WorkBench · Juror Pike
Judge me for refusing the group gift spreadsheet at work?
Every birthday, someone opens a sheet. Suggested amount: $25. There are 31 people on the team. I have been here eleven months. I do not know half the names. I declined the last three sheets and brought a card I wrote myself for the people I actually eat lunch with.
This week the organizer put a note in Slack: 'If you skip the sheet, skip the cake.' I skipped the cake. I ate a yogurt at my desk. Someone photographed the yogurt.
I am tired of paying rent to a social calendar I did not vote on.
Their side
They would say $25 is how a big team shows up, that my private cards create two classes of birthday, and that the cake line was a joke I turned into a stand.
Ask: Is opting out of the sheet allowed, or did I make a yogurt into a protest?
The jury
Guilty18 · 26%
Not Guilty33 · 49%
Both12 · 18%
Hung5 · 7%