Verdicts
Is it tight to skip a work birthday collection?

Am I being tight?Weddings and celebrationsFrom the Vouchernaut deskThursday 29 October

Is it tight to skip a work birthday collection?

Embed this

Paste this into your page's HTML where you want it. It sets no cookies: all that's kept is how many times a day each site loads it, and nothing about who's reading. The line crediting Vouchernaut is welcome, but it's yours to keep or drop.

<iframe id="vouchernaut-verdict-is-it-tight-to-skip-a-work-birthday-collection" src="https://vouchernaut.com/embed/verdicts/is-it-tight-to-skip-a-work-birthday-collection" title="Am I being tight? Is it tight to skip a work birthday collection?" width="100%" height="260" style="border:0;max-width:760px" allow="clipboard-write; web-share" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p>A money question from <a href="https://vouchernaut.com/verdicts/is-it-tight-to-skip-a-work-birthday-collection">Vouchernaut</a></p>
<script>addEventListener("message",function(e){var f=document.getElementById("vouchernaut-verdict-is-it-tight-to-skip-a-work-birthday-collection"),h=e.data&&e.data.type==="vouchernaut:embed-height"&&+e.data.height;if(e.origin==="https://vouchernaut.com"&&f&&e.source===f.contentWindow&&h>0&&h<10000)f.style.height=h+"px"})</script>

See it as it's framed

Our note

On 3 September, BBC News quoted Thomas Roulet, professor of organisational psychology and leadership at Cambridge University, saying it is "generally socially acceptable to limit giving toward wider team members". Office birthday collections are one place that choice comes up.

GiftRound's analysis in the BBC report put the average contribution across office collections at £11.65 in the first three months of 2026. The collections covered birthdays, weddings and leaving dos. A Nationwide survey of 2,017 office workers in December 2019 found average annual spending of £108.60 on colleagues' birthday cards and presents. Just over half, 54%, were happy to chip in for an office birthday; 26% felt pressured to do so.

In a 2023 instantprint survey, 53% of UK office workers said they contributed to some workplace collections and 12% to none. I would weigh how many collections come round and whether I know the person. The surveys show that people draw the line in different places.