# Question: Can companies threaten employees to get them to push donations to organizations? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 17, 2011, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892 "2011-10-17T07:16:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kyuutatsu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@kyuutatsu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kyuutatsu)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/21 "2011-10-19T01:46:21Z")
> [@Tess](#): > > That’s what I was getting at. Sorry if I upset you, **kyuutatsu**. You’re right, huh even i found the fun in it now, I’d forgotten about that. Sorry I mistook your statement. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/22 "2011-10-19T02:21:49Z")
I think St. Jude’s would be saddened that this blackmail is happening in their name. By all means, let them know. If someone is fired for not making their quota of donations, I’d say they have a good suit for wrongful dismissal. Being fired for not asking for the donation is a grayer area. If your manager is the one putting the pressure on you, what is his manager or the owner doing? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/23 "2011-10-19T12:29:26Z")
> [@kyuutatsu](#): > > At the last bit of the memo, it turned very sinister, as it began to detail for us what would happen if we were caught not offering people the chance to donate. What started out as a rather endearing and almost heartwarming memo suddenly turned into a cooperate monster that basically told us, Sell or get fired. > > It said that if we were caught not offering every customer a chance to donate, the first time was a suspension and the second time we’d be terminated, no questions asked. I signed my name, I had no issues with the whole thing to start with, what I had an issue with was being threatened before I’d done anything wrong. To be blunt, you will not be offering the customers a chance to donate. You are soliciting and if it happened to me I’d take my business elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/24 "2011-10-19T14:34:17Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > You are soliciting and if it happened to me I’d take my business elsewhere. Good luck with that. Register solicitation is so ubiquitous these days that you’re liable to starve looking for a place that doesn’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/25 "2011-10-19T14:50:57Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Good luck with that. Register solicitation is so ubiquitous these days that you’re liable to starve looking for a place that doesn’t do it. Which is something, as a fundraiser, I simply do not understand at all. It’s an enormous hassle for an extremely small amount of money, proportionally speaking. You’ve got to talk to every retailer in the area, convince them that your charity and not someone else’s is the best fit for them, probably throw sweeteners in there for them, supply a metric buttload of logo-ed stuff for them…and for what? $20 a night at most? Our phonathon raised over $2,000 a night, and that wasn’t even considered our major giving sector! It’s fundraising at its least creative, IMHO. “Let’s outsource the work to someone else, that will be easier and cheaper!” Nope, it turns into an enormous pain in the neck to co-ordinate it all, and the returns are tiny. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/26 "2011-10-19T14:58:17Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Good luck with that. Register solicitation is so ubiquitous these days that you’re liable to starve looking for a place that doesn’t do it. Thank goodness I don’t live in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/27 "2011-10-19T15:38:12Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Good luck with that. Register solicitation is so ubiquitous these days that you’re liable to starve looking for a place that doesn’t do it. > [@Floater](#): > > Thank goodness I don’t live in the USA. I live in the USA, and I very rarely run into actual solicitation. There may be boxes at the counter to drop your change for March of Dimes or something, but I can’t remember the last time a cashier asked me if I wanted to donate. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/28 "2011-10-19T16:47:23Z")
It happens to us about 50% of the time, I’d guess. We’re either asked if we want to donate to something or asked if we want to sign up for some store card or mastercard or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/29 "2011-10-19T18:33:53Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > YES - please send it to the charity. I work for a charity, and we hate these kinds of sells because it just gives us bad publicity. We’d so much prefer you go the other way - offer incentives to cashiers who raise a lot! We can even provide some low-cost cheap incentives; a t-shirt or two goes a long way. > > Please, please, let the charity know. It may not go anywhere - I don’t know how St. Jude’s works. I do know things like that are addressed in our charity, and as I said we don’t like them. St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, in Memphis, is dedicated to helping children with extremely dire illnesses that are difficult to treat, regardless of the family’s ability to pay. If the child is medically eligible, the hospital will cover the treatment regardless of whether insurance will pay. I can’t think of a better charity. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/30 "2011-10-19T19:52:20Z")
It sounds to me, and please take this constructively, like you’re taking all of this way too seriously. You spend 3 seconds asking each customer, “Would you like to donate to St. Jude today?” they say no (or yes, maybe) and you move on. No big deal. I get it from cashiers at retail places all the time. No matter what memos the upper management sends out, your boss truly is aware that you can’t make a customer buy something that they don’t want to buy. But at the same time, a customer can’t buy something if they’re not aware of its existence. So, just casually offer it, don’t be pushy, don’t worry about quotas, and move on. Every consequence that you have been “threatened” with is just if you neglect to do the little spiel. So just don’t forget to do it, and you won’t get fired. Don’t stress out about quotas, that’s upper management bullshit. You seriously don’t need to worry about this. Because, if anyone at Sonoco gets fired over this, it will be because _they forgot to ask_, not because their customers all said no. Don’t get so hung up on “quotas.” It’s bullshit, true, but it’s just for a month. Put up with it gamely, and you will still have your job next month. Although if management gets really stupid with the memos, I agree you need to advise St. Jude of the situation. The biggest mistake I ever made in a retail job was taking it seriously. Minimum wage = minimum effort. _Relax_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/31 "2011-10-19T20:21:55Z")
But that’s not what management is demanding: they want the cashiers to bring in at least $20 a shift or they’re fired. Even asking everyone who comes in might not make that amount of money. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/32 "2011-10-19T20:28:47Z")
That sounds completely unfair. How is it your fault if customers don’t want to donate? Then what are you supposed to do? Give the money yourself? Blech. Having a quota for the amount when you don’t even request certain amounts is weird. Your only job should be to ask. If it’s like Safeway or King Soopers, the damn debit/credit reader will ask you on top of the clerk asking you. It’s really rather annoying. This month I have been asked to make donations for breast cancer and autism and probably a few others. It’s only the 19th. I’m donored-out. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892/33 "2011-10-19T23:42:38Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > But that’s not what management is demanding: they want the cashiers to bring in at least $20 a shift or they’re fired. That would be highly immoral and an extraordinarily questionable tactic. Fortunately, that isn’t happening here. > [@](#): > > “Everyone should make no less than $20 in donations, if I watch the camera and see you’re not asking everyone for donations you will be suspended. Selling $1, $3 or even $10 worth is UNACCEPTABLE”… So now I have to worry about my job security because I didn’t make the $20 quota set down by my boss lady. They \*\*want \*\*the cashiers to bring in $20 a night at a minimum. And failing to ask every single customer will get them fired. There’s no connection between those statements, though, even though the manager said them in the same breath. Failing to meet the quota has no consequences in terms of job-loss. The only consequences of failing to meet the quota are being told “this is unacceptable!” (and probably receiving stern glances from the manager). Neither of those things are immoral or illegal. If I’m wrong and OP loses their job over falling $4 short of his quota, I will be flabbergasted–I just don’t see that happening **at all**. It’s just another stupid corporate policy designed to make employees live in fear for their jobs. _Don’t buy into this bullshit!_ I used to work for Blockbuster, and we “had” to upsell (rewards programs or candy or dvds at home, it changed from month to month). I always tried to upsell but it rarely worked (I’m not attractive, nor am I a particularly charismatic cashier). My boss would bitch about it in generalities (omg our store isn’t making enough in rewards, the DM is going to have my ass), but it’s not like I wasn’t doing my job. I didn’t get fired for it. I just wasn’t cute enough to scam people out of a few extra bucks. \*No big deal. \*As long as OP offers the upsell to everyone, he’s not going to get fired. Frankly, everyone would be better off without a job that would fire someone over an activity that wasn’t in your job description at the time you were hired. And if this actually happens (it won’t), you could make an excellent case for unemployment benefits. You could also turn it into a media nightmare if you contacted St. Jude after being let go. But it won’t happen. In sum, OP will not lose his job unless he forgets to upsell, because that is something they have control over. Cashiers have no control over whether a customer says yes or no. His salary isn’t predicated on commissions, so there is literally nothing to worry about–except making the offer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-can-companies-threaten-employees-to-get-them-to-push-donations-to-organizations/599892.md?page=1)