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A friend recently told me she was too tapped out to buy lunch because she turned over the last dollars in her pocket to a few co-workers who had come begging for a donation to fund an office celebration for a colleague.

"Someone snatched your lunch money — how third-grade," I joked.

It turns out that asking workers to shell out at the office is pretty popular, and potentially troublesome.

A recent nationwide survey showed that 15 percent of workers are asked at least monthly to chip in to help celebrate a colleague's birthday, baby shower, retirement, promotion or other milestone. Two-thirds said they are cajoled to contribute at least once a year.

"Without question, there's a lot of asking for donations going on among employees," said Al Saverino, regional vice president for staffing firm Robert Half International's New Jersey operations.

"It can become a bit overwhelming, and maybe even put a person in an awkward position."

The survey by his company also found that 1 percent are asked to donate at least once a week to buy things like cake and snacks, gift cards or meals for those being feted.

"A lot of this is not driven by the company," Saverino said. "It tends to be one person who takes the lead and goes around asking for contributions."

Saverino recently talked about the do's and don'ts of office collections from his office in Woodbridge, N.J.

A. To the contrary. In the big picture, it's very competitive out there, and it's certainly important to recognize your talented people and make them feel appreciated. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination saying these things aren't important. It's just that there are ways to go about it that are less intrusive and more inclusive.

Q. What do you mean?

A. We recommend not putting employees in a position where it becomes a financial burden. By all means make it voluntary.

A. Companies typically don't have large budgets for individual birthdays and things like that. It tends to be driven by workers.

A. We recommend a common-sense approach. Instead of celebrating everyone's birthday, have one gathering each month to acknowledge anyone who had a birthday that month.

One person can be in charge of setting up, one in charge of inviting people or getting a small gift.

The idea is to give people a chance to participate, but in different ways. It doesn't always have to be financial.

A. We encourage participation. It's good for morale. Everyone just needs to be aware of the time and money you're asking of others and think about ways to make these celebrations manageable.