My DD attends a dance school - it's once a week, and we pay the fees like normal paying customers. It's a successful dance school with lots of regular and one-off classes, clearly good business acumen, 10-20 teachers. The owner has just had a baby, which is lovely news obviously.
But then we got this email from the dance school itself asking all parents to contribute towards flowers and a gift for the owner during her maternity leave - they even suggested an amount (around £5-10!). The email said things like "a few parents have asked if we're arranging a collection" and "this is a way to show our care and thanks for how hard she's worked." And they call us their "family".
I was already thinking this was a bit off - we're paying customers, not employees! We already show our appreciation by paying for the classes. If some parents wanted to organise something independently, fine, but the business itself asking customers for money to buy a gift for the owner?
I totally expected them to back off.
Instead, a week later, we've now had a reminder email chasing people who haven't donated yet! It says things like "if you've already donated, thank you" and "if you'd still like to take part" despite claiming "no pressure at all."
They want us to transfer money to the teacher's personal bank account (seems like the sister of the owner) and provide our names and messages.
AIBU to think this is completely tone-deaf and inappropriate? It feels like they're treating paying customers like employees who owe the boss a gift, and then chasing us up about it. I actually think asking employees for money to gift the boss is also inappropriate, but that's worse/
What would you do? I'm genuinely baffled...
Maybe I'm in the wrong and this is completely normal behaviour for businesses, or schools aimed at children? But it just feels so inappropriate to me!