Hellobee Boards

I have had a ton of co-workers have babies in the last year (I think around 7-8!). Our office usually gives the option of giving cash towards a group gift or buying something off the registry. I always buy off the registry because the group gift is almost always clothes and I know most moms want practical things from the registry.

I've been at my current job for 4 years and I'm the only one who has gotten married or had a baby in that time. Most of my co-workers are 15+ years older than I am. I've had a wedding and baby shower there and everyone got me an individual present of around $30. It is a small organization (about 15 employees).

I chip in, amount depends on how well I know/like the person!

We have a voluntary payroll deduction option that goes into a fund that pays out when employees have babies or get married. As part of the paperwork to authorize the payroll deduction, the events and amounts are listed. I think it's a $50 gift card for a wedding and $50 for a baby.

The fund goes toward retirements and stuff like that. I personally don't contribute to it because our company has several locations and our location is a very small portion of the overall company and we rarely have weddings/babies in our office (although there were 2 babies this year).

What irks me though is that the goal of this fund is to prevent favoritism and getting hit up for cash all the time, but it still happens. In fact, there were 2 ladies that had babies this year, one was thrown a baby shower at work and the other wasn't. And for the one that was given a shower, a group email was sent around and the people were called out on the group email chain on the amount contributed or if they didn't participate.

My work just doesn't handle it appropriately.

End rant.