So what's the norm with work collections?

[KitKat1985]

I work in a fairly big team (50 people maybe?) and there always seems to be a collection for someone who is having a baby / getting married, having a birthday, coming back from sick leave, changing jobs etc. There's 2 going around currently for example (one for a colleague who is leaving, and one for someone who has a big birthday coming up).

I'm a more senior member of the team although not a manager (supervisor type level) so am aware that I earn more than most of the team members, and therefore there's an unwritten expectation that I'll be more generous, but to be honest by the time I pay my nursery fees each month, I'm hardly well off, and a few recent big expenses (necessary change of car and house, both in the past year) mean I actually owe my mum a few thousand which I'm trying to pay back as quickly as I can. In reality therefore by the time I've paid bills, groceries and petrol I usually only have about £10 each week to spend on petty cash things like baby groups, or buying the kids an ice cream etc.

I've been recently putting £5 a time each time a collection comes round because I sense that's probably the least that people expect from someone who is one of the higher earners in the team, but it's really eating into my petty cash for the week and sometimes I then can't afford to then take the kids to playgroup or something on my days off. I'm finding myself getting a bit resentful of the bloody collections as much as I am trying to be team-spirited, especially when some of them have felt a bit unnecessary (collections for a colleague who had come back from 2 weeks sick leave [seriously I've had longer holidays?!] and some for people who have had birthdays which weren't for any significant age or anything). I have suggested now that the team is too large now to do collections for every birthday, and also it's a bit awkward as some people's birthdays always get missed etc as people obviously only collect for those birthdays that they know about (and obviously some people are more private and don't mention when they have birthdays coming up).

What's the norm for what you put into work collections in your team? And do you normally do collections for everyone's birthday etc?

All this gift buying is getting out of hand. We ALL have birthdays do there is really no need to buy gifts. Baby, maybe, but a gift should be selected first, eg flowers, an outfit or a baby gadget then colleagues can donate accordingly (eg £1 in a team of £20 for an outfit).

Sorry! Typos - not do “so” and 20 as in no of colleagues and not £20.

Momo scared kids so very tired and distracted!

Where I work we do big birthdays and leaving. You can only sign the card if you contribute to the gift, and most people put in £5, my boss puts in £20 for anyone on our team. Meant that the interns we’ve had have had about £100 each for their 21st, and people that leave tend to get a similar amount, depending on how popular they are.

I've always worked in teams of 50+

First job was just an envelope on the table and you put it what you want if you wanted.
Second place someone would come round literally shaking a bag in your face, absolutely hated that. They'd hound you for money and the size of the collections were ludicrous.
Third place everyone put in £5 a month into a fund that was for tea/coffee/juice and the same fund was used for flowers and cards. Was a great system!!

New job has £2 for tea money and I haven't been here long enough to know what they do for collections but I hope it's not like job 2!!

Anonymous donation envelope in my workplace, but collections only for new babies and leavers. Birthdays of any kind only get a card and a box of chocolates, which is covered by office petty cash and we haven’t had enough bereavements (thankfully) to know what the policy would be or whether we have one. If individual teams want to collect for other celebrations for people in their teams, that’s for them to agree on - some do and some don’t.

I think you need to have a quiet word with whoever organised all these collections and say they need to be cut down and for collections to be anonymous. You won’t be the only person feeling the strain and who would be grateful for it.

We put £5 in for ‘big’ birthdays, babies, leaving etc.

This is calculated by how many people we have and how much we should then have in the envelope. If you don’t put yours in you get asked for it again. It’s not really a voluntary thing (although yes you could refuse but it would be a THING).

Just a for regular birthdays.

I stopped buying into work collections after I didn’t even get a card (they all knew it was my birthday beforehand) whereas others were getting cards, chocolates, alcohol etc it was a big office and definitely a popularity contest it really made me feel horrible I’m glad I don’t work there anymore

Definitely just put what you want to in the envelope and don't feel pressured to put more than a pound (or nothing!)

I put in £1-2 for a baby, return from long-term sick, promotion or leavers. I'm the most junior member of my team and so sometimes I don't put anything in (if I don't know them). Might seem tight but they don't pay me the Living Wage even so I don't feel bad.

At my old workplace, the person whose birthday it was brought in cake.

There was a pressure for the cake to be homemade from one woman who had no life but most people ignored this.

I know it might seem counterintuitive, but it actually worked well and saved a world of hassle. Collections are a huge effort to organise and do end up causing resentments.

I am so glad I no longer work in offices where this is the expected norm. There are only three of us, and we have never done collections.

Even when I used to work in the City of London, collections were pretty anonymous. Just a big brown envelope with a list of names stapled to the outside. When it reached you you crossed your name off and either contributed money or not. There was no set amount and no way of knowing who had put what in there. I only actually contributed to the ones that really meant something to me.

There should be no obligation. This sort of thing can reach epic proportions sometimes and get really ridiculous.

I hate work collections! It always seems the popular staff get a card and flowers and others are completly ignored not even a Happy Birthday. Ive been one of the ignored ones

We have a monthly put in (voluntary) that covers birthday cards...if you don’t put in you don’t get a card. Collections are births, weddings and leaving dos. No compulsion at all and I contribute based on how well I know the person (team of 50). HR send company flowers for long-term sick and bereavement. Works well in my eyes.

Oh and the birthday person or leaver brings treats...if they want to.