Her Coworker Is Pressuring Her To Pitch In For Her Boss’ Expensive Birthday Gift, But She Doesn’t Think That’s Fair, Given Her Boss Earns Significantly More Than Them
This 30-year-old woman currently works at a pretty small company, so her team is quite tight-knit and close.
Her boss’ birthday is also right around the corner, which is why one of her coworkers – a 35-year-old woman – thought it’d be a nice idea for everyone to chip in and buy her boss a gift.
For some context, her boss is a man, and her coworker intends to buy him an expensive present – such as a fancy watch or something similar.
“My coworker is really enthusiastic about it and even started a group chat to plan everything,” she detailed.
But while she truly does like her boss, she still doesn’t feel comfortable dropping a ton of money on a birthday gift for him.
After all, he already earns a significantly higher salary than her and the rest of her coworkers.
“And I don’t think it should be our responsibility to get him something that costs hundreds of dollars,” she admitted.
Instead, she would much rather buy him something smaller and more meaningful. For instance, she believes a nice card would be thoughtful and definitely more affordable.
She tried to express her feelings to her coworker, too and revealed how she didn’t want to be involved in a big group gift. Well, to her surprise, her coworker was annoyed and acted pretty nasty about it.
Shadroy J/peopleimages.com – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
She got accused of being “cheap,” and her coworker claimed it would “look bad” if she didn’t contribute to the present.
“My coworker even hinted that it might affect how our boss views me, which I thought was a bit manipulative,” she vented.
Since then, she hasn’t been able to get her coworker’s remarks out of her mind. She doesn’t want to be viewed as the “odd one out” or like she’s not a team player.
At the same time, she doesn’t think it’s right that she feels pressured into dishing out her hard-earned cash on this.
Regardless, with tensions high between her and her coworker now, she’s been left wondering if not pitching in for her boss’ present actually does make her a jerk.
Is it nice if some employees want to buy something for their boss on their birthday? At the same time, should anyone ever be obligated to do so? How would you handle this in her shoes?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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