I know there unreasonable but £30 is insane!

[FranksBank]

To spend on someone you don't really like. For Sectet Santa

I am very PT and have been asked to arrange this, with them saying 'we knew you wouldn't want to join in because you don't celebrate it' I do actually celebrate it but I'll gladly let them think I don't now!

Anyway, the budget the person asking me to arrange it has set is £30. They want me to send out the email asking people to opt in, and mention it's a £30 budget.

AIBU to actually ask what madness has embedded within her to think this is a fair amount?

I said 'Is that not very high?' And she said 'Sent it out after Halloween! They'll have time to save, won't they?' And she seemed very smug to announce this obvious information

It's a school. Nobody is rich.

She said 'Sent it out after Halloween! They'll have time to save, won't they?'

My answer to that would have been "I expect many have other priorities"

Whether it's Secret Santa, an expected attendance at someone's Instagram project destination wedding or anything else, I get very tired of these folk who think they'll decide what others spend their money on

Lucky, however, that it's not obligatory

I've got mixed feelings on this.
I hate Secret Santas - completely pointless in my opinion - but if you are going to do it, it makes some sense to actually buy something decent. I bet a high proportion of the huge numbers of £5 and even £10 Secret Santa gifts that are bought every year go straight into landfill or rattle around in the back of people's office drawers for ages til they finally throw them out.
I caused a bit of a stir a few years ago when I said I no longer wanted to participate in our extended family's Secret Santa. It was precipitated by finding a bag in August which contained everything our family had received the previous Christmas's Secret Santa exchange. Not one of us had wanted or used our Secret Santa gift. When I was open about it, several other family members admitted to feeling the same and we ditched the idea. Between us, we were spending hundreds of pounds each year, mainly on plastic tat or cheap chocolates that nobody actually wanted. The following year we had the same party without the gifts and it was just as enjoyable.
So my vote is to ditch the stupid tradition altogether, but if not, there is some logic in upping the budget so that everyone gets a gift that is actually worth having rather than wasting money on stuff nobody wants. But there should be no compulsion for anyone to participate anyway.

Miss off the zero and tell everyone it’s a £3 limit.

Not RTFT do not sure if this has been suggested or the OP already knows but when typing the email - go into Options and you can set it so replies go straight to the originator of the email.

In cases when its work related yes, they cant.

Organising a secret santa isn't work related, its social related - therefore doesn't fall under work activity. So OP can refuse or do as she pleases.

YANBU.

I think £15 for secret Santa is a good amount. It's enough to buy more than tat, but not too much. It's like the £10 of the 2010s.

Blimey. Our whole team earn over £50k each (just using this for reference) and the limit is £5.

Gosh we spend a max of £25 on family! No way I would participate.

I am very PT and have been asked to arrange this, with them saying 'we knew you wouldn't want to join in because you don't celebrate it'

Can I ask you why this person said you wouldn't want to join in? Are you from a non-Christian culture? It sounds like she knows she's excluding you, which doesn't seem fair.

£30 makes it very unfair for anyone on a non-teaching or management salary. As you say, it's half a week's food money for a lot of people and would put some people in a very bad position. I'd go over her head for that and speak to the head.

She may be above you but she is asking you to send an email on her behalf that is not work related. You can send it with her name in and it's too late to do anything about it.

And she is bonkers for thinking people want to spend £30 on colleagues secret santa. I work in Pharma where most of the team are on great salaries and ours is still only £10

The OP was correcting herself!

IMHO £30 is too dear and £10 is fine. Me and my siblings do secret Santa and our budget is £30!

For balance - I’d be quite happy with a £30 budget because I’d be able to get something relatively easy instead of losing two hours researching what is the least shit thing you can get for £5/£10 and I value the time more.

When you can plainly see it’s spending 50% of a weekly food shop for some people then it’s obvious it’s too much.
Id point that out to the colleague and suggest £10 is more realistic. And if she comes back with the ‘time to save up’ point out they’ll be saving for their own kids presents.

This is why we do not send a draft to Dawn before we send to everyone. We say, "no problem, Dawn, I'll do that after Halloween, as you suggest," and then we say not another word about it until after Halloween when we hit 'Send to All' including the wording about Dawn's suggested budget.

Good luck!

Just say you won't be sending the email as the budget in your opinion is way too high. Sounds like they want you to get the flack for it.

Yeah ridiculous! Why do you have to send out the email? Can't she do it herself?
And the cheek of assuming you won't want to be involved!

It is fair - everyone can spend up to the quoted amount. Whether you do or not is entirely your choice, so you can choose to spend the full amount or you can choose to spend the £5 on chocolates - your choice. Just as it would be for a colleague. It is fair because it's a spending limit, not a demand.

£30 for secret Santa is crazy

If you absolutely don't feel you can say that Dawn has set the budget at £30 - although I'd strongly suggest that you do just that - then there are other ways you can make it clear that it's not on you. 'I've been asked to let you know the budget is £30'.
It's very odd to suggest that you might not want to take part but that you would still be happy to organise it. If they think you don't celebrate Christmas for religious or cultural reasons then surely asking you to facilitate would be equally inappropriate!

Does anyone in the world actually enjoy Secret Santa?

Anyway, the budget the person asking me to arrange it has set is £30. They want me to send out the email asking people to opt in, and mention it's a £30 budget.

It doesn't say that £30 is the upper limit. It says it's the budget.
Fortunately it's opt in, so hardly anyone will join in.

I would say to Jane that if she doesn't want people to know that it was her decision, then she shouldn't be asking you to send this in your name. If it doesn't need to go out until November, it's not like she hasn't got five minutes between now and then to send it herself.

I absolutely hate secret Santa! Especially in a workplace where not everyone knows each other well. It just leads to waste IME. £30 is a ludicrous amount - imagine if you spent time getting someone a nice gift to be given the joke present - it would be so disappointing. It needs to be a low amount - if someone goes above that then that’s their choice but you can’t spend £30 of someone’s money

I refuse to participate in SS. I replied with an email pointing out we were all employed adults who probably didn't need more stuff.
It fizzled out a couple of years later and now we all chip in for the food bank.

£30 may well be 70% of a single persons food budget - ludicrous - the point is it's fun daft things - £10 is plenty

There's always one. 🙄

That's going from one extreme to the other! There's NO reason to not buy adults Christmas presents! I can only surmise no-one ever buys you anything...?