[Kat]

"Give till it hurts...Then give some more!"

It's an annual event that starts every November in companies across America.... That damn heavy handed annual United Way pledge drive. Barely one week into the program at work I have been spammed daily with emails and voicemails asking for my support of this organization.

RAH! RAH! RAH!


Sorry, but I just can't get excited about it and I feel I am being harrassed. Only one week into the campaign and I have received over a dozen emails and about half a dozen long voicemails about it. The voicemails are what really really annoy the crap out of me. If you have ever called a company and come in contact with one of those voice activated phone menus that act like they are your best friend in the whole wide world? That is kind of what these are like. FAKE. Upper level company executives bantering about the United Way and trying to pull your heart strings, talking about team work and community and putting on the pressure. Its pathetic actually. And it doesn't stop until after the holidays.

Like most people, I don't mind giving money to charities and organizations when I feel they deserve it. I'm actually pretty darned generous (for an Objectivist). Others' needs are not a claim on me or my wallet, but I am willing to support worthy causes that do good work as I think they run more efficiently than government programs. I just really resent it when my employer (or anyone for that matter) tells me where I should donate my money and then proceed to tell me how much to give. They actually sent out an email attachment with the appropriate contribution level based on your position within the company.

I personally don't think this particular organization is worth a $500 donation of my hard-earned money per year as a reward for harrassing me daily at work for two solid months. Fortunately, I can choose other options for charitable paycheck deductions and this year, instead of giving to the United Way, the money will go to The Red Cross, The American Heart Association, The Cancer Society and other groups that aren't a pain in my backside. I'm boycotting The United Way.

It is at this time of year that every charity in the world seems to crawl out of the woodwork and bug me. I get phone calls, mail, people approaching me on the streets. And everyone has a sadder sob story than the other. I'm just so tired of it. Call, it evasion, but sometimes I just want to be a bear and hibernate for the winter...

Kat

[Rich Engle]

Oh, it's so bloody awful. My ex-wife's co. is a Fortune 100, and I watched this monkey show go on for 9 years. The peer pressure is unreal. Where she was, there was pretty much no getting around it, at least if you didn't want your career impacted...

[Ross Barlow]

Kat, I agree that the United Way campaign can be horribly obnoxious. My workplaces Stateside always harassed me annually, and it always pissed me off. I handled it in various ways throughout the years.

Often I just threw the paperwork away, but the designated rep would always come around and never let it rest. At one point in my life when I felt able to afford it, I earmarked a United Way donation specifically to go to the local Boy Scout council, which was one of the agencies benefiting and one I think very highly of.

But in later years, I just told them I would not contribute. I told them I absolutely hate high-pressure sales pitches, and I resented being targeted by this one. I also told them that, in those days, I used to volunteer a lot of my time to local Scouting groups because I enjoyed it. I would rather donate my time exactly as I see fit, if and when I please, rather than having my money taken and utilized in an unknown way by someone else.

I was lucky in that I was not working for an organization that would retaliate for not contributing. And I think they were a little bit afraid of me – my anger can be very apparent in my face, according to my former students – and they left me alone.

-Ross Barlow.

[Rich Engle]

Well, the way I see it is it's a business. Bottom-line business.

First off, the large corporations usually do a matching thing. They do that for tax purposes. So, suddenly it is very important to the balance sheet for you to be philanthropic. That's why all the pressure and bullshit.

Then, there's the UW organization itself, which is purely sales-driven. So you have heat from those folks.

All this is legal bloodsport, it just sucks hypocritical that those parts are left out.

The money does go somewhere, once front-end marketing costs are covered.

They did have a nasty little scandal a few years back, if I recall.

[gary williams]

You go Kat!


Ya know, I will give YOU a Bear hug!



Of course We'll have to wait until "ol' what's his name" ain't looking, cuz I will grab yer ass!


It's a Bear thang!



gw

[Mark Weiss]

Wow... Being a self-UNemployed bum, I never realized all the fun I was missing. 'Sure glad I took early retirement in '84. The BS you kids live with today, strains my ability for belief!

[Michael Brown]

Huh. My current (and prior) employer pushes the UW campaign, but not the degree being mentioned. I think we've gotten a couple of emails and that's it.

I used to support UW, but due to the fact that several UW groups have given in to certain 'special interest groups' and defunded one of the groups I devoted a lot of time to (BSA), I don't support the UW. I only donate directly to the causes I do believe in.