MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you put £10 in Kitty's birthday kitty?

Lankykatz

Afraid not!

Having just started there and being skint, I would have to smile politely and decline...

Agree with everyone else that there are far too many blinkin' collections - weddings especially make me feel miserly - they already get extra time off so whilst don't usually feel like contributing, I discreetly slip some loose change in!!!

skint_but_working_on_it

£10 is way too much - I'd refuse!!

Funnily enough we've just had a whip round for my boss's 50th birthday - as it was a "special" birthday we all contributed £5 each. For general birthdays we just do £1 each. Having taken on some new staff recently I gave them the option to contribute and said no-one would be upset/offended/etc if they chose not to. Some chose to contribute; some didn't.

In previous collections I've refused to give anything if I don't know the person well enough or just don't like them!! (My personal bug-bear is collections for "Fred" because he's just become a dad!! If I don't know mum and I'll never meet the child why should I contribute?) It's my money - no-one can force me to spend it on someone/thing I don't want to. And you shouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed to say so either.

em_watford

Not on this occasion...
If I know someone at work (ie worked with them in the same dept for at least a couple of months) then I would contribute to their birthday fund... Even then, asking for a set amount is not on, especially £10, far too much. I would probably donate between £2 and £5 depending on how much I knew and liked the person

Cloudane

mr-tom wrote: »

Here's an interesting variation, and much more relevant in the current climate.

The axe has been swung and most of your colleagues are losing your jobs. You're the last person left in your team and are hanging on by the skin of your teeth. You're fairly certain that it's only a matter of time before you go too.

Your colleagues have always contributed to gifts for people leaving and all the more so when it's been redundancy and they've not got a job to go to.

How generously do you give?

In our place (when we had redundancies last year of which only 1 or 2 ended up compulsory), the people who are made redundant are notified immediately and escorted out, with pay in lieu of notice. So there's no time for collections I don't think they'd generally be in the mood for gifts anyway, which would probably seem like a bit of a slap in the face after they've just been told they're not wanted.

However if it was a friendly mutual type one, yeah I'd probably contribute about the same anyway.

supermankelly

scotsbob wrote: »

Not for a 50 year old.

If she was a bit younger it might be worth it to get noticed.

.

It's a kitty for a present which whole company is putting in, how were you expecting to get noticed??!

supermankelly

It all starts from one person who knows the birthday person well (as far as work goes) and wants to get a present but is to CHEAP to just get it themself, so gets donations from others, who might also like the person and is happy too, but then it hits a grey area where people do feel the pressure too else look cheap. I dont even get family presents so wonder why i should someone I hardly know. If I did id rather just buy them a pint at the pub after work!

supermankelly

Cloudane wrote: »

In our place (when we had redundancies last year of which only 1 or 2 ended up compulsory), the people who are made redundant are notified immediately and escorted out, with pay in lieu of notice. So there's no time for collections I don't think they'd generally be in the mood for gifts anyway, which would probably seem like a bit of a slap in the face after they've just been told they're not wanted.

However if it was a friendly mutual type one, yeah I'd probably contribute about the same anyway.

Agree it is a bit weird. I been in that position (end of a contract been there a while), but i saw it as other employees saying goodbye who sad to see me go, not the "company" saying heres a £20 NEXT voucher ta! now get out!

What is funny is the people standing around at farewell who dont really know you, just there for the cake and drink.

walkman50

I was asked to contribute on my first day, for a leaving present for the person I was replacing! (He had stayed on for a couple of days.) I gave £5, as it was expected.

I don't think you should contribute when you are new, but as the new person you don't want to give a bad impression to your new colleagues. It's a cheek that they would ask you.

alyssa_mae

I would politly say i'm sorry. I havn't been here long enough to contribute to birthday collections as I don't know the lady very well and £10 is quite a lot of money and I havn't been paid yet. but I will get her a birthday card.

scubaangel

At my former workplace we would put £1 in to a birthday collection and someone who knew the person well would buy them something theyd like - for a 'big' birthday we did the same but the MD would buy a keepsake type gift from the company as well. But it was a very small company, only 20 employees so we knew everyone well.