few other things.

   When the layoffs were announced I ended up getting really lucky in that some other markets were losing almost a third of their people (and our entire training division) but I was only losing four out of 40 people and two of them were on the way out. But, when I saw her name (she had one of the highest pay scales for her position due to tenure and results) my heart sank because there’s no way I could do it.

   So I was at the point that I was going to either A. Sacrifice my job B. Find lower level associates to negotiate laying off (something I absolutely couldn’t ethically do) or C. Bite bullet and do it.

   I ended up negotiating with our CEO/Owner, since he was foregoing his salary, that I would forego my upcoming quarterly bonus, my bonus for the next 6 months, and a reduced salary if it meant keeping her on under the promise that this would never be discussed by anyone besides myself, him, and the director of HR. So I did without a second thought.

   I never told her I did this until fairly recently. Was a win-win though, she’s still one of my closest friends, as is her fiance, and introduced me to my soon-to-be fiance and she’s a keeper AND most importantly she kept my sanity In-tact while I worked there. 🤣 Great investment, if you ask me.

3. Paid for the whole restaurant at Waffle House.

4. Used the points in my chick fila account to pay for a meal for a guy who looked like he could use a break

5. Every year, I go to Walmart and get a back to school shopping list for K-5th grade. I buy about 10 lists worth each, including backpacks and I go out to the back of the parking lot and sit on my trunk with a sign that says free school supplies and hand them out to families.

   I don’t post about it on social media, I don’t ask to take pictures but if a family requests I take a picture with them, I will. Started in 2020 when Covid first hit, so this will be year 3 this august.

6. It wasn’t quite a secret but I bought a keyboard and mouse for someone who was in my guild for an MMO. We didn’t know each other IRL or even know each others real names. A friend from work had just suddenly died and sending a keyboard and mouse to a fellow guild member so they could keep playing made me feel a little better.

7. My thing is, I go to auctions or watch on line auctions to buy medical items for kids, wheelchairs, crutches, walkers etc. I then donate them to the local children’s homes or the 2 medical facilities that support the low income & overwise needing families in our area. I got started when my sister (a nurse) was telling me how some families (& children’s homes) couldn’t always afford to get these kinds of items. I’ve been at it for about 6 years & I don’t do the picture or video thing because it’s not about me. It’s about what I can do to help THEM!

8. Helped a friend’s mom. I don’t know if he ever found out because it never came and I kept it to myself.

9. Your mum.

10. Paid a friend’s insurance bill when her son died. We share the same State Farm agent, so it was easy.