To want to pay less at work Christmas drinks?

[Rainallnight]

Agh, I just wrote a long post and it got lost!

the short version is - it’s my work’s tradition that SMT members split the bill for drinks at our Christmas lunch. I am the least well paid member of SMT by some distance and have begun to feel this is unfair.

I’d rather we make a contribution that’s proportionate to our salaries.

AIBU?

The other thing is that someone living at home with no dependents on minimum wage will be considerably better off than someone on £50k as a single parent with 2 children in nursery (for example), so this is a stupid idea.

You need to speak up.

In your rush to get to the moral high ground you’ve not read the post. She’s not the lowest paid in the company she’s the lowest paid smt manager.

We don't even get a cup of tea on a parents night. Work in a school.

True. Though you’d need more than 15 paid staff to manage 15k volunteers. And in that case, surely the volunteers should be invited to the Xmas do. They work too. Just unpaid.

If you paid everyone 20k in a charity, it a) wouldn't find any one to work there and b) pretty crappy at doing what it aims. As an example - A fundraiser who earns 20k will probably bring in 100k a year in donations. An experienced fundraiser on 70k could bring in a million.

I have recently started working for a charity on the SMT on a similar salary to OP. I previously worked in the private sector earning 40% more for a less senior role.

I will buy my team a small token gift of chocolates or wine, but I certainly don't feel I'm paid enough to be covering their bar bill or lunch. My case is a bit different as due to the team specialisms the difference between my salary and theirs isn't as great as some areas.

It's a tricky one though and if you're paying out less than say £100 I would just live with it.

This is what happened where I used to work (public sector). Senior management would pay for the table wine but not for anything else. I think it’s a nice way to say thank you to their staff.

It does sound slightly like you want to have your cake and eat it OP. You don't want to say the equal share but also don't want to tell anyone in case they think badly of you. I don't think you can have both

How much money are you talking about here?

What would your full share be compared to what you are suggesting?

It does seem unfair, but is it worth bringing it up?
Only you can decide.

I take it that all those who are incensed about senior charity employees earning 50-100k work for free? After all if you're working for a good cause presumably you don't have to pay a mortgage and Tesco invite you to help yourself to free groceries. Absolutely ridiculous.

We used to have to put by £2500 for team drinks when dh worked in the civil service - that job was expensive!

This is true, but it annoys me that MPs and Civil Servants in Whitehall aren't subject to the same restrictions as Civil Servants in the rest of the country and local government staff and NHS. All public servants should be treated the same. Subsidised drinks and meals in HoC but where I used to work had to buy our own cup of coffee at big team meeting (too many people to fit in an office so had to hire a room). To be clear it is the double standard I hate. We are community based but the coming together a couple of times a year was felt to be important but actually feels unwelcoming.

Civil service is the same - I'm the most junior. Grade senior civil servant but that makes me on at least 40k more than the most junior member of the team. Yes my Director earns at least 40k more than me but it's just one of those things. SMT covers colleagues wine/drinks with lunch. There are 12 of us and 100 other staff. It costs about £70 each. All staff pay for their own Christmas meal. Can you imagine the field day the DM would have if not only the tax payers are paying for us lazy civil servants to work from home creating red tape but the tax payer also paid for a Christmas lunch?

That means your salary is closer to those of the people you are paying for than to that of this person. I would gently point this out and say that you're struggling with the cost of living and having the word "senior" in your job title doesn't pay the bills.

We are a charity and obviously can’t spend charitable funds on lunch or booze, so this is the workaround

I have have never worked anywhere where a Christmas meal/drinks has been paid for by anyone other than ourselves. I work in a school that can barely afford paper, so it’s hardly surprising. Our SLT might buy us biscuits for the staff room in the last week though, which is much appreciated!

I agree with @Love51 though-why is ok for subsidised drinks and food in the HoC but there would be outrage in any other public sector role is public funds were used like this!

I'm going to go against the grain. This is quite normal for SMT in civil service and elsewhere. It's once a year and though you may earn less than the other SMT members, I'm sure you earn more than the people you're paying for.

Can you speak to the most senior member and explain that funds are tight and you'll struggle to go equally this year? Or, could you suggest to put money behind the bar that you can afford and once it's gone everyone pays for themselves? My organisation so this, but the business pay not SMT.
I think if you don't go, they'd just say how much you owed them for your share.
Things like this are really tricky.

@StormingNorman 100-200 staff at the parties and three SMT. It racks up quite quickly. so the total bar tab would be £200k????? does any where actually have that much stock of alcohol in their business??? are you sure it the night out wasnt in a strip joint???? 😂😂😂

I find this an odd question, it is likely as she’s the most junior or has the least responsibility of the team.

Could you say that you're not going to participate in the sharing of the bill but will buy a few bottles of wine for the table?

We usually do this as SMT. I buy a few bottles of wine, someone buys shots, and a few others buy a few rounds. Some people don't buy anything. It's all good.

The bigger issue is the expectation that has been created.

Your quote/allusion is more apt in perhaps a different way than you imagine. Someone who is on paper better paid could be short of ready cash, for many reasons. You just can't make blanket assumptions about people's individual financial situations from crude figures. (and yes, I know this is what the OP would like too, but it's deeply flawed).

OP, I think the time has come for a chat between all of SMT about this. Personally I think the easiest and least risky thing is everyone just pays for themselves, with maybe someone/a few people from SMT buying a round for everyone.

The double standards with this sort of thing are invariably off the charts.

What restrictions do Whitehall Civil Servants not have? I spent 13 years working on Whitehall, I can assure you there are no subsidised drinks, catered team meetings or public money spent on work parties.

Her salary is half way between her boss's salary and zero, which means it is certainly closer to the salaries of the people she's paying for.

OP in civil service our tradition was always that the senior managers at a Christmas do would pay for the first round of drinks, but no more than that. I think that would be a perfectly reasonable suggestion to make.