Will ye sponsor me?

Kid Curry

Sick to the back teeth with all the sponorship cards, birthdays, babies, weddings, funerals, christenings, passing exams, leaving do's etc etc etc.

It's the same group of women who are always getting married, having babies or leaving. every time the mother hen comes around sticking a card under my nose looking for a poxy handout. I have never received a card for my birthday, my wedding, birth of my child which is grand but at the same time I dont want to be included in all these whip arounds. Just leave me out.

djk1000

Lots of whip arounds in my place, but the card and cash are passed from desk to desk in an envelope, no one can see what anyone puts in, the organiser just makes sure it gets to every desk at some point, much fairer IMO.

tenchi-fan

I was in a job where people went around looking for sponsorship the whole time .. or even worse, I used to work in Dunnes and the checkout girls always did whip-arounds looking for €3-5 for a birthday.. not even a milestone birthday.. just begging for drinking money really.

You have two options for charity collections.
1) An excuse e.g. "sorry, I don't have any money on me" or "i'm a bit short on cash, my car tax and esb bill just arrived" or "i already sponsored my friend for the same event".
Most of these are obvious lies, but they're polite.

2) Just say "I already donated something to the designated charity" (if you company donates to charity) or "sorry, i already donate to charity" or "no thanks, I'm not interested".. these get progressively more harsh, but why should you be apologetic.. it's your money!

As for the whip arounds. At work, we always go out for lunch for people's birthdays, and we all chip for the person whose birthday it is. It's a good system because what goes around comes around. And unlike those whiparounds, only the immediate team are invited. The card doesn't make its way round marketing in the hope that a few more quid can be scraped together.

LimeFruitGum

Actually, it is pretty hard to get people to cough up anything at my work, but it is a large company and the departments are relatively independent from each other. There isn't much cross-department mixing unless you're a smoker

I'll sign cards or whatever, but I only contribute money if I'm on good chatting terms with the person. You can't be expected to give money every time; it is ridiculous. We do go for lunch for birthdays and everyone splits the bill. A lot of the people I work with wouldn't be into drinking after work and we work in an area with some very nice restaurants, so happy days. :-)

I remember when there were redundancies in my work last year and someone went around the desks with envelopes and cards for a guy who was let go in her group.
I just said to her that I really didn't know the guy at all and he never was particularly friendly anyway, so I'd rather not contribute, thanks. It wasn't like I was even going to be invited to the inevitable leaving drinks anyway. I'm sure she thought I was a right old cow:rolleyes: but feck it.

WindSock

Jesus that would wreck my head. You just have to assert yourself with some of the lines that tench-fan said or just say 'I'll sign the card'. Can't expect people to cough up cash everytime there is a non event.

John Mason

i never get asked anymore:)

everytime i have been asked for the last 5 years, i said i wish to opt out of this scheme:)

Agent_99

We have a system on our team that we give a fiver a month around pay day and that covers you for birthday, babies etc, this saves a lot of hassle and embarrassment just in case you are caught short during the month.... Card Cake and prezzie for everyone who contributes.

Trashbat

Pointless sponsorship really annoys me. I worked at a company where a cards were handed around for people doing marathons and the like. Fair Enough, as that a hard thing to train for, but when the Cork marathon was on a card came for a group of 8 people to do a relay in the marathon. Thats a little over 3 miles each, which was the same bloody distance I walked to work. Not impressed!

Still though, i was in a position where it was important to keep everyone happy, and it would have been bad for me to tell them what i thought.

Also, when people come looking for money for Charities you don't agree with really annoys me. Having previously worked in the Charity sector I have a fairly informed background when it comes to who i agree to give to, but you simply cannot say that to people who are collecting, because they'll think your being mean (this also applies to people going off to do charity work in africa and stuff, where you're expected to attend table quizzes and give loads, despite the fact you believe they only want to fund a holiday)

RentDayBlues

My office is none stop on this! Every week there seems to be a new way to force money out of me - I don't mind contributing when I want but being forced into it is not my idea of fun! I have now gotten to the point where I say no and I know that everyone thinks I'm being tight but I'm not spending my money on them.

We do birthdays, engagements, wedding, babies etc I am actually expecting a collection for "getting into work on time" soon!