Teacher's Tea Fund

[Foxtrot92]

I work as TA in a very small school, working only 2 hours in the afternoon, 3 days a week.

Today a teacher approached me and asked for £15 towards the tea fund for the term. She was very nice and said that's what everyone was contributing.

I refused politely saying that I'm only in 6 hours a week, bring in my own mug with tea and sugar in and only use a splash of milk. I did offer something towards the milk or offered to start bringing in my own. The teacher flapped muttering 'fine, if that's how you want to be' before storming off.

WIBU? As a TA on 6 hours a week for minimum wage, I can't afford £15 for a tea fund I hardly benefit from. I don't eat the cakes and biscuits they buy (don't like cakes and biscuits ).

My kids' primary charged the PTA for teachers' tea and biscuits. I was so shocked when I found out. The whole place was run like a private members club for the bloody teachers!

I couldn't believe all the PTA fundraisers were going to ensure the teachers got some nice biccies rather than say new equipment for the kids.

I dropped out of the last tea/coffee fund I was in when I worked out that everyone else drank twice as much coffee as me and they all took milk, which I didn't. It's fairer if it's worked out according to what you're likely to consume. My expensive ground coffee costs me about £1.50 a week. Teabags maybe another 50p a week. Milk would be another £1.

You think the teachers should cover that cost then, blue? Or stretched school budgets where TAs and teachers are losing their jobs? If the teachers supply their own drinks (it does depend on the eschhol), why shouldn't the PTA?

Bluehair are you sure it was for the teachers? Our PTA buys in tea/ coffeeetc for PTA events/ fundraisers- it's definitely kept separate?

I take in my own herbal / fruit/ mint tea - for one thing I'm not keen on black tea with no milk, and there isn't always fresh milk in. The bonus is that I can legitimately avoid the whole tea fund politics business.

I'm a volunteer. I take my own coffee and stuff in. I even take milk. So do most other people regardless of whether they're staff or not. We all share. Everyone knows I'm a coffee addict and can be counted on for a travel mug and a spoonful of coffee.

I'd happily pay for communal milk. I think the staff member was a bit off to expect you to pay full rates.

£15 !!!!!
Jeeez ours in £7 ...and I think that's a lot and don't pay into it!

I drink water, (or take my ow tea in) as I am not one of those that has to walk around glued to a mug.

I'm not the only one who refuses to pay, either.

Oh...just realised that's for the term. Ours is payable half-termly.

We have a coffee machine in the staff room. No communal tea or coffee is provided by the school. An ex colleague went tow ork at a private school. He gets a free LUNCH everyday

"its the fact you were wrong that made me rude but of course you keep brushing over that"

Right. Okay ... I could probably argue about that ... but for the sake of brevity we'll go with me being wrong.

So is this how you normally deal with people you consider 'wrong'?

Perhaps I should just be grateful that you acknowledged that you were rude and the reason for your rudeness was because I was wrong.

Boarding schools are the best for free food for teachers. When I worked in one you could go in at 7.30am for a fry up, tea/coffee/homemade cake and fruit at 10.30, full cooked lunch at 1pm followed by a CHEESEBOARD IN THE STAFFROOM, sandwiches at 3.30 for those doing after school activities, then dinner at 6pm. It made doing 16 hour working days twice a week almost bearable. The food was amazing too...

I'm a HCP. I'm pretty lucky - me dept provide tea/coffee/milk and bread/butter for times when you totally miss a meal due to being caught up.

I have worked in places where there was nothing provided and milk politics are enough to drive anyone potty.

I wonder at my city friends who talk about the company chef, home made danish pastries etc. Or the drinks fridge in the office complete with beer and endless Irn Bru (one of the owners is Scottish).

Then i look at the water cooler and Mellow Bird coffee and wonder wtf I took my straight As at A-levels into medicine.

My workplace supplies tea and biscuits.

We lost our bonus 2 years ago so we make sure we all eat and drink x amount to make up for that.

Only provides is we're all fat now

Problem*

They definitely do provide!

Shocked in believing I'm hearing this...

There are actually work places that don't provide tea and coffee? Do you have to put coins in a meter to boil the kettle?

Do you split a restaurant bill in a 'but I didn't drink alcohol/had cheaper vegetarian options/didn't have dessert' kind of way by any chance?

As a student nurse I was always asked to contribute to these funds on placements despite not drinking tea and coffee. I was once asked for £10 even though I was on a 6 week placement. 🤔🤔🤔🤔

It's an honour system pretty much. Some poor sod in charge of the tea and coffee fund goes round every once in a while asking for your contribution.

I don't use milk and drink my coffee black without sugar so I bought my own jar of instant and keep it at work. So I don't have to pay. Not paying £5 per month for a spoonful of instant coffee a few times per week.

"Today 23:50 Catsize

Do you split a restaurant bill in a 'but I didn't drink alcohol/had cheaper vegetarian options/didn't have dessert' kind of way by any chance?"

I'm on a decent wage so happy to split down the middle when dining with friends but if I'm dining with someone I don't know, a friend I know is struggling financially, or someone who hasn't drank alcohol when everyone else has had plenty I'll always offer to do the maths to figure out who paid for what. There could be someone sat there quietly wishing they asked for us to do that but feeling too embarrassed and they'll always be grateful someone else spoke up. Had many a meal in my poorer days where I'd skip a starter, have cheapest main, no dresser and one soft drink and find my weekly budget blown due to splitting bills evenly.

So it's not always people being stingy who want to split bills according to what each person had. If anything it's more generous at times as my bill could have been subsidised by the person who got cheaper options.

ADish

Give it up. Your first two posts had a rude officious tone so it's no surprise you got that response from OP. Demanding some apology / explanation / acceptance from OP that she was rude seems a little rich.

I dropped out of the last tea/coffee fund I was in when I worked out that everyone else drank twice as much coffee as me and they all took milk, which I didn't. It's fairer if it's worked out according to what you're likely to consume

That would just get ridiculous....do you pay more if you have 2 sugars not one? What if you like your tea a bit milkier or your coffee a bit stronger? Seriously, the heroes that agree to run the tea fund have enough hassle as it is.

All places I've worked have a 'pro rata' amount, so, in your case OP, as you work 1/10th of the week, you'd pay 1/10th of the termly amount.... a grand total of £1.50 .... at which point it seems a bit mean to start being pernickity

I'm so lucky. We get free tea, coffee and milk, the latter being organic full fat delivered in proper glass bottles. Justified this to my boss as not only better for the Ecology but also supports another local business and means no one disappears over to Aldi for 3/4 hour and comes back with £25 worth of stuff.

Don't tell me you've never gone out for milk and come back with loads of stuff?

Sometimes customers bring in cakes, biscuits or similar and we do ourselves. There are only a few of us though. Motor trade.

I have never worked somewhere that didn't supply refreshments to staff for free. It doesn't sound like a warm environment in which to work.

I have only worked in public and charity sectors and have never been given drinks. It is about not misusing public funds or people's donated money. I think it is pretty normal in those types of work, along side paying for our own Christmas meals etc.

Blink66 and NYConcreteJungle lots of people here have already pointed out that public sector workers aren't allowed to.use public funds for staff personal use - stuff like tea and coffee which isn't essential.to the job role. It's not employers being "mean" or workplaces being unfriendly, it's because it's illegal to use public funds for private purposes.

I am a social worker and have only ever once worked somewhere where tea/coffee was provided. I once worked for a small charity and one of the Trustees paid for it our of her own pocket because she admired the work we did and it was a gift to us. If she hadn't done so, we would have had to pay it ourselves because again it would be a misuse of funds. If you donate to a charity you don't expect that money to be funding staff drinks do you?

I always think the person who does the tea fund has a thankless task due to.the number of people who start arguing about "well, I don't take milk/sugar so should pay less". That said, I do agree it should be pro rata for PT staff.

If you take in a flask of tea, why don't you just add the milk at home? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but I take in my tea in a Thermos so I just make the tea and add a splash of milk at home. Then pour it into a mug at work. That makes more sense to me. I agree they won't be happy about you using the milk if you don't pay.