Employee spends $500 of his own money to throw coworker's going-away party, cancels the event because no one paid him back in time

Did this employee overreact when he cancelled his coworker's going-away party, or was he more than justified to do so?

No one likes to feel taken for granted in the workplace, especially if you are someone who goes out of your way to be nice to people. This employee fronted $500 of his own money for a beloved coworker's upcoming "surprise" going-away party. His team had communicated weeks in advance about going all out for this person, since they were genuinely going to miss him and were enthusiastic about his next chapter.

However, despite the fact that everyone on the team mutually agreed to pay $35 each for the party, none of them responded to the employee's requests for that money. At first, it seemed like the kind of thing where they kept forgetting or were always in the middle of other, more important matters. But then the employee reminded everyone a second time. Then, a third time, and so on and so forth. Clearly, when push came to shove, no one was actually willing to pay that $35, which meant that the author was going to have to potentially front the entire $500 fee himself.

It was this level of ingratitude and lack of respect that caused the employee to let out his petty side.

A coworker opens a gift during a going-away party thrown at the office.

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One question worth asking is why the team was unable to get the company to foot the bill for at least half of these costs. That way, people could each contribute approximately $18, and their departing coworker wouldn't have to deal with a lame CVS veggie platter on his last day at work.

Instead, not only did the company refuse to engage, but the entire team just left everything up to the author, who clearly had earned an unfortunate reputation for being more giving than he needed to be. In that sense, it was about time that he sent a signal to the team to get them to walk back these communal expectations. None of this was fair to the employee financially or in terms of the responsibility and planning. The employee was definitely not getting paid enough for this nonsense.

An employee gives a toast in front of coworkers during an office party.

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Coworkers celebrate during an office party as confetti falls.

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}