Overwhelmed by office whip-rounds? Sue Green finds ways to navigate the collection minefield.
Here it comes again - that jingling envelope that signals yet another collection for a colleague who is leaving, getting married, engaged, having a baby or just a birthday.
But though collective gift giving can be an important part of team-building, it can impose financial strain on juniors and those on tight budgets or struggling to meet the mortgage. And what if you are a newcomer and don't know the gift recipient, or you simply don't like them? Or if your $2 coin is greeted with, "Everybody's giving $5"?
Australian etiquette expert Ita Buttrose, the author of A Guide to Australian Etiquette, says such collections can get out of hand.
"We sometimes feel as though we have to impress everybody with our generosity," Buttrose says. "But you have just got to be brave. If this is your budget, it is not beholden upon you to give beyond what you can afford."
If, especially at this time of year when leaving parties multiply, yet another collection will bust your budget, Buttrose suggests, "You can say, 'I can't afford to give this week, I am going to give a personal gift', then write a thoughtful message on a card."
As for the embarrassment potential, she says, "You must not let people embarrass you, you have to feel strong about these things. Once you have done it once, it will become easier next time."
Though such advice may seem sensible, a sociologist at The University of Melbourne, Dr Dan Woodman, says workplace politics can make collective gift giving a potential minefield. "It can be very difficult to say no," he says.
"What is interesting, for me, is how the notion of giving gifts when people leave is affected by how radically the workplace has changed. We are not talking about a gold watch when people retire any more, because people are doing a lot more jobs.
"Young people are often doing fairly insecure, part-time work, sometimes casual. It can be hard if you are asked to make a contribution to a gift for somebody who has been around for 10 years when that workplace is giving you no guarantee you will have work next week."
As well, workplace hierarchies can be involved. What if, for example, it is a supervisor you are trying to impress who is collecting?
"For people who are finding their way in the workplace and don't have the same level of security, don't know whether they are going to get their probation signed off, whether they could get more hours, they financially are the least able to and have the least [number] of reasons to feel solidarity with somebody who is retiring," Woodman says.
"But there is a lot of pressure to be a team player."
And the pressure goes deeper. "There is an issue about saying no," he says. " One of the issues is that there are more and more people who are in jobs where they are still on probationary periods or they are on short-term contracts and it is not just whether you are considered to be a team player or ingratiating yourself with the boss to get your next pay rise. People are worried about their jobs, full stop."
The executive director of Financial Counselling Australia, Fiona Guthrie, asked her board members whether this was a problem for their clients and how they cope with office gift collections. She found some had clients for whom keeping up with the cost of work functions, including gifts, was a financial strain. All recommended devising embarrassment-free means of collecting.
An envelope at reception and an email to staff about the collection was a popular solution, with no taking of names and no checking who had given. Also, a decision to minimise collections (none for birthdays, christenings, Christmas - apart from a "secret Santa" with a low maximum spend - and perhaps weddings) was suggested.
But, at a time when giving gifts to long-serving workers seems less and less appropriate, it can serve a useful function, Woodman says.
With more people working part time and shifts and more comings and goings, the rituals associated with being part of a team become more important. "This can be a way of making people who are not given much in their employment feel valued," Woodman says.
"Our ties in the workplace are less strong and that would suggest there is less of a place for this [gift-giving] because of that, but it could actually be more important."