Office Gift-Giving Etiquette

Dec. 9, 2008— -- Finding a Christmas gift for your spouse is hard enough. But what about getting something for your co-worker?

How much should you spend? What is an appropriate gift? To whom do you need to give gifts and whom can you ignore?

There are plenty of office horror stories.

Imagine getting a wrapped six-pack of beer or working with somebody who gives out portraits of himself. Or take the employee who gave a co-worker a voodoo doll of the boss. Guess what? The boss found out and wasn't too happy.

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Those are all real examples uncovered by a survey of advertising and marketing professionals done by The Creative Group, a staffing agency..

Megan Slabinski, the company's executive director, said that the first rule of gift-giving is to put some thought into what the person would actually like.

Otherwise, you risk sending the message: "This was on sale at Costco this week."

But even workers who put a lot of thought into gifts sometimes struggle with office exchanges.

Emily Van Engel, an urban planner in Jackson, Wyo., has participated in several office Secret Santas, Yankee Swaps and other gift exchanges. There is usually a dollar limit on what people are supposed to spend for the small gifts. But somebody always seems to spend more.

One year, Van Engel bought some nice lip balm for the group gift swap. She ended up getting a much more expensive Swiss Army knife.

"I felt I was cheap, even though I was following the budget," she said. "It's made me think about going over."

Another time, one of her co-workers went over budget and bought a nice case of beer and received a glorified slingshot that throws rubber chickens in exchange.

"It just seems like everyone in the office has a different interpretation of what it means," Van Engel said. "Sometimes, it's a question of listening to directions and following rules."

Office gift-giving can get very complicated, said Cindy Post Senning, a director of the Emily Post Institute, Emily Post's great-granddaughter and author of "Emily's Christmas Gifts," an illustrated book for kids.