The winter holidays increase the stress in an already stressful work environment. Office decoration parties and holiday social events combine to push some workers over the edge. However, one annual rite of passage causes the most consternation among company workers. Whether your company assigns or promotes grab bag gift giving, you can rest assured that office gift-giving produces enough angst to fill the largest stocking. Make the holiday season less stressful by learning about gift-giving etiquette for workers. (And find great cheap gift ideas for coworkers!)
Personalize Your Gift
Personalizing your gift means a couple of things for gift giving etiquette for workers. Your colleges feel appreciated whenever they receive holiday gifts that match their personal preferences. For example, if you have to find a gift for a bird lover, consider buying binoculars to enhance your co-workers bird watching experiences. Another example of personalizing a holiday gift is to use your talents to create a gift from scratch. Your co-worker should appreciate the time and effort you put into your holiday gift project.
Avoid Gift Cards
Gift cards make excellent holiday gifts because they allow people to choose what they want, instead of opening something they have no interest in using. Yet, giving a gift card to a co-worker showed that you spent little or no time coming up with a gift to give during the holidays. The number one principle in gift-giving etiquette for workers involves demonstrating that you spent the time and effort to come up with the right gift.
Stay within the Financial Limits
Most employers place a minimum and maximum limit on gift spending for the holiday season. Make sure you stay within the limits suggested by your company to ensure you follow gift-giving etiquette for workers. Spending below the minimum limit shows you are cheap and going overboard with gift-giving can infer you have more than a professional interest in one of your co-workers.
Assume Nothing
The holiday season is awkward for several reasons, but it is especially awkward for workers who don’t celebrate the holidays. Gift-giving etiquette for workers includes taking the time to ask the chosen co-worker whether he or she celebrates a particular holiday. Giving a gift to a co-worker who doesn’t celebrate one of the holidays makes both you and your co-worker uncomfortable. Moreover, don’t assume your co-worker enjoys your gift. Save yourself the considerable embarrassment by asking the co-worker what he or she wants for the holidays.
Re-gifting is for Losers
Many people put off shopping for the holidays until the last minute, and who can blame them. Between shuffling around town and dealing with surly merchants, holiday shopping ranks only above the pulling of wisdom teeth in the worst-thing-to-happen-to-you category. To make up for lost time, many workers re-gift during the holiday season, which clearly violates gift-giving etiquette for workers. Re-gifting is especially wrong if the giver has used the gift.
Gag Gifts are off Limits
The holiday season is not the time to pull a gag gift out of your bag of tricks. For most workers, the holiday season represents the most significant spiritual time of the year and they expect gifts that demonstrate the importance of the winter holidays. Save the gag gifts for when they are more appropriate: for birthdays and employment anniversaries.
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