Letters to the Editor
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Extorted giving
It was strange reading this letter, because for some unknown reason today I was flashing back to a memory from the 1970s. I was doing crappily-paid clerical work for "a major corporation," and each year a rep from United Way and the HR people would hold a big official meeting to get us to all to pledge semi-monthly amounts from our paychecks. The pressure was unbelievable. There'd be a big dog and pony show,very public, we'd all be given our own personal pledge cards, with these corporate strong-armers coming around to each of us to badger us and make us "choose" a pledge amount. It seems like this shindig would go on for hours till everybody was signed up. I don't think a single person working there felt they had the option to decline participation and still have a job.
From what I understand, United Way these days doesn't go into places of employment and pull this anymore. (And now that I think of it, it HAD to be that HR was getting kickbacks or "thank-yous" or SOMETHING to be that enthusiastic about the whole thing.) But I have never forgotten the obnoxious extortion of the whole affair, and 30 years later I have yet to give a dime to that charity.
LW, the hell with being peer-pressured into parting with a penny, if you don't want to. This mental dental job sounds miserable any way you slice it, so hold on to your earnings and invest them for your own old age. Neither of your dentists really, really needs your contribution to their marketing plan.