By an amazing coincidence
this is my last day at work before I start a new one on Tuesday. I am waiting to see whether I am given a card or present, without much hope of receiving either.

Why? Because for the last 16 months I have not contributed a penny to anyone else's birthday or leaving collections. I've always thought it was idiotic to give money to people I neither know nor like, even if this made me exceptionally unpopular.

At my last job, I got no card or present as a result of this policy. I just walked out as people gazed self-consciously at the floor. It's like school isn't it? "If you don't invite me to your party, you can't come to mine..." Well, it's not school. It's Big Boy World where people have a choice and individual personalities.

I can't lose. If they get me something they'll have buckled under the weight of their own guilt and been beaten by my refusal to donate in the past. And if they get me nothing, do you think I'll spend the evening crying? Or thanking the Lord Jesus that the next place is paying me 30% more to do an easier job.

EDIT: At home now [half-day holiday]. No card, no present. Even the "goodbyes" were begrudged.
(frankspencer, Thu 22 May 2008, 12:29, 8 replies)

thank the lord jesus! thank the lord jesus!
You should. He is watching you.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 22 May 2008, 12:31, closed)

hope he wasn't watching
when I tugged off in that monastery
(frankspencer, Thu 22 May 2008, 12:34, closed)

No
that was me
(Bazongaloid, Thu 22 May 2008, 12:36, closed)

Strangely...
...I'm on my last day before being moved sideways.

My motivation: Ch-ching!
( Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 22 May 2008, 12:36, closed)

I applaud you, sir.
I would do the same.
( its_hatorah_bitch is b3ta the devil you know on, Thu 22 May 2008, 13:45, closed)

Bloody gifts
I think you're quite right as well, it's all peer pressure on a mass scale. But personally I agree more because in these situations people are mainly crap buyers. It's not as if you'd get anything else than vouchers, alcohol or chocolate.
(muzzvsworld, Thu 22 May 2008, 15:04, closed)

sodding "collections"
Hate the bloody things! There was a round of redundancies at an IT company I used to work at, lots of people were walked with bare minimum payouts but not the sales director who took voluntary redundancy (no one else had any say if they were walked or not). No, this bugger got more in a payout than most of the others would earn in a few years. He told us he was going to buy another Aston Martin with some of the proceeds and invest the rest. When some stupid sod came round to ask if I'd like to contribute to his leaving gift she was quite shocked when I told her where she could stick her collection envelope.
( SteamedCleaner, Thu 22 May 2008, 16:36, closed)