It's just a fiver

[user7699099]

I have a new manager at my workplace and she is arranging a collection for a member of staff for their birthday. Today she told everyone she is doing the collection and everyone can put £5 in.

I told her I don't contribute to collections as I can't afford too and she replied its just a fiver.

£5 might not be much to her and some of the other staff who work full time but I work part time and every penny I earn is needed.

Now I feel really embarrassed that I had to refuse giving £5 because money is tight, but I know it wont be a one off there will always be a collection for someone's birthday, leaving, baby etc

AIBU?

YANBU in the face of such obtuseness. "Only £5 Genevieve? Did you know a 3lb bag of pasta costs £3.80 at Sainsbury's and that'll keep me and my children in evening meals all this week?" (It does too because I checked online.) Sadly, I don't know the cost of educating Genevieve on the economics of small sums.

That’s nuts that they asked you to contribute 😳

So people who are unable to afford £5 are not team players? Go give your head a wobble 🙄

I hate these forced collections. Gift giving should be voluntary not forced. Else it's not really a gift. I belong to a religious faith which encourages generosity but not giving under compulsion/giving when we don't have the means. I think it's time these forced donations at work were cancelled.

You should never have been put in this position. Collections if at all, should be voluntary and the amount not stipulated. Stick to your guns. You may find others will now be brave enough to do the same.

Some of us can't even afford that.

Yes, apparently my child and I should starve for a couple of days to give £5 towards a birthday present. 🙄

Very much so.

As a mid 20s person, I turned up to a workplace in 1984 where "the Boss" was a "right wing" religious nutter and two of the three line managers were screw-ups of people.

With 33 on the permanent staff plus 18 part-timers and casual workers, "a couple of dollars" almost every week added up to a lot.

I was plied into three or four donations but then I noticed birthdays of people who were on site fewer than two years were not honoured with a cake or a gift (including me), I said the time after, "no, sorry Beth, but I am not contributing to a pool that's not fully inclusive of ALL the staff ... respectfullty, I am OUT of the merry-go-round of it ..."

Very soon, about six or seven others also withdrew.