Has anyone ever worked anywhere where a man....

[WoodenClock]

Organised the birthday cards and leaving collections etc.

When I worked in an almost all male environment, birthdays weren't done and one of the very few women would organise collections for new babies and leavers etc

Now I work with almost all women, it's like a whole industry, there's a collection for everything.

I have very occasionally worked for a male boss who knew these things should be done and organised a woman to do it, but in an almost 40 year career I have never, ever seen these things done by a man.

Why do women do it and why don't men?

Same experience here. If I ever get asked again i will decline and suggest they ask a chap. I was too meek to say no when younger and wouldn't have wanted to look unkind 😁

Yep, I do. It's 90% male though.

Where I work there are no collections and we use e-cards but they are organised by the line manager of the person in question so it's evenly split between men and women.

Where I worked, it was women who always did this. Personally I think the men had the right idea, and never bothered. I would have preferred that. And now with the cost of living going sky high, the last thing I want to be spending out on, is people at work.

We had someone who couldn’t afford to chip in, and the number of times we were asked was getting ridiculous. So we agreed to just a card, but now it’s flowers too. It’s really unnecessary.

I do.
250 staff, we get emails weekly for a collection.
50% of them being from males

Sort of. So, firstly, there's always been significantly more women than men where I work. So obviously just sheer numbers mean that it's more often women organising collections. Also, at my workplace if someone has a baby or whatever it tends to be the colleague they are closest to who organises the collection, and on the whole the women colleagues tend to be closest to other women colleagues and the men closest to men. There definitely have been collections organised by male colleagues though, usually for when a fellow male colleague is leaving or welcoming a baby into their family.

I worked somewhere once where it was decided on the first Friday of every month 1 person would bring in breakfast/cakes for everyone and we'd all stop for a chat while eating - there were 3 departments on one corridor so we didn't usually mix that much. It all stopped abruptly after one of the male bosses tried to put his contribution through as expenses and his secretary was so appalled she went round everyone and showed us all his expenses claim 😂

Work with majority women and it's a collection for everything... I hate it. I wouldn't even expect anything myself but that's because I came from a role where it was male majority....

No never and I've been working for more than 40 years.

My dp (who is a man!) manages a team and he usually does the collection if someone is leaving. Don't think they do collections for birthdays.

Only once had a man organise cards & leaving gifts. He also brought in homemade cake from time to time.

However it is mainly the women who organise cards & gifts etc, men are more inclined to organise Saturday afternoon pub crawls....

My current job. My colleague (bloke) does everyone's because he was embarrassed when someone got forgotten so now he does it himself

Yes. They did it for me and another colleague who were going on mat leave. Male dominated industry

We don't do birthday cards at work unless it's significant and it tends to be someone different each time, usually their closest work friend male or female. Most recently a female colleague retired and a male colleague organised a collection and card, he also bought flowers, champagne but did ask for female input around what else to buy with the rest of the collection, he went and got it all though. The person in our office who organises most of the social events is a man, including chasing people for their money etc.

Never.

I was moaning to my partner about this. We have had 3 big birthdays and 2 leavers. It fell on me or another female to sort out. fed up!

he said, just don’t do it. He has never organised one because the women in his office always do it.

my son of 19 doesn’t send his mates cards. Yet my running group of female friends buy each other gifts. It’s women - we are martyrs. Same as Christmas, holidays, Easter, etc etc.

Man here.

We don't bother with it because it's not important. We don't get birthday cards or presents for our friends. If a woman wants to organise it we'll chip in as we don't want to offend, but deep down we think it's pointless.

Of course all men have this exact same opinion, and all women think the opposite.

I've had both men and woman organise leaving stuff for me. Then again I work in a male dominated industry and I can work in teams where the only other woman/women are recent UK arrivals, so that shit can't be dumped on them.

Also some male managers have clearly read a management book on keeping employees and think it is good they do that stuff, plus bake/buy regular cakes for the team.

Yes the main organiser of leaving cards and collections is a man.

No because most don't care if they get a card or not. I'm kind of with them!

Yes. He organised for the men he was friendly with and was very loud about his upcoming birthday to make sure he didn't miss out. It was a small team so it was noticeable when people were forgotten (because he didn't make sure he'd noted their birthdays), especially as the company also chipped in.

Our collections are organised by the line manager of the person. Most line mangers are women though. 2 of the men in my office are the first to organise and cook for buffets though. Ones a baker and the other does traditional Nigerian food, it's all delicious.

Do you realise a study was published about just this issue earlier this week? Will try and find it.