Another year on and the company tradition is still alive!

misterzim · 13 December 2016 at 9:53AM

So, another Christmas is arriving and my company tradition of contributing money towards gifts for our Directors is still going strong!!

Here is the email that went round the company yesterday:

Dear All

As we near Christmas and hopefully begin to feel full of Festive Cheer, I thought it may be appropriate to let you all know that, following with (company name removed) tradition, we will again be having a Christmas Collection for our company Directors

Each year staff kindly donate towards a gift to be given to each director, by way of a “thank you” for having steered the company forward and ensuring we continue to grow the business. We hope to be able to present the gifts to the Directors at the end of the Christmas Raffle on Wednesday 21 December

(Name removed) or myself will be “doing the rounds” during this week, for all those who would like to make a donation to the collection – or feel free to come and see us at our desks!

Thank you in advance for your generosity and please may I ask that you let others know who may not have access to emails

Kind regards

So there you have it, utter tripe, especially as the company haven't progressed in the last year, or last 2 years for that matter!!

If any company Directors out there have an opinion on this I'd love to hear it (and from others too!).

I will not be donating my money.

FredG · 13 December 2016 at 9:58AM

If that went round in our business there'd be pitchforks and placards, rightly so too.

Absolute cheek. Clever implementation of workplace austerity measures though. Pay it upwards!

paddedjohn · 13 December 2016 at 10:13AM

Ignore it, it's just a brown noser trying to suck up to the bosses

agrinnall · 13 December 2016 at 10:24AM

Did you make a donation last year, or will you be keeping up a tradition of refusing (which I would thoroughly approve of)?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5375958

duchy · 13 December 2016 at 10:42AM

This email would have caused mass hilarity in my company.

Who actually signed this email, one of the directors themselves ? Who collects the money ? What is their reaction when you say you won't be donating and have made a donation to a charity instead ? (I'd be sorely tempted to get everyone to insist the collection went towards an Oxfam goat or well as a gift if people don't have the gumption to refuse)

bap98189 · 13 December 2016 at 11:07AM

It's a weird relic of the class system in this country that the working classes feel they should be grateful for being given a job by those "better" than they are. I thought the days of people doing this sort of thing were long gone.

I am a company director and I think this is just bizarre. I would be horribly embarrassed if it happened to me.

misterzim · 13 December 2016 at 11:55AM

I did not pay last year, nor will I pay this year.

It's the Managing Directors wife who organises this each year and she is the Payroll/Personnel Officer at the company!

Caroline_a · 13 December 2016 at 12:05PM

I remember working at a small company (around 30 staff) some years ago. Every year they gave staff members a £10 M & S voucher (which we called the Knicker Voucher). One year they posted on the notice board that instead of giving staff vouchers they would donate goats to Africa. Lots of grumbles ensued but the general feeling was that we didn't really need the vouchers so giving to charity was A Good Thing.

Until, that is, that the secretary put a letter on the same notice board thanking the directors for their £20 contribution to the goats in Africa fund...

As far as giving to the directors.. words fail me!!!

PS - as a matter of interest how much do they generally raise?

27cool · 13 December 2016 at 2:10PM

It's got to be a wind up surely!
If not, tell the collector when they turn up at your desk, that you will write a cheque. But it will be to a needy charity/cause and not to a director

Undervalued · 13 December 2016 at 2:57PM

Caroline_a wrote: »

I remember working at a small company (around 30 staff) some years ago. Every year they gave staff members a £10 M & S voucher (which we called the Knicker Voucher). One year they posted on the notice board that instead of giving staff vouchers they would donate goats to Africa. Lots of grumbles ensued but the general feeling was that we didn't really need the vouchers so giving to charity was A Good Thing.

Until, that is, that the secretary put a letter on the same notice board thanking the directors for their £20 contribution to the goats in Africa fund...

As far as giving to the directors.. words fail me!!!

PS - as a matter of interest how much do they generally raise?

Just by way of argument, many self employed people give Christmas presents to their regular clients. Most people think that is OK.

However, if you are an employee (which in a way is a person who works for only one client) it is suddenly not OK?

Strange world sometimes.....

bugslet · 13 December 2016 at 3:08PM

I'm a company director and no, no, no. Surely it has to be a wind up.

Every year every member of staff gets a bottle of choice or a couple crates of beer if they prefer, a bonus ( last years was £500.00, not sure we're that rich this year) and a couple hundred quid into the booze kitty when they go out on the town.

Another year on and the company tradition is still alive!

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