Why do you hate America?
Hee hee, that was the first time I’ve had a chance to get in first with that.
Really, I despise UW. I did a thread a while back about hideous combination of the United Way and workplace skits.
Be warned! There was a True Believer in the United Way in that thread. Kinda scary.
Jumpin’ Jesus, I’m too tired to rant about United Way this year. I’ll summarize past years rants in bullet points:
- Strongarm schoolyard bully tactics.
- Personally told “under the table” that United Way donations impact my performance review.
- Criminal kickback SOB’s bribe executives with gifts to get cash for their charity.
- Call UW to complain about my company’s fundraising and they say they can’t even investigate without my full name, contact info, Social Security Number, boss’s name and contact info…yeah, right. :rolleyes:
That is all.
Boy, was there ever. I especially loved the story change from “my husband is in charge of harassing the shit out of people at work, and boy is he good at it. He’s so creative with the harassment campaign that everyone hates his guts!” changing to “Uh, I mean, no, there’s no harassment. They totally leave you alone if you just say ‘no thank you’.” Sure they do, lady.
Pretty much exactly how it goes down where I work, too. One year someone made a parody version of the posters the company was putting up, featuring all of the shitty stuff UW was pulling. The company <i>hired private investigators</i> to catch the “culprit.” Bastards never snagged 'em though.
Is it CFC season again? :rolleyes:
:Bravo:
The only good thing about being a temp, I’m off the United Way radar.
Nope. Beyond the administrative costs, UW will reduce their funding of the agency by the amount of your donation. So your preferred agency doesn’t end up with any more money - just what they would have gotten anyway.
(Disclaimer: at least according to my brother who works with the budgets of an agency that receives UW funds).
I don’t give to UW because of this. I’d rather give directly to my preferred agency. Luckily, MPOW doesn’t do the high pressure thing, but it wouldn’t change my mind if they did.
This is true, or at least was at the time of Boyo Jim’s thread, listed above. The preferred group gets only what the UW’s budget allocates to them, and nothing more even if a ton of people decide to support them via the UW in this manner.
Yes, really! That kind of stuff isn’t illegal in Spain simply because nobody has thought of it… what you give or not give is a personal thing and none of the freaking company’s business!
Heck, I even don’t like it when my mother sees how much I’m giving at Mass.
In prior years our mamagement was responsible for squeezing money out of us. This year is the first when UW reps came to department meetings – every unit in the hospital had to make time on their agenda to accommodate one – and made their “Poor little Tommy and Jessica” spiel.
I’m not sure how to unterpret this. It may actually be a management revolt against being put in a fundraising position. This year my manager hasn’t said one word about the program – she just sat down and shut up like the rest of us to listen to the pitch. Afterward we went on without an additional word about it.
All in all an improvement, I’d say.
My last job used to put out info on united way but no one ever tried to strong-arm me into contributing. This job (so far) hasn’t even done that (but I’ve only been here since March.)
(the most severe mod-spanking I ever received was in a UW thread in GQ, which I deserved, given the forum)
There is a school of thought that while Charity is a natural and positive human impulse, it in no way can be a society’s sole instrument of addressing life’s injustices.
Somewhere on some golf course, there stands a group of people who earn way too much money, competetively comparing each other’s golf scores, golfing equipment, and United Way contributions.
That’s not a worthy GQ answer, and the tide of bile behind it is more than I care to allow into even the Pit.
Well, the way the United Way campaign is done here (and I work for a very large employer here in Eastern Massasachusetts), it’s all carrot (i.e. prizes), and no stick. The level of contribution is quite low – I make it to be average of $3 per employee per year. And while it’s true that I could give money directly to one of the UW agencies, saving them the administrative skim off the top, you guys need to come to grips with how lazy I am. Without UW making it pathetically easy for me to give, those agencies would get nothing from me.
Ok, so you know your entire donation is not going to the charity, right? UW is taking a cut.
Add me to the list of haters of UW.
I feel the same way. The local head of our UW division makes over $100,000 a year… Fucking scum bag… I am sure he works hard begging for a living, but to say it is really to help someone, well sir, go fuck yourself…
I know I’ve been away a long time, but the last time this subject came up, I remember being crucified for not giving. Of course part of the reason was that the first time I ever saw them come around asking, I was in a prior career and was Severely under paid, as was everyone with me. The UW rep pulled up in a 7-series BMW, stepped out with better than $2000 worth of clothes on and one of those expensive designer hand-bags. If I knew shoes, I would have bet they were big $$$ designer items also. Head to toe, she put the entire wardrobe of ‘sex in the city’ in all of its seasons to shame.
She was the one who gave the presentation about how they needed money and wanted 100% compliance, when I knew that every person forced to sit through it with me had brought in a bagged lunch because they had to.
About a million and one UW apologists jumped me for judging Imelda Marcos harshly for asking the working poor for money.
Just say: “I can’t donate through United Way, it’s for religous reasons. I am sure you understand.”
A huge percentage of my federal and state taxes already goes to welfare (social services, social security, etc.). The last thing I’m going to do *increase * the amount I’m paying. Which is what I’d be doing if I gave money to a charity…