raffling xmas presents

n3wound

My girlfriend is a Montessori teacher and her workplace doesn't allow her to accept gifts from the children's parents. All gifts received are raffled off among the entire staff. Can they actually do this? The gifts are given personally based on the relationships the teachers cultivate with the children.

Thanks for any help

Loveinapril

I would presume that your reasoning is exactly WHY gifts can't be accepted. There has to be a level of professional boundary involved.

What if kids can't give presents? What if kids are favoured for the gifts they give? What if there is rivalry between the kids for who can give the best present? What if something is expected in return for the gift?

There are too many issues at play here. I have never heard of a raffle but the management are obviously trying to take the personal aspect away, which is the right thing to do.

Diziet

Yes, of course they can. Lots of companies do not allow employees to receive gifts.

Mrs OBumble

I'm delighted to hear that this happens. Totally inappropriate for any professional to take a gift beyond what can be consumed immediately from a client. (One cup of coffee in OK, a whole bag of organic coffee beans isn't.)

Actually, I think that the gifts should be donated to charity, not distributed among the staff.

But at very least "raffling" them means that a fair share goes to the caretaker, cleaners, SNA, secretary, resource teachers, etc - all the support staff whose often-unseen contribution helps the classroom teachers to have that relationship with kids and their parents.

dieselbug

We used the raffle system in a place I worked previously.

We'd get a good few bottles from reps etc and would raffle them off on breakup day.

Once you came out of the hat you stayed out. This way there was maximum chance of as many as possible receiving something.

Worked well.

Irish_Elect_Eng

My differnt employers all had different policies:

Current employer has a complete ban on gifts, primarily coming from an no-alcohol on the premises policy, to avoid the usual barrage of bottles from reps to the buyers. If people ask, we politely refuse, gifts are not the norm in our industry due to ethics rules.

A previous employer, no official rules, but staff collected all the gifts, openly stored them under a tree, all appropriate gifts went to SVDP anything remaining was raffled as a part of a general Christmas raffle. Made everyone feel good.

Another previous employer was a free for all, people in some purchasing functions got lots of gifts, those in back office and mfg. got little or none. Some gifts were big enough to be considered as incentives, brown envelopes and exchanges in the car park.

Sharing is caring folks as Barney would say :-)

dieselbug

"Sharing is caring folks as Barney would say ":-)[/QUOTE]

Was that not Bosco.

Irish_Elect_Eng

dieselbug wrote: »

"Sharing is caring folks as Barney would say ":-)

Was that not Bosco.[/QUOTE]

LOL...

Now that I think of it CARE BEARS may be the show I remember.

Or

According to SHARING IS CARING Trademark of Salvation Army, The - Registration Number 2492693 - Serial Number 76180417 :: Justia Trademarks, the Salvation Army has had "sharing is caring" trademarked since 1950.

_Brian

dieselbug wrote: »

We used the raffle system in a place I worked previously.

We'd get a good few bottles from reps etc and would raffle them off on breakup day.

Once you came out of the hat you stayed out. This way there was maximum chance of as many as possible receiving something.

Worked well.

Same here. Pool everything and then raffle it off. Means that those out meeting clients and those back in the office both get chances to benifet from gratitude of customers.

TheDoc

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I'm delighted to hear that this happens. Totally inappropriate for any professional to take a gift beyond what can be consumed immediately from a client. (One cup of coffee in OK, a whole bag of organic coffee beans isn't.)

Sometimes wonder what world you live in, or maybe it's just your in a really obscure career or sector?

Gifts and gestures are frequent enough in my working life thus far, and I'm in IT.

Latest was completing a system migration to a new platform, and our new vendor was so impressed with how we managed the migration and project(team of three) they sent us VIP concert tickets with compliments.

TBH I'd say my boss and company know better then to even mention it, as their perks and packages are scandalous for the sector average.

When working with the biggest banks in the world, and I'd go on site to oversee an upgrade or deployment or just a meet and greet, would be frequently brought out to dinner or be given some sort of token to take home.

Granted OP it's fair enough if it's explicity mentioned as policy. I know my misses worked in a preschool for two years and around christmas would receive gifts from appreciative parents and there was no problem keeping them.

daheff

Its a bit like tips for wait staff being pooled and distributed amongst all the people working in a restuarant.

While I understand it might not seem fair to the teacher getting loads of gifts (cos they have to give them up) its not fair for the staff who arent 'client' facing and thus receive nothing.


In my place the way we do it is the person receiving gifts gets to take first pick of what they get and then the rest is pooled for distribution (they get a ticket too).

Aglomerado

Fair policy. I used to work in logistics for a manufacturing company and was the only staff member administering outside contractors.

Every Christmas the contractors would send me hampers, bottles of brandy, whiskey, wine etc, while my colleagues got nothing. Similarly my colleagues in purchasing were inundated also while sales got nothing.

So company policy was for all gifts to be pooled and raffled at the annual company dinner dance which was hosted free of charge in a local hotel.

Each employee got €250 of vouchers from the company anyway, plus a large hamper full of goodies including a bottle of whiskey, so no-one was hard done by!

AnCatDubh

It really helps if the organisation involved write to all concerned (parents in your case) and explain the policy.

This can be tastefully done and in the spirit of the time of year thanking them for their contributions over the year, the attendance of their children, the efforts of the parents, and wishing everyone a happy Christmas, the best of the season, happy holidays, hanukkah or whatever is appropriate to the ethos of the organisation -- Making it clear that the policy of the organisation is that gifts are not to be accepted but should any be presented by a parent or child that it will be raffled among the entire staff. Generally this will stop 99% of it bar those that don't read the letters sent home.

That said, Its pants really that it is that way, though I can really understand it in a lot of situations but many "lines of business" are different - avoiding everything from corruption/bribery in some cases (not yours) to pressure being put on others to give (possibly yours) to perceived or real unfairness to the combined efforts of what it takes to run an organisation while a smaller number may be targeted or singled out for the "fringe benefits" (um.., maybe) (I know its not really fringe benefit - just had nothing better to call it).

Yes, PC doing its best to make a sows ear out of a silk purse I suppose.

ted1

n3wound wrote: »

My girlfriend is a Montessori teacher and her workplace doesn't allow her to accept gifts from the children's parents. All gifts received are raffled off among the entire staff. Can they actually do this? The gifts are given personally based on the relationships the teachers cultivate with the children.

Thanks for any help

Yes, the gifts are giving to the teacher and not her. If she was not the teacher she would not get gifts.

Whiplashy

I used to work in a Montessori and I got to keep all my presents. There was a suggestion one year that they should be pooled but I shot that down pretty quickly! Occasionally you'd get parents leaving in sweets etc for the whole staff and in my opinion that's the only stuff that should be raffled. The gifts are purposefully bought for the teacher. If they're not going to the teacher then the parents need to be informed. I'm sure the volume of gifts would drastically reduce.

ongarboy

I've a friend who is a primary school teacher and she groans every year at the amount of cheap hand lotion and cream gift sets she accumulates from the students so depending on the type of industry you are in, not receiving gifts can be a blessing. Also, who needs 15 tins of Roses or would begrudge them being raffled out?

Electric Sheep

ongarboy wrote: »

I've a friend who is a primary school teacher and she groans every year at the amount of cheap hand lotion and cream gift sets she accumulates from the students so depending on the type of industry you are in, not receiving gifts can be a blessing. Also, who needs 15 tins of Roses or would begrudge them being raffled out?

Individuals in my workplace often receive holiday gifts of edibles. They are always placed in a common area for everyone in the department to share. I have never heard of anyone in my office keeping a gift like that for themselves.

Fortunately, in the corporate world we do not have to deal with hand lotion or mugs labeled Number 1 Teacher.

LegacyUser

My mums a GP and gets loads of gifts at xmas and always raffles them off among staff as it's not fair that a lot of the backroom people who make the place run don't get anything. I assume a creche/school is the same - cleaners, ground staff, sectary etc etc keep everything ticking over so a teacher can focus on students. If you were given something very personal I can understand keeping it but tins of sweets and bottles of wine should be shared out evenly I feel.

Mrs OBumble

TheDoc wrote: »

Sometimes wonder what world you live in, or maybe it's just your in a really obscure career or sector?

Currently I work in IT in the SME sector. No rules about gifts.

In the past I've worked in American multinationals - very strict rules there about declaring all gifts, and letting the manager decide what's done with them.

And before that I was a long term public servant, outside of Ireland. That's where I learned about ethics, and principles like public servants not taking anything which could even be seen to cause them to favour one client over another.

The OP describes his GF as a Montessori teacher. I guess if she's teaching in a private childcare centre, then parental gifts could be acceptable, because there's no requirement to be seen to be fair. But if it's a state-funded role, then it would be entirely wrong to accept inducements or things which could be perceived as inducements.

Yes, I'm well aware of the brown envelope culture in this country. It's despicable.

TheDoc

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Currently I work in IT in the SME sector. No rules about gifts.

In the past I've worked in American multinationals - very strict rules there about declaring all gifts, and letting the manager decide what's done with them.

And before that I was a long term public servant, outside of Ireland. That's where I learned about ethics, and principles like public servants not taking anything which could even be seen to cause them to favour one client over another.

The OP describes his GF as a Montessori teacher. I guess if she's teaching in a private childcare centre, then parental gifts could be acceptable, because there's no requirement to be seen to be fair. But if it's a state-funded role, then it would be entirely wrong to accept inducements or things which could be perceived as inducements.

Yes, I'm well aware of the brown envelope culture in this country. It's despicable.

Vendors or clients or customers exchanging/providing gifts as a thanks for hard work or good work, is hardly brown envelope culture....

mohawk

The place my son goes to for after school care sends an email every year detailing their Christmas gift policy. Basically if parents want to give a gift then they would prefer if they drop it into the office where they divide them amongst all the staff. If we want we can buy a gift for a particular staff member. I think it's fair the gifts are divided out as otherwise the support staff would get nothing.

wally79

TheDoc wrote: »

Vendors or clients or customers exchanging/providing gifts as a thanks for hard work or good work, is hardly brown envelope culture....

Because nobody would use gift giving as an excuse to grease some palms