To not top up the leaving collection?!

[noleavinggift]

Long story short- woman leaving my team in two weeks through voluntary redundancy. She's worked with us for about 18 months.

I manage her line manager who also manages the other four people in the team.

The VR comes after on-off informal capability process and numerous spats with one colleague in particular over her laziness and lack of initiative. The whole team know she doesn't pull her weight and are privately counting down the days until she leaves please don't think senior managers don't know what's being whispered about!

Whilst they are pleasant enough to their colleague day-to-day they have all chosen not to put in the voluntary fiver for a leaving gift- normally vouchers.

WIBU to give the departing colleague a £10 voucher (mine and line managers contribution)- the alternative is I chip in £25!

(Before anyone says speak to HR, we are the HR department and this isn't an HR issue!)

I wouldn't top it up, if she's not popular she's not popular. If she feels bad then that's tough luck really. Do what a PP has said and get an orchid or something like that.

aldi do nice flowers & are not expensive but look good! (mind from what you say a venus flytrap might be in order!!!)www.aldi.co.uk/c/specialbuys/plants-and-flowers?q=%3Apopular&page=0

Don’t your company chip in a bit anyway? All our leaving presents are paid for from a central fund, staff just signthe card. No awkward collections that way. Wedding, new baby, illness also dealt with by the company. So when I was off really unwell my boss had a huge delivery of green and blacks chocolate delivered to my house for me 😀

I wouldn't. No one is obliged to give a gift or a contribution, and no one is entitled to recieve one. If she'd been a better colleague, she'd still have a job and this wouldn't even be an issue. Just give what you yourself want to give - a fiver sounds very generous to me.

Don’t top up, although colleagues are a bit shit not to put anything in, even if just out of relief she’s going.

Lidl’s flowers give you lots of bang for your buck, tarted up with tissue paper and ribbon. Get some nice chocs with any left over cash.

The leaving presentation’s going to be interesting - do tell us how it went!

Flowers and chocolates, not a voucher. Don't top it up!

Go to a health food shop or online for vegan chocolate. Or she can regift .

Bunch of flowers and a card. After 18 months no one expects a big leaving present.

No top up. Vegan chocolates and a card. Job done.

Definitely don't give the cash. You can get a reasonable bunch of flowers with a tenner. It will look ok.

No way would I top it up under those circumstances. You are rolling out the doormat. Do you actually want to contribute £5 or do you feel obliged to? If it is the latter, don’t do anything. Tell your line manager and let them sort out a poa.

Get some vegan chocolates

When I said don’t do anything, I meant get your £5 back.

Don't top up, you'll be setting an awful precedent. I think collections should be an HR issue as in they need to be bloody stopped on two counts:

1. because often it boils down to a popularity contest as in this case with some accruing more than others

1. people feeling pressured to contribute to endless bloody collections often for people they barely know or work with.

Noone is entitled to a leaving gift of a fixed amount, if people don't like her enough to contribute that's not your problem, get her a bunch of flowers and card.

Chocs and wine will do yes. And a tenner is fine for this. £5 for a decent bottle of wine from Lidl, £3 for some chocs, and a couple of quid for a card.

My friend worked at a place for 3 years between 2009 and 2012, and she was laid off because her position was no longer needed, and she got a £3.99 bunch of carnations. No-one even MADE a collection for her, and the card she got just had a scribble in it from a supervisor, (who took the money out of petty cash!) saying, 'goodbye and good luck.'

She was not disliked as such, she was just the oldest there (over 40-ish when everyone else was 17 to 23,) and very shy, and she didn't fit into any of the little cliques... So no-one was arsed.

So hell would freeze over before I would fork out £25 to £30 for a better gift if people have not been bothered to give anything.

Has she contributed to collections up to this point?

Flowers.
I had a colleague who put in an actual real greivance because people contributed more to a colleagues wedding collection than her.
Cos he was nicer, had invited all the team to his reception and hadnt bored the arse off everyone for 2 years.

Sounds like bullying, that her colleagues all agreed not to chip in. And you’re seemingly ok with it? Mean.

We once had someone leaving the company who was so disliked that his collection ended up being coppers, some foreign currency coins and a button. I did feel a bit sorry for the lovely guy who was in charge of getting his leaving present, but had a really good laugh at the contents of the collection.

Box of chocs or borrow of wine

YY she only gets to 'borrow' the wine and has to give it back .

Flowers it is. I have some burlap and ribbon in the shed from Xmas.

It's not bullying although I agree I'm disappointed they haven't chipped in to make sure she's really going.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar do you work with @Knittedfairies husband?! 🤣

Ohh, I missed that one. It was years ago, so maybe. Did your husband work in market research Knittedfairies?

Flowers are fine.

It’s not bullying If someone doesn’t want to chip in to a collection for someone they don’t like. I wouldn’t top it up and just get a nice bun of flowers.
Maybe it’s time to review the collections and just put a stop to them altogether