Employee Says Office Manager 'Bullied' Them Into Giving Money Towards A Present For Their Millionaire Boss
In this case, there was an evident clash between office traditions and financial realities.
KatarzynaBialasiewicz, twinsterphoto, Spiderstock | Canva Office traditions of pitching into people’s birthday presents aren’t rare occurrences. It helps make everyone feel like they’re part of a family, and there’s no shortage of team bonding exercises if you throw a party for each of them.
For one employee, however, when they were tapped to pitch into getting a gift for their boss, they were more than reluctant to give any of their money up.
An employee claimed they were bullied into giving money towards a gift for their boss.
The post came from the “r/antiwork” subreddit and was posted on Friday, October 13, 2023 — honestly, what could get spookier than that?
The title reads “Office Manager tries to bully me into giving money for a present for our millionaire boss” and includes a text conversation between them and their office manager in which they discuss the details of the present situation.
Photo: Reddit
Names in the text messages are blocked out for anonymity, but the conversation began with their manager’s insistence. “Hi [poster], I just wanted to confirm that you haven’t given any money for [boss’s] birthday present yet? If you can drop $20 off to me during your next shift that’ll be great!”
The poster replied that they actually weren’t planning on giving anything for their boss’s birthday present. In response, the office manager sent three back-to-back messages. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Everyone else is pitching in, I just thought you’d want to be apart of the team,” they wrote in the first.
It almost feels like a guilt trip, but it didn’t work. The poster never replied, and the office manager sent another message. “Can you do $10?” they asked.
But who knows if it was ever about the amount in the first place. Either way, the office manager didn’t get the hint because they sent a third message in response, basically demanding an answer.
“It’s for [boss]. We all wouldn’t even have employment if not for him,” the manager wrote. Their loyalty and praise toward their boss is noted, but the employee doesn’t care, because their response was less than cordial.
The employee didn’t want to give what little money they had to their rich, millionaire boss.
The employee being pestered for their hard-earned money finally responded, asking, “Can you just leave it be? I live paycheck-to-paycheck. I don’t [have] extra money to give to our boss.” Finally, the manager replied with a curt, “Ok,” but at least now they probably got the hint.
According to a “reality check,” paycheck-to-paycheck report from PYMNTS in November 2022, via Bankrate, 76% of U.S. adults who make less than $50,000 are living paycheck-to-paycheck, compared to 65.9% of those making $50,000 to $100,000 and 47.1% making more than $100,000.
The most recent numbers pulled from June 2023 say that 61% of adults are now living paycheck-to-paycheck. However, those who pull higher wages a year are struggling considerably less. Forty-five percent of those earning more than $100,000 a year live paycheck-to-paycheck compared to the 47.1% from the previous year.
Photo: Karolina Grabowska / Pexels
This is the reality that the employee works in. Before the post was deleted by moderators, the poster gave a little more context surrounding the toxic workplace that they have to work in.
"The office manager is your typical social butterfly who loves to gossip and suck up to the boss at any opportunity she gets," they explained. "I’m paid so poorly but a job's a job to make ends meet for my family. I don’t have anything extra in my budget for myself or my kids let alone to put towards a gift for my already rich boss. I hate this toxic workplace."
All this is to say that, no, this employee does not want to pitch money into the millionaire boss’s gift, nor should they be pressured to. They simply want to do their work and focus on surviving and providing for their family.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.