Real-life MMD: Am I baking up the wrong tree?

cazpost

I've never really understood the workplace cake etiquette. The expectation is that the Birthday person provides cake for everyone else,but I've always thought that surely everyone should give the celebrant a cake.Maybe thats just me..............

Either way,if you can't afford to do it,and you are no longer enjoying doing it,then don't do it ! If people ask,just be honest and say ' It's too expensive'. If they want you to carry on ,they will chip in,or start producing their own cake.

We used to have a 'tea club' at work,which we used to buy tea,coffee,biscuits etc.Everyone paid in £1 or 50p (full or part time) each week and we used the excess for treats at Christmas. Maybe you could adopt a similar scheme for cakes.

ondup

If you've been baking and taking in cakes for sometime, then yes there will be an expectation. So you need to tell them you are no longer going to do it, once it's no longer the norm, then expectations stop.

Expectations happen especially if there have been people who have been there for years, who then force their expectations on new employees etc. Birthday and leaving envelopes coming around all the time, and your expected to contribute from the day you arrive for folk you don't know or will ever have any contact with.

So the only way forward is to just pull out and tell them you are no longer doing it. Yes the person who always wants to eat cake may suggest everyone starts paying, but again that puts expectations on others who don't actually like having cake. Yep not everyone wants cake at the office, for their birthday or anyone else's.

liz545

iclayt wrote: »

If I couldn't afford to do it I would just stop. I wouldn't say anything.

If anyone asked where's so-and-so's birthday cake I would probably (nicely) point out that I'm not the only person with an oven and a whisk so perhaps someone else could take a turn.

This. If it's leaving you out of pocket, just stop. You don't have to come up with a detailed price breakdown of how much it's costing you. If you can't afford to do it, and someone asks, just say you can't afford to keep making cakes for the office. Your colleagues sound like a fairly entitled bunch!

VickyPonsonby

suzana22 wrote: »

(the rest of us feel she does it to make herself look good as we then hear about how long it took to bake/buy etc!!)
x

That is what is wrong with the world! Why can't you just accept that people like to do things just to do them with no ulterior motive. Giving away my baking has nothing to do with wanting to look good! Just because you cannot be generous to your fellow workers do not tar everyone with the same brush.

:mad:

jenniferamy

Just ask around the office 'Who's turn is it to bake this time?' Simples.

chidsta

Bake a monthly cake! On the 1st of every month bring in a cake that says "Happy Birthday <insert month> people!"

A.Jones

Just stop doing it if it is costing to much. If people want you to make a cake, then they can pay for it. I wouldn't say anything, just wait until people notice that there is no cake.

pollypenny

I would just say that, although you enjoy baking, time has become a problem as well as cash.

Suggest that people take turns.

Fujiko

Not clear how many people we are talking about - the difference in price between a simple sponge for six or sixteen is considerable, and I also wonder just how elaborate these cakes are. Perhaps I am out of touch but in the dim and distant past when I worked in a large office the routine was for the birthday girl or boy to provide cakes for their immediate colleagues, not for the other fifty people which would have been ridiculous! Surely the answer is as has been suggested just stop it and if anyone asks why say that you can no longer afford it -

19lottie82

Slightly diff scenario, but anyway.....

I love baking and often bring in cupcakes and other treats for my colleagues. After a while I thought that although I was bringing them in, perhaps they should make some kind of contribution, but I didn't want to seem like I was profiting, so emailed my favourite local charity, who sent me out a donations box.
Now when I leave the cakes in the kitchen I leave the collection box in there too, alsong with a wee note asking for a donation.