Otto reminded me in this thread that there hasn’t been a thread yet trashing the bloodsucking United Way. So I decided to rectify that.
Things are marginally better in my department this year, as through some means I am the department rep for their propaganda. Someone in HR asked my if I would be willing to receive all the crap and make it available, and I said sure. When I get it, it remains available in the trash bin under my desk until housekeeping takes it away.
OTOH, management now insist we, and every department, offer time to a UW rep at a department staff meeting during the sucking period, to make a personal lunge for our throats. We get a pre-filled out form from that person, and all we have to do is sign it and check a donation level or write in an amount in a box, to make our contribution. It particularly angers me that my employer is giving the United Way may name and address, but no one has ever asked what I think about it. I am perfectly willing to tell them.
I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but I’ve rarely been as proud of my husband as when his department had a 100% participation rate in their United Way campaign - 100% of them donated nothing. We have our own charities that mean something to us that we donate to each year - United Way is not one of them. I really take exception to any employer telling me what to do with MY money (beyond what is required by law, of course - taxes, etc.).
One of the many joys of being retired is that I no longer have to put up with being pressured to contribute to the Combined Federal Campaign (of which the United Way is one of the contribution options). No more attending mandatory “presentations” where we are pressured to ake at least a minimum contribution so that our wor unit withh have 100% participation. No more having to walk past huge posters showing how close my work unit or the entire office is to reaching some established financial contribution amount. No more being subjected to umpty-ump emails every day announcing raffles, bake sales, hot dog luncheons, or caramel apple sales to raise money for the CFC.
Boy, I sure do love working for a medium size tech firm that, you can tell by the single United Way related email, feels about the same way.
The worst I’ve seen is something like this -
“All employees - a United Way representative will be in some meeting room from 10 to 11. If you can’t make this meeting, please be sure to remember your favorite charity this holiday season.”
Every year I’d get a nearly-completed form in my mailbox, with my name on it, and every year I’d throw it in the garbage. Except for this year, everybody got one but me. Do you think they finally noticed?
My employer doesn’t get to decide what I do with my money. Period. I don’t owe them an explanation, either.
When I was working at Pacific Power and Light my manger took me aside and told me what someone at my level was “expected” to contribute; I was shocked. I changed jobs soon after that.
I was shocked at the bluntness when an admin said they’d rather raise $5000 per year from 100% of the employees participating than $10,000 per year from 70% of the employees participating. Does anybody know what awards/accolades/sexual favors bosses get for 100% participation?
And I’m sure I speak for many when I say I don’t dispute the UW does good work, but I resent like hell the fact that if you don’t participate you can expect to hear about it. What is this odd power they have over employees?
UW doesn’t do good work - they don’t do any work. They hand money to other organizations, taking a hefty chunk of the money before it actually gets anywhere to do some good. However, somehow they have obtained major political pressure in a lot of workplaces; it some companies around here not contributing is pretty much kissing your chance of a promotion goodbye.
I was discussing this very subject with a co-worker at my new job. Since I am not “management” I will not be expected to make a payroll dediction. This is very good, because there would be a whole lot of unfulfilled expectations around. To keep the peace, and my job, I will donate one dollar. This will alllow the company to keep their somehow envinable record of 100% compliance with this soul-sucking scheme.
When my mom was still fairly fresh to this country, she had a UW deduction on her check. She thought it was just another mandatory deduction, like tax or FISA. I don’t think she was too happy when she found out. This was at one of the pill hill hospitals in Oakland in the late '60s.
And is you really want to hear some bitching about UW, just ask some local non-profit exec directors.
Here, in my slice of BRAC-topia, the commanding general had the solid brass balls to complain that we weren’t meeting the goals he set the year prior. Never mind the fact that he set the goal before most of the really highly paid retired. Asking someone making $31,919 a year with a mortgage and student loans to donate a full 12% of their pay to help you meet your goal (read: bonus) and then get MAD when we don’t is unacceptable. At least your replacement is more upfront, and wants us to put in a 7 day a week effort in the office.
I always liked giving to the United Way. It made it easier to give to charity, which meant that I actually would do it on a regular basis, and not just when I got the occassional urge. They used to allow you to take three organizations off the list and specify that none of your donation would go to them. I only needed one: BirthRight. Then BirthRight split into six different BirthRight organizations, so I directed my donation to Planned Parenthood. Then it occurred to me that I should just send them the check, and they would send me an envelope to send them another. I even said they could call me if I didn’t return it in a timely fashion. So now it’s just as easy, and UW doesn’t take a cut. I do feel sorry for all the other organizations that don’t get my money. All but six of them, anyway.
Ditto here - I used to direct my UW donation to Planned Parenthood, then I realized that I should send the donations direct to Planned Parenthood, and cut out the UW middleman.
The only advantage to going through UW that I can see is that by doing it via payroll deduction, I can give a small sum out of every paycheck, rather than having to budget for one large lump sum. But that’s hardly sufficient reason to allow UW to suck up chunks of my money that could be better spent.
Doesn’t that violate about a dozen laws? You can’t be compelled to join a union do to the right of free association. How can you be compelled to donate to a charity?
This thread reminds me to avoid the CFC monitor at all costs. It sucks to be the officer in charge of that debacle, but hey, I’m not an officer, so tough luck for him.
Isn’t that simply an accounting shell game though? They don’t count up the donations, and divide it on some formula based on preferences of the contributors, or I assume they don’t. Whether you say not to give money to Birthright or not, I would assume they get the same donation, just more of someone else’s contribution goes there.
They always used to try to get me to donate to UW at work (not here thank God). I always refused based, not least, on their support for the Boy Scouts, who I won’t support until they change their discriminatory policies. Boss used to get very angry with me.
The local UW has made a lot of changes to reduce their monstrous overhead and do better. My boyfriend has done some video work for them and is a lot more positive about them than he used to be. Of course, he didn’t have to sit there at Staff Ed day and watch the video I had to watch him edit, and then get the hard sell. They’re not awful about it here, but they’re awful enough. I contribute to my own charities, thanks.
Bah, no redemption, they are one-step above pure evil on the Cheney Scale*.
The pressure tactics have been so bad, so long, in so many companies. The skimming off the top has bee notorious and the perks and salaries of the criminals running the place in the past has removed any chance of my ever forgiving them and even if they were better, it is still best just to give directly to the charities you like.
I’m glad that this came up, because I’m a bit confused. I had read once that UW raked off a very large percentage of the money for administrative costs. Then someone told me that there was a difference between local UWs and United Way of America, and their overhead costs may vary considerably. I never bothered to pursue it; it just seemed easier to donate based upon my own beliefs rather than researching UW. Nevertheless, I do believe that there is a need for an organization that collects a lot of money, and in turn endows a number of charities. There are many worthy and unknown charitable organizations that could use this money.
I thank you for this thread, because until now I hadn’t realized that my new office doesn’t participate in that BS. No shitty UW campaigns for me! w00t!
/dances around, tossing dollar bills at charities that aren’t United Way
Thirty years ago, I created a stink over my workplace displaying an award for 100% participation in the United Way campaign. When the boss told me he had paid my contribution for me, and filled out the form (Including forging my signature!) because I was the only one who didn’t cave in to the pressure. I told him if I didn’t get notification from UW, and the sign didn’t come down, I would report him to the police for forgery. He said he didn’t believe me. I picked up his phone and called the police immediately. He was really pissed.
The fraud officer told him he did have to notify United Way, did have to take the money back, and did have to return their award. Then he got extraordinarily pissed.
Fuck him. He got fired a few months later, for an unrelated fraud.