Not everyone enjoys party planning. In today’s story, a woman who describes herself as not being a natural at party planning was willing to throw a retirement party for her friend and coworker.

The problem is that she did such a good job that her boss now wants her to throw a retirement party for two employees she hardly knows.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

AITA for not planning a retirement party?

Last December, a co-worker and a friend “Julie” retired. We worked on the same team for years and were close. Julie also was very generous with my family. I still consider her a friend.

About six weeks before Julie’s retirement, my boss asked me to take the reins and plan an in-office retirement party for her. This involved organizing food (it was a potluck), collecting money and buying a gift, getting a cake, making sure the heads of the company were there, etc.

The reality was neither he nor his boss wanted to deal with it and foisting it off on me under the guise of me being her good friend just got them out of the responsibility gracefully. Fine, no problem.

I did it FOR JULIE, not to help out my bosses. I wanted to be sure she had a great retirement party that made her happy.

OP did most of the party planning herself.

I asked a co-worker for some assistance on decorations and handled the rest myself.

It wasn’t difficult, but it was time consuming, and I had to devote a good amount of time to it outside my working hours (I am just a PT employee and paid accordingly).

I am not a natural “party planner” and don’t particularly enjoy hosting, but I did this happily FOR JULIE.

We had the party, it went perfectly and Julie was thrilled. Fantastic.

The boss wants her to plan another retirement party.

Well, fast-forward to now.

We have two other people in my location who will be retiring the end of next month. I know them, have worked with them in the past, but am not close to them.

Last week, my boss “Chris” calls me in and says, “Hey Vivienne, you did such a great job planning Julie’s retirement party, Jim (my boss’ boss) and I want you to handle George and Robert’s retirement party.”

I looked at Chris with a puzzled face and said, “Why? I’m not close with them and I’m not on their team. I think it would be more appropriate and make more sense to have someone on their team or one of the admins handle it.”

OP explained why she’s not willing to plan the party.

Chris continued, “Well, you did such a great job with Julie’s party that you set the bar high. I’m sure George and Robert would be thrilled to have a party like that.”

“Chris,” I said, “Julie was and is my friend. I put all that time and effort into that party FOR HER because she has been so kind to me and my family over the years. I put in a lot of time outside my working hours for that party. I’m not close with George or Robert and, speaking frankly, have zero interest in planning a party for either of them. HR or their team manager can figure it out. I’ll have to decline.”

Chris got a bit huffy and said, “Well, I guess I can’t force you to do it, but Jim will be disappointed as it reflects poorly on our team.”

I said, “Well, it also reflects poorly on George and Robert’s teams that they’re not taking the lead handling their own employees’ retirement parties” and walked out of Chris’ office. It hasn’t been discussed since, so I’m assuming some other arrangement was put in place.

AITA for not planning the party?

Planning a party for a friend is one thing, but planning a party for someone you barely know if quite different. I don’t think OP was wrong to explain that difference to her boss.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

This reader would give an hourly rate as a party planner.

Another reader would also insist on getting paid to plan the party.

This person would make sure to get a contract signed before doing any party planning.

This person is glad OP said “no.”

Another woman thanks OP for saying “no.”

Maybe the boss should plan the party so he’ll realize how much extra work it involves.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.