Company party piss-take??

[AliCatWalk]

Hello lovely MNers,

What would you make of this email from a "higher-up" about this suggested Christmas Party "charity donation"? 🤔

(PS: O = Owner, OC = Owner's Child ; ...will be keeping an eye out in case there are any clarifying questions that arise 😄)

An elf apparently 🧝‍♀️

Wait what?! Santas dead?!?!

on another note - slightly different but every fucking month at my place of work there is at least 3 or 4 collections for something… a birthday… a leaving gift… a retirement gift… a wedding gift… a maternity gift…. This persons leaving buffet…. This occasion buffet … £10 .secret Santa

its never ending. We are often down to the wire with finances (historical debt - getting there but it’s a slog and it takes its toll) and there is just no way - absolutely no way I can afford to give to everything - and after I was guilt tripped by a manager into contributing to a 21st for someone I didn’t even know plus the other two collections in the drawer I got so pissed off - so now I give to no one. Not a bean.

And I don’t care. It’s actually quite liberating.

anyway - back to the OP - that’s cheeky as fuck. I assume it’s not contractual so just give what you want or give nothing at all. You are not obliged to do anything

Hmmm.. I am confused…

They want money from employees for:
a gift for the owner, and
a gift for the owner’s child.

There is a Christmas Party (who pays for this?).

There will be donations to charities (paid for by the company? Or employees?)

Employees get nothing?

The only contribution an employer can expect from us is our labour, and how they treat us will to some degree, impact on the level of effort and dedication we employ in our labour. In return we receive our salary and customary gifts and bonuses.

We don't buy them gifts. We don't contribute to charities of their choosing. Fuck all that.

Oooof that must seriously add up over time 😬 and a 21st?!? Come on now!! 🤦🏻‍♀️
You're absolutely right, I was perfectly prepared to pitch in to participate in the gift exchange & plan on still doing so (even though the $ amount is more than what I make in an hour 😅), but the "donation" request is literally insane. We employees are expected to shut the lights out every time we leave our own office, even for a few minutes, don't have basic amenities readily available (you have to go to a specific person to request a new roll of TP or paper towels if the one on hand runs out, & that person has to document where it's going, I don't think kleenex are provided unless you bring your own, etc), and the owner & her son's wealth are constantly thrown in our faces in subtle ways...yes they do host buffet-style holiday parties (to which they invite their personal friends who have no affiliation with the business to partake in as well) and give small quarterly bonuses, but all this is turning out to have been much overhyped from what it was made out to be upon my hiring to compensate for the low pay rate i accepted (that's ultimately on me, i understand, but i had an even worse job before 🙏🏻)...it's very demoralizing when you go on lunch break from your specialized trade and see fast food restaurants offering comparable pay 😅

Thank you, & sorry for the confusion! It's a bit of a weird situation but here goes:

The company was founded decades ago by the Original Owner (OO). OO ended up marrying one of his employees, who is now the current owner ("O", as referenced above) and having a Child with her ("OC"). "O" & OC took over when the Original Owner (OO) aged & passed away.

In the company's earlier days there was some sort of tradition of the employees pooling money together to buy the Original Owner a gift, but since he has passed & the company has grown, O & OC apparently "keep the tradition going" by still asking employees to present them with a "donation" that (hopefully?) goes to a charity of some sort 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry for the jumbled explanation, trust me, I'm confused too 😆

It’s honestly crazy - 18ths 21sts 40ths 50ths 60ths - all a collection 🙄

the only ones I feel bad at is the bereavement ones where flowers get sent but I just stick to my guns now.

you do what works for you but don’t let them guilt trip you.

and wtaf about the loo roll? What if have a massive poo and then realise there isn’t enough 😳

Someone at our office insists on us all contributing to buying gifts for all three directors. They pay us minimum & earn millions. It really grates on me but it's a small company and its direct deposit so the organiser knows if you don't. You don't have to, but....

We also do secret Santa at the Christmas party. So the one 'free' thank you meal we get we have to buy gifts to attend. It's the stupid steal others gifts type secret Santa so I always end up with crap that gets binned.

Why are the mentioning Thanksgiving are the Amercian?

Donating is an option.
Only do so if you agree that it's right for you.
Donating a small amount to any charity is still very generous.

Possibly the O and OD will also contribute a sum to the charity in memory of their husband/father as business visionary and provider of jobs and production.

I would probably donate a little to each out of respect to the managers who are organising the donation to charity.

I wouldn't be going. I can't stand these events and would only consider it if it was free. I'd be willing to pay for my meal, so long as it wasn't a fancy expensive restaurant way out of my budget and my drinks, but that's it.

Donations to a memorial for a colleague who has died is one thing. Collecting money, from the employees wages, for the already-richer-than-all-the-employees owner and owners child is just bullshit. That's not "charity", they aren't in need of charity! They're not in poverty, disadvantaged in life or down on their luck. They're the owner of a thriving business! That email is someone wanting to suck up to the owner with a generous gift and wanting everyone else to pay for it. Fuck that shit!

It's so fucking cheeky. And since, I assume, you're all in the US, they'll probably be claiming tax back on the charitable donation of their employee's "gift" to them!

I would be tempted to laugh out loud at the very suggestion that I should give money to someone who was profiting from my labour in the first place and then start organizing a union. But I know some American "family" companies can be very paternalistic places and you really need to fit in if you want to stay or be promoted, so it might be more circumspect to just avoid making a donation or saying something along the lines of you have all your charitable donations planned out for this year.

Yes I am American 🫣 much to my chagrin

I try to be conscientious & mindful of the audience I'm reaching, sorry if I missed clarifying anything! Wasn't sure how much detail to add/leave out to make it concise but not confusing

What would I make of this?

A paper aeroplane and throw it straight into the bin. I think you can safely ignore it.

You've absolutely got the idea here 😆 it's money for the rich Original Owner's now-even-richer family. I've participated in charity walks, drives, etc for past companies where there was an actual cause to support, even one where the owner sadly died of an untimely disease. I'm not averse to charity, it's just a bit of a slap in the face when a) I'm already getting paid embarrassingly low wages for what I do & am overdue for an employee evaluation; b) the charity isn't disclosed; and c) it's common knowledge/a running joke that the Owner & OC "have more money than God" 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm new to the company and they really want newcomers to "prove their loyalty" with all the OGs swearing up & down that it will be rewarded eventually...thankfully I have Healthcare benefits through my husband...let freedom ring eh? 🇺🇲😮‍💨

Oh wait, so the current owner wrote that email?!

Yeh... there's a reason she's rich! Happy to exploit everyone she's ever met. Let me guess, she's about 30, her husband was about 80 and she basically shagged him to death for his bank account? Fucking grifter.

I've also done as a previous poster as refused to give donations to anything at all. Just tell people you haven't a pot to piss in, they can't really argue with it, you can't give what you haven't got. I can confirm I agree with that poster, it is most liberating. And don't ever "pay off that debt" or start showing up with visible signs of wealth, at least not at work. So far as they're concerned, you're on the verge of bankruptcy, always.

I'm guessing you want to keep your job. In that case I'd say nothing, don't buy gifts or donations, don't show up and tell them afterwards that you were unwell. Yep, every year, they can't prove anything. Having to go to such an event would be enough to make me feel sick anyway. I have enough of my colleagues at work, I sure as hell don't want to socialise with them outside of it.

If I was thinking of leaving the job, this would cement it for me and they'd get an email back saying that since you were informed at interview that O has more money than God and since you're upto your eyes in debt, you won't be participating in this scheme to voluntarily rob yourself blind. Then I'd email HR and resign before showing up to work for my last month and doing less than the bare minimum, because it'll annoy them so much when they realise they can't fire you and who wants to work for arseholes like that anyway? Not me. If you have some kind of skill there's always another job. I never had debt and saved from the start, so always had savings to fall back on though.

🤣 thank you, you are absolutely right!! Extremelt sadly, I think we're all trained to check that there's enough roll for our purposes before we even shut the stall door (which does indeed have the American horrendously large gaps shudder)

I'm new to the company and they really want newcomers to "prove their loyalty" with all the OGs swearing up & down that it will be rewarded eventually...

You've heard of cults, right, OP...? Get out before you need deprogramming 🫣

Your post made me actually chuckle out loud, so thank you 😂 you hit the nail on the head on so many points here! Just to clarify, the owner herself didn't write the email, it was sent out from someone who's been with the company basically since day 1 & is on the "OG"/"good ol boys" salary 😮‍💨 real shame since I actually really like the person who sent it, doesn't seem like the kind of person who would be able to send something like this with a straight face

I seem to be a magnet for cult-like places 😅 sadly i have worked at places that are almost textbook cults and literally joked about "drinking the kool-aid" (Flavor-Aid to be more accurate 🤗)

Get out of the company or the country? 🤣😂🤣

Not on the same scale, but my new job has weekly cake (where we contribute the cake), buying cake for someone else's birthday (where we contribute even more cake), compulsory purchasing of software to do our jobs (from our wage), compulsory gift buying for secret santa (£20) limit, as well as the regular collections for births, sickness, marriages and deaths. It really adds up! I'm tempted to raise it with HR, especially as our pay is rubbish.

I take it you don't actually work for the company?

So, the owner and child don’t get any of the money?

There’s a collection for their chosen charity in lieu of a gift to them?

Wait and see if it’s made uncomfortable to avoid donating. It may be a nice old tradition that only those who can afford it contribute to.

Do you have to pay for you and your husband to go the party, or is it covered by the company? I’ve never been to a work party that’s paid for, sadly, but I’ve heard they exist 🤣

If you are in the US, this has significant tax implications, both for individuals who would lose the tax relief on any donation made and for the company who could offset the sum collected against their tax. Innocently ask how this is to be, or has been in the past, documented for IRS purposes.