Gifts from kids | Amazon.com Gift Finder

Gifts from kids | Amazon.com Gift Finder
Find Gifts from kids with Amazon.com's Gift Finder. Category: Jewelry. Get unique gift ideas, discover this year’s top gifts and choose the best gift for everyone on your list.

Gifts from kids | Amazon.com Gift Finder

Gifts from kids | Amazon.com Gift Finder
Find Gifts from kids with Amazon.com's Gift Finder. Category: Jewelry. Get unique gift ideas, discover this year’s top gifts and choose the best gift for everyone on your list.

We Always Chip In $100 Each for a Christmas Gift for Our Boss. Do I Have To?

Ask a Manager

Few people are as knee-deep in our work-related anxieties and sticky office politics as Alison Green, who has been fielding workplace questions for a decade now on her website Ask a Manager. In this week’s Direct Report, she answers readers’ questions about holidays at work.

Dear Direct Report,

My co-workers in my department like to give one another gifts for various events and holidays, like birthdays. It is a nice thought, and typically the contributions are small ($5 to pitch in for one gift card), but for Christmas, we all chip in to buy a gift for our boss. It’s a minimum contribution of $40 but often comes out to be $100+ per person, and I am starting to feel a bit resentful.

Is there a way that I can politely decline to contribute to the gift for our boss, or should I cough up the money? My team is small—only five members—so it will be very obvious if I do not partake.

I wasn’t as bothered by it in the past, although I did think it was ridiculous, but right now I am really pinching pennies as I am in a tough spot financially.

—Not Flush With Cash

Dear Not Flush,

One hundred dollars per person for a gift for your boss? Good Lord. That’s more than many people spend on family members. Your boss should have put a stop to this long ago.

The etiquette rule for gifts at work is that it’s OK for gifts to flow downward (from your manager to you), but they shouldn’t flow upward (from you to your manager). That’s because of the power dynamics inherent in the relationship; otherwise there’s too much chance that someone will feel pressured to buy a gift for the person who controls their paychecks, and it’s unseemly for a manager to benefit from the position in that way. What’s going on in your office is a good example of this: People are chipping in for pricey gifts for the boss but no one else, and at least one person (you) feels pressure to participate.


Can you nudge your co-workers to reconsider the tradition altogether? I bet you won’t be the only person who’d be relieved to have one fewer purchase to make at this time of year. You could say you just read an etiquette column on this (hell, send them here) and would rather do a simple card.

But if not, it should be fine to bow out by saying, “It’s not in my budget this year.” If you want, you can add, “I could chip in for something much smaller, like our usual $5 contributions. Would everyone be up for that instead?” (And again, I’d bet money someone else on your team will be glad someone else is speaking up. This might be like the Emperor’s New Clothes, where no one wants to be the first to say something, but everyone is secretly thinking, “WTF?”)


from Human Interest - Slate Magazine 

We Always Chip In $100 Each for a Christmas Gift for Our Boss. Do I Have To? We Always Chip In $100 Each for a Christmas Gift for Our Boss. Do I Have To? Reviewed by streakoggi on December 01, 2019 Rating: 5
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