'[She's] refusing the team’s bonding tradition': 28-year-old marketing employee, struggling with personal finances, skips her office's Secret Santa exchange to save money, facing judgment from coworkers who are calling her the "grinch"

Listen, there's nothing I love more than a little team bonding at work, but maybe that's because I'm fortunate enough to work with some pretty cool people…Or in this case, because HR is the one paying for it…That's what makes Secret Santa a bit more tricky…Not everyone has the financial freedom to throw around an extra $50-$100 on an office acquaintance for a secret Santa gift, especially as it's gotten silently more competitive over the years. However, the moment anyone opts out of participating, they are labelled cheap…or more specifically, the Grinch who stole the office Xmas spirit!

This employee decided that due to financial strains and a wish to save more, she would not be participating in this year's Secret Santa…Although when her manager and coworker saw her name missing from the sign-up sheet, they had A LOT to say about it…and just a hint, it wasn't very festive of them! Just because she wasn't able to contribute financially doesn't mean she wants to be isolated from the team, regardless of the rumors. She even brought in cookies for her coworkers…who ended up taking it as more of a dig than a sweet peace offering.

One small choice, and she's forever labelled the Office Grinch? Perhaps it's important to understand the reasoning behind someone's hesitance to partake, rather than immediately judge them as "stingy!"

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This employee simply did not want to pretend to support something she didn't believe enough, but now she's receiving shoulders so cold they'd threaten the Christmas snow… We're starting to think that the one thing that may be worse than the Grinch is an infuriated coworker: they're a lot more damaging! Now this coworker is starting to rethink her decision…she didn't want to come across as antisocial, however, she wanted to remain true to herself…
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AITJ for refusing to participate in Secret Santa at work?

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