Man Shares His Experience After Refusing To Contribute For Coworker's Birthday

A little but effective method to let your staff know you appreciate them and their contributions to the company is to celebrate their birthdays. It's an easy yet powerful technique to improve employee engagement, team cohesion, and morale.

Employers have a wonderful chance to express gratitude to their employees on their birthdays. It gives workers an opportunity to feel special on their special day in addition to making them feel appreciated.

In fact, celebrating birthdays is one of the best ways to let your staff know you appreciate their work and care about them. Additionally, it may be a chance to foster a sense of unity and morale among your employees.

It's safe to say that this is what OP's colleague, Susan aimed for as she took it upon herself to go around collecting money for a coworker's birthday. You see, the OP works in a mid sized office and he wasn't about to chip in to gift someone he barely knew.

The coworker in question works in a different department than the OP and while he recognizes her face, they have maybe exchanged a few hellos in the hallway. They don’t work together and have never talked outside of that.

The OP relayed his reasons for not contributing but Susan had other plans in mind.

The OP writes...

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It feels weird to the OP to pay for gifts for people he doesn’t have a relationship with

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Now, the OP is starting to wonder if he broke some unspoken office rule

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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the AH:

perhaps because its a team-culture and ether ways my birthday is coming soon and they may "punish me" for it .

Let's head into the comments section and find out what other Redditors have to say...

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This Redditor's office would just pass an envelope with a card in it

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They might forget to contribute when it's the OP's turn

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Susan would be making a lot of money

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The OP had this to drop in the comments...

I don't expect Jenna someone whom i don't know to put money for me on my birthday , but if its gonna be a thing (as it is now) then I don't wanna be excluded .if people feel that they don't know me enough to put money that's totally fair , either ways i don't want a 500$ gift picked by Susan , cakes and maybe a 50-100$ gift card would make my day .also in general i dont expect and dont want people to put 20$ each , 5$ is more than enough for 2 cakes and a gift card, but i dont make the decisions either ways

And the comments continues...

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The OP would personally be paying a lot every year

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The amount adds up really quickly

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It's a chunk of change a lot of people wouldn't pay

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Employees are more likely to be driven and effective when they feel valued and appreciated. Employee birthdays can also be a fantastic way to strengthen team spirit and foster friendship.

Workers are more likely to be involved in their work if they have a sense of belonging to both their company and their coworkers. But then, no one should be given a cold shoulder for not contributing.

Redditors understood that and their comments are proof of it. Leave yours in the comments section and share this post as well.