Wedding gift for colleague

LegacyUser

I posted this on another forum before realising it would be better suited here.

I work in a large office and a colleague of mine is getting married soon. I'm friendly with her and I see her a few times a week. But we're definitely more colleagues than friends. Another girl in the office has suggested we do a 'whip around' and get a large card for us all to sign. I've no real problem with this except I don't know how much is appropriate to give, if anything at all. Bear in mind I'm not invited to the wedding, which is fine, very few people from the office are. So should I give a few quid or is it ridiculous to expect people to give money if they aren't attending the wedding?

Mrs OBumble

My standard rate for things like that is 2 currency units (dollars, yoyo, whatever). Going down to 50c for plonkers I can't stand, and up to 5 units for colleagues who are close friends as well. Less if I'm in a very low paid job and can't afford it.

Suspect that by Irish standards, the makes me very mean / stingy - lots of people seem to contribute 10 or even 20 here. IMHO that's way over the top.

Bandana boy

I would mirror what you see other people in your boat giving
I worked in companies when 2-10 was fine depending on how well you knew them and in others where less than 5 for somebody you only passed in the hall would have somebody gawking at you like you spat on the card.

I worked in one company where I was told so and so is very mean, it did not fit with my experience of that person and I subsequently found out it related back to not putting money in a card 5 years previously.

nibtrix

I agree, 2-5 euro for a work colleague. Same as i'd give for someone leaving, having a baby etc. If they were actually a friend I'd be getting them a present anyway so wouldn't contribute to the office collection. If it's someone I don't like then I don't contribute (but also don't sign the card).