'AITA for refusing to contribute to a farewell gift for a coworker?'

"AITA for refusing to contribute to a farewell gift for a coworker?'

I (31F) am a senior manager on a small, five person product development team. Our coworker, Brenda (55F), is retiring next week after 20 years at the company. Brenda is technically competent, but she has a notoriously negative attitude toward our team's administrative workload.

Throughout her entire tenure, she treated essential tasks like documentation, data entry, and procedural compliance as beneath her, calling them grunt work and often openly mocking them. Consequently, the remaining four of us had to absorb 100% of these critical but less glamorous responsibilities.

This imbalance meant the rest of us routinely worked late and weekends just to keep up with the mundane tasks Brenda shirked. Our boss knows this happens but has always been hesitant to discipline Brenda due to her long service.

Now that Brenda is retiring, the team lead is organizing a big farewell gift a $600 personalized luxury watch and asking for a mandatory $100 contribution from each of us. I politely declined to contribute anything.

I explained privately to the team lead that I respect Brenda's long career, but I cannot financially contribute to a celebratory gift for someone whose persistent refusal to share the basic administrative burden severely and negatively impacted my work life balance for years. I said I would sign the card, but that's all.

The team lead told me I was being petty and disrespectful, and that Brenda's past behavior shouldn't overshadow the need for professionalism during her retirement send off. The other two coworkers who have also felt the strain of the extra workload are now uncomfortable because they feel pressured to pay the full amount, and they are saying I am making them look bad for not contributing.

AITA for refusing to pay for a luxury farewell gift for a long-term coworker whose negative attitude and refusal to do her fair share of the work constantly added a substantial burden to my own workload?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

Fair_Theme_9388 said:

Excuse me what? A $600 luxury watch with a mandatory $100 contribution from each employee? Heck no. If your boss wants to get her a gift he can use the company credit card. Pretty sure it’s illegal to force employees to use their own money on crap like this. NTA. Bye Brenda.

Okdoey said:

NTA. If the company wanted to give her a retirement gift they can use their own budget. Contributions to gifts like this are optional. Though admittedly, it may impact others perception of you.

NellieFl said:

Please speak to HR immediately, no company can mandate a "gift" and it’s inappropriate to demand money when you don’t know people’s personal situations. NTA.

DumpTruckSupremeDuck said:

NTA. NO ONE should be mandated to give any money. I would take it up with HR. The company can pay for her watch if they want to reward her years with them. None of you have to pull it out of YOUR pockets for her.