It's up to the person how much they put into a kitty for a retirement present isn't it?

[AgentZigzag]

One of the 5 people who work in the office DH works in is retiring, and it's been decided, while he was on holiday, that everyone is putting in £20 each.

There are more people in the company, and the two bosses are putting in £150 each, but I was always under the impression that it was up to the person putting in the cash how much they decided to put in.

Some people have more dependents than others, or less money, or whatever, it's not for someone else to choose how much you can spare for a person you're not related to or chosen to be friends with.

And even if it was a friend or relative, you'd at least expect to be asked if that's OK by you before it was set in stone.

DH isn't happy about it but doesn't want to look like a tightwad, and it doesn't sound as though they can do anonymously because they'll know someone's not paid the full amount.

Goodness knows what they're thinking of getting her for at least £400, she must have been a fucking good worker

What do you think?

Just put what you can afford in... we were always getting hit up for fixed amounts for the pre-k teachers at the kids nursery school... It got really crazy with $10 per teacher (2 per class) and $5 for music teacher, $5 for the head... We were at the place 3 years and there were different 'class mothers' each year so I reckon the teachers set the acceptable amount. It was always used to buy a mall gift certificate and they got one for Christmas and one for end of year, plus a teacher appreciation day where we were all expected to do the childcare and create a fancy brunch for them... I figured with the number of kids per class they were each getting $400 a year in gift cards AND most parents brought other extra gifts so their darling would be considered special and memorable...