Work donation demands help ......

themaccas

We have a large envelope passed round at work with a card in it to sign and so that we can make an anonymous donation if we wish. I think it is quite a good system. I know someone on here posted recently that they were fed up with this constant paying money out for birthdays and leaving do's so they decided to stop it and everyone decided to go and buy each other £1 pressie from the poundshop for birthdays and leaving do's. I thought it was a fab really creative idea!

tyllwyd

I think you should go and speak to your HR department about it (in a nice way) and ask them to have a quiet word. £15 is a lot of money - well, even £5 is a lot of money if you can't spare it - and if you can't afford it, I'm sure there will be other people who feel the same way and are too embarassed to say. You don't have to say exactly why, just that you are unhappy about being put in that situation.

Queen.Bess

themaccas wrote:

We have a large envelope passed round at work with a card in it to sign and so that we can make an anonymous donation if we wish. I think it is quite a good system.QUOTE]

We have the same system here which is good for me. If someone leaves the envelope goes round and what is collected is then used to buy a present to that value.

£5 is just too much! Say that you are happy to donate, but not £5, I think it's rude to expect everyone to pay that amount. Maybe suggest for future leaving presents for the donations to be voluntary and to only decide what to buy once the collection has been made.

jesster_2

Absolutely do NOT feel you have to give this money. No one has the right to make you do something like this. If you need to steel yourself to get up the grit to say no, just think about how long it will feel bad saying 'no' for (2 mins), in comparison to how long you'll feel rubbish for wasting £15 on something you felt bullied into paying (ages).

If it helps, make a joke out of it. When they say you've got to, say 'or else what?' or 'who are you, hitler?' or 'I would put a fiver in, but I'm not sure you could live with yourself when you realise that then I won't be able to give my gran a proper burial... And grandad will be so upset when we just chuck her on the bonfire...'

I have no sympathy or patience with anyone who tries to push people into giving money for such things. And demands should be treated with the flippancy and derision they deserve. Grrrr. If you like you can put them on the phone to me and I'll tell them for you! (rant over)

**purpleprincess**

themaccas wrote:

We have a large envelope passed round at work with a card in it to sign and so that we can make an anonymous donation if we wish. I think it is quite a good system

We do this where I work too, I think it's a really good system. Being forced to pay in a fiver PER PERSON is just totally wrong!!! Just asked all my colleagues and they don't agree with that either.

catriona79

we too have got a brown envelope that gets passed around with the card
...sadly everyone has to put their name and sum on it!!!

I don't feel like i can not give towards birthdays and leaving presents... but am definitely not going to give to all these charities... or not so much anyway.
they think i am a scrooge becaus ei bring my own lunch in!:)

Iriahm

Hi, very similar situation to one that was mentioned above about the envelope that gets passed around. I'm actually quite sneeky in that i take my purse, and pretend to put money in by rustling the envelope! there is huge peer pressure and everyone expects everyone to be able to afford. Bit cheeky but saves the strange looks when i pass it on...

lynsayjane

in my old job (wh smith) there was a high turnover of staff, not everyone that left got pressies tho, it depended on lenght of service and how well you got on with someone who was likely to start a collection. i often gave a few pounds to the collections, it was pretty much a voluntary thing, but if you didnt give you coulndt sign a card.

my leaving..not even a card. and the girl that usually starts the collections...a 'good' friend who is the person i still see most two years later. good thing i'm not a bitter person!

i would definatly object to being forced out of £15 though. my current work saw the asst managers 40th bday a few months after i started. the manager demanded £7.50 from everyone (nearly ten staff) to buy a gold bracelet :eek: i was mortified, especially since we were never consulted in the matter. luckily it's the nly collection they have ever had.

Floss

We have a brown envelope system here where you just tick off you name & sign the card whether you put in £5 or 5p....but as I'm leaving next week, I wish we had the compulsory fiver scheme! :rotfl: (joking - it's usually a pressie, not vouchers that I could recycle for Xmas or birthday pressies!)

I agree that being almost coerced into putting in £5 is shocking - when I was first divorced, that was half my petrol budget for getting to work in the first place! We've all been or are currently in the situation where £5 is a fairly big amount of cash out of a budget and not everyone can get their hands on £5 at a moments notice.....think some organisations need to get a grip on this behaviour as its bordering on greed.

However, we also have a "savings" scheme here - £2 a month, just after payday, to go towards our drinks at our Christmas Lunch....that is much more sensible!

MrsTinks

catriona79 wrote:

we too have got a brown envelope that gets passed around with the card
...sadly everyone has to put their name and sum on it!!!

What on earth for??? That is just as wrong as forcing everyone to pay £5! We had the envelope system with anon donations which meant that if you don't like someone you can just sign their card and not add a donation without anyone feeling embaressed or pressured.

Have to say tho that after the person who had everyones birthdates left we have thankfully not had anyone else volunteer for the job and I've had to make no embaressing speeches wishing people happy birthday