Imagine working at a restaurant where some of the tips are pooled together to use for fun things for everyone who works there, things like popsicles or birthday cupcakes. Would you be upset if this money were used to buy a cake for a coworker you didn’t like who was leaving?

The person in today’s story is really upset about this, but now that the situation is over, there’s still tension at work.

Was this coworker in the wrong for making a fuss about a cake?

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for speaking up about using the communal team member fund for a going-away thing for a coworker who wasn’t very kind to some of us?

The players are me (OP), Sandy (departing coworker), Carla(supervisor), Jeff and Alicia (coworkers on my side), and all my other coworkers.

On to what happened and why people think I’m being petty/immature/and so on.

I work at a restaurant and our delivery app tips (like the “give $2 to store” thing on Uber Eats) are pooled into a ‘team member fund’. It’s a communal pot we use for things like birthday cupcakes, small celebrations, or like a “it’s really hot and we need popsicles” day, etc.

Nothing fancy, just a little way to keep morale up. WHenever it’s going to be used for something, we’re consulted as a group and vote on it.

Their supervisor made a suggestion.

A coworker I’m not fond of(Sandy), announced she was leaving, has her 2 weeks in.

During a meeting on a shift Sandy had off, Carla, our main supervisor, suggested using some of the team fund to buy a goodbye/good luck cake and trimmings for Sandy.

Majority of the team seemed fine with it, but I spoke up and said I wasn’t comfortable using team money for the send-off. Like if the owner wanted to provide a cake or whatever, cool, but this is money meant for all of us to benefit from.

OP doesn’t really like Sandy.

Sandy and I had had a rocky relationship the entire time she’s been here.

She’s always been dismissive of anyone younger than her, often shutting down other people’s ideas or explanations or even mild corrections on procedures.

Really gives a vibe she thinks she’s better than everyone except maybe Carla, even though most of us have seniority on her.

If you’ve worked with someone like this you know what I mean.

Most people didn’t agree with OP.

When I said I didn’t think the fund should be used to buy her a cake, I wasn’t trying to be dramatic or mean, I just didn’t feel great using communal money celebrating someone who made work difficult for multiple people.

I had two people agree with me (Jeff and Alicia, that’s why I named them above lol).

But a handful of other staff thought that a chunk of us having a bad experience with Sandy was unimportant, and I was being mean.

To be clear, I wasn’t stopping anyone from saying goodbye or buying something with their own money. I just didn’t want the ‘us’ money being used to see off someone who was very much not a team player.

They reached a compromise, but there’s still tension at work.

In the end, we compromised and the team fund didn’t buy a cake, but a few people chipped in separately for a small goodbye thing.

Sandy seemed fine (and now she’s gone, silver lining), but now there’s some tension, and the few people I mentioned above have straight-up called me petty or bitter.

Basically, am I the jerk for not wanting the team member fund to fund a goodbye cake for a not-very-team-y coworker?

If all of the coworkers get to eat the cake, then it is for everyone. The excuse of buying it is that Sandy’s leaving. OP could’ve thought of it as a yay she’s leaving cake.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is a good question.

Here’s a funny suggestion!

It really wasn’t that big of a deal.

This is what I was thinking too.

Let them eat cake!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.