No one wants to be on either side of a workplace gift-giving failure.
And so, as the holidays inevitably approach, those who specialize in company gift exchanges are at the ready with advice about the do's and don't's of holiday gifting.
From the online gift card purveyor Gyft comes results of a survey of employees about holiday gifts that offers some insight into how the worker bees see this annual ritual.
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Gyft found that it's probably OK to avoid the whole mess entirely: 47 percent of respondents said they didn't get a gift from their employer.
The same percentage reported that their appreciation for their employer increased after receiving a gift. But, since that's less than half of those in the study, it again raises a basic question about the value of the gift.
If you're bound and determined to hand out a holiday remembrance, make it a gift card, these respondents said. More than two-thirds said the gift card was their preferred gift.
Other results of the survey are below.
When asked what the worst gift was they ever got from an employer, the answers came back:
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Company-branded items (12 percent)
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Fruitcake (7 percent)
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Sweets (4 percent)
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Meat (4 percent)
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And others, including a Subway gift card, a squeegee, hand sanitizer, broken beach chair, half a candy cane, picture frame, and hug
When asked to disclose embarrassing company gifting experiences, here's what they said:
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Forgot to get a gift for a co-employee who gave me one (44 percent)
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Got caught re-gifting something to my boss (5 percent)
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Unknowingly gave an offensive gift (5 percent)
Another 9 percent said they got drunk at the company gift exchange.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
