Baby Gifts for Coworkers

[ts44]

In my office, we seem to be having a lot of babies at the moment. One of my coworkers had her baby in March, and another of my coworkers is due in May. For both of them, we did an office collection, donate whatever amount you felt was appropriate, to get them a gift certificate to Babies R Us. However, at the same time one of my male coworker''s wives is having a baby as well (yesterday as a matter of fact). We did NOT do a collection for him, which I just realized today. I''m not in any decision-maker position here, so I feel like it''s not my place to ask about the rhyme or reason, but do you think I should? If only actual employees who are having babies get gifts from the office, that automatically excludes any male employee! He probably makes 3x as much money as my other two coworkers, but should that even be a factor? I almost want to bring it up with the office manager, I guess at the root the policy seems unfair to me, personally.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Since the coworker''s wife has already had the baby would you consider maybe sending flowers or an edible arrangement or something to say congrats?

I''ve seen showers for both women and men. Babies are a cause for celebration.

 

[Cehrabehra]

I think that it''s pretty traditional to have baby showers for the woman. Women often squeal with excited joy when they open up little travel sized jars of vaseline... men don''t tend to have that sort of response lol Even though you guys are collecting money instead of gifts - it has the same origin in our psyche. I''m sure his wife got lots of stuff from her friends or coworkers. All of that said,a there is NOTHING wrong with giving a gift so if you want to, go for it

 

[drk]

Well, I can say that we really appreciated the collection and gifts that came from DH''s workplace, since no one threw us a shower. He was very touched to be brought into a "last-minute meeting" on a business trip to the main office (he usually works from home), only to be presented with a card and a bunch of really great gifts. And this was a good 3 weeks after our baby was born. There''s no reason you can''t kill the sexism and do a collection now, so that you can all surprise the male coworker.

I do think it''s unfair to only collect for the women. With that said, my colleagues sent me a bouquet of flowers, but didn''t ask me to contrbute to anything for my male colleague who just had a baby while I''m out on mat leave.

 

[Shoopy]

Yeah that''s unfair. We do baby AND bridal shower collections for the males in the office. The only difference is that we don''t really decorate as much as we would for the females. And we also try to get the wife to come in to the office. I don''t work for a small company either.

If you want to get him something you can just wait until he gets into the office. Or maybe you can talk to everyone and see if they would be willing to do a "congrats on the baby" collection? There are still a bunch of things she can get now.

 

[VegasAngel]

I remember my husband bringing home gifts from co-workers for our daughter which I thought was really sweet-I didn''t know them that well either.

 

[jewelerman]

I agree that if one or two employees are gifted then all employees should be considered for a baby gift regardless of gender or income.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I tend to be a black and white thinker so I do think that is unfair. I think if you give one employee a gift for their new baby all employees should get one regardless of their sex.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

It would be nice to at least send a card (and a gift card/flowers) to make his wife feel good. Also, your male co-worker will appreciate the support.

 

[qtiekiki]

We do baby showers for both female and male employees at my work. The SO of the employees are also invited to the shower, so usually the preggo wives are there to open gifts, etc.

 

[kelpie]

We just had a baby shower for a man in my office. It seems silly not to celebrate a friend''s baby just because they aren''t the one giving birth.