AIBU to think workplace collections are getting excessive?

I don’t understand the collection for leavers? Surely they are likely moving on to a better paying job and happy about it.

Not always.
There are all sorts of reasons people leave jobs. A promotion is only one, very small % of leavers.

I don’t understand the collection for leavers? Surely they are likely moving on to a better paying job and happy about it. Why not just a card with wishes?

in my dept we do cards, no money. I did a small collection only within my team (not the whole dept) for new babies within my team where the mums have been part of the team.

there was once a collection for manager, I chose not to contribute. Surely he’s mega rich already!

Old fashioned cards are best. Written wishes from everyone and it only costs couple of £.

I work in a place where we're often off site and I honestly don't even know about half of the employees. On the works group chat there's sometimes "happy birthday" messages but we never, ever do collections or cards because people will always be overlooked & it's not fair

What 🤣🤣

It's getting a bit much at my work, it feels like every few weeks there's a collection for something.

Last year, the father of one of the bosses died, and an email was sent round saying there was a collection to get her flowers. When my dad had died about six weeks prior, I didn't get so much as a card. I'd only been working there for about two months at that point, which was probably the rationale, but still, people knew me. I got quite upset when that email came out, because it felt like my dad's death was somehow seen as less important because I was relatively new.

That's when I decided I wasn't contributing to any collections.

What’s not inclusive about babies and weddings??
The poster doesn’t include them, that’s why it’s not inclusive.

And not everything in life has to be inclusive, by the way.
I would guess they know that judging by what they’ve wrote

We've never had them where I work, not one in eight years.

Who pays for the card?

Ah ok sorry maybe I'm wrong. I couldn't tell on the last one if it was anonymous or not so assumed it wasn't.

Not workplace but at my daughter's school they've started arranging collections for children who have an "injury", so broken arm/wrist for eg. The kid didn't even miss a day of school!!
Sure, it's a nice idea, but surely a card everyone in the class signed would suffice?! Where does it end?!
My son gets tonsilitis, so would he qualify for a voucher too? He's off school for much longer when he gets ill as well!
I refused to contribute, which I felt a bit mean about, but it just gets ridiculous.

I didn’t know that, like @HelpMeGetThrough I also thought it could be anonymous, and the recipient also just gets a card with names so wouldn’t know who contributed what, if anything.

The one that they use where I work, the money donation is anonymous by default, unless you decide to put your name in.

But the organiser can see who has and hasn't contributed. I don't like them. At least before you could drop a few coins in an envelope and no one would know if it was £2 or £5 etc

Yes insane. The latest was sports team girl out on injury. Collection. My dd gave nothing as said theres collections weekly now)

This is insane to me!

I run my own business and I would never ask my employees to fund a present- thats outrageous. We always buy a small present for everyone's birthday but it comes out of our pockets as the business owners, not from employees.

Part of the reason for this is that years ago when I was an employee I also got hassled to contribute to presents for people I had never even met and it used to piss me right off.

Say no- you arent an ATM.

I stopped years ago. Birthdays, weddings, anniversary (Other than a direct member of staff who i went to their wedding and bought a gift myself), retirements, etc etc. I wont do it. I even refused to buy for someone i had worked with for 15 years and got on with. Not happening anymore. We have 3 branches and its a weekly occurance for a collection for something.

Ive had 40th & 50th birthday whilst being here. 25th wedding anniversay etc etc. Ive never once celebrated with a card or a collection.

The second i made it clear i wasnt part of the cult it all became much easier.

We have them regularly but there's no set amount, you can add or not add whatever you like. We have a "birthday locker". A card is put in for whatever celebration it is and an an envelope to add your contribution and sign the card if you contributed.

That sounds very sensible and I wouldn’t mind doing that! It’s the unknown amount of collections!

OMG this brings back memories of being harassed for collection money! I used to put a pound in if I knew them and 50p if I didn’t! A young lad never had any money and used to run away from the main collection ladies, if they were carrying a blue tin! 😂 After my maternity leave I was hard up so did opt out of all collections. Did feel a bit mean but hardly had any money left over from nursery fees and fuel (long commute). This was 20 years ago! I work from home now, thank goodness!

This is easily one of my favourite things about my work. There's a kitty. You pay in 150 kr (£20), and then there are gifts for those who pay in to a specified value when they leave, have a baby, have a round birthday, serious illness over 2 weeks or get married. If you don't pay in, someone might organise a collection but there is NO obligation, and the contribution is 10-20kr (£1-2).

No, I agree. This was higher education.

Where I work there is a tin in the locker of the person collecting, with a staff list. You tick your name on the list when you’ve “dealt” with it. That may mean you’ve put in whatever you want or nothing at all.
So, no harassment at all. You might just be reminded you haven’t put a tick.

You are not being unreasonable. That is £30 in a matter of 6 weeks.

I work for a company which has a lot more staff and I only contribute to collections for people that I like. A minimum amount isn't dictated and i'd say something if it was. I'll caveat this by saying I only sign cards if I've put money in the pot (not saying you do that @user456876 ).

I am the same. Contributed to all the collections for over 10 years and didn't get one when I went on maternity leave! Going back to work in a few weeks and still feel annoyed about it, especially as I saw in my work emails a collection for the woman who went on mat leave just after me! 😅

It’s non stop where I work. I can’t even be arsed to sign the online cards because it’s a daily chore (sometimes get multiple emails per day)
Ive spent a lot of money over the past yr and im sick of it!