How to navigate holiday office parties and gift-giving among colleagues
Courtesy / Marshall Communications
Ann Leamon, left, and Nancy Marshall
“It’s comin’ on Christmas,” as Joni Mitchell sings, and that includes workplace holiday rituals.
Both of us have good and bad memories of holiday events. Ann recalls with great affection a holiday gift of recipes from Nancy’s employees when she was a client. Nancy’s firm never dabbled in private capital investments or economic policy analysis, so she can’t attest to Ann’s approach to corporate gifting. But holiday gifts at the company level are surprisingly complicated, involving cultural differences, social expectations and matters of etiquette.
Here are our guidelines: Be unique, be sincere, be sensitive.
It may take some creativity to ensure you don’t offend the very people you’re trying to recognize and thank. Ann’s company had clients across the globe, many of which were government agencies that faced gifting limits. Some celebrated different holidays. Mailing physical gifts was impractical — in some cases, the items would be stuck in customs for weeks.
She and her team decided on a charitable donation to Heifer International. Because the firm is named for her co-founder’s pet goat, they donated a goat for every member of the team, commemorating the gift in an e-card sporting goats in Christmas hats and signed by each employee.
Be unique
The companies thus far conveyed their uniqueness through their gifts — Nancy’s personal recipes; Ann’s goats and wine or olive oil. Nancy now sends gift boxes with local apples and maple syrup that reflect her company’s Maine identity. Ann’s small consulting firm sends wreaths to clients where that works (no restrictions from building managers or governments), whoopie pies in other cases, and then makes a donation to Doctors Without Borders.
Be sincere
Both companies in these examples were sincere, if playful, in their holiday greetings. We genuinely shared elements of our companies with the clients who were the very bedrock of our existence. What they also did was to sincerely thank our employees for their service. And there, gift-giving can get particularly tricky. Ann’s staff of eight ranged across ethnicity, age and religion. Her personal holiday gift to them was a bottle of wine at Thanksgiving, reasoning that they could always regift it should it not be to their taste. Then she learned that two of her employees were non-drinkers. Happily, the office was in the North End of Boston so she could easily get wine for some and fancy olive oil for others.
But what about employees giving gifts to their superiors? Some of Ann’s staff came from Asia, where the gift-giving culture is deeply entrenched. She got ahead of the issue by prohibiting personal gifts. A box of chocolates in the kitchen was fine; something for her was unnecessary. Another way to address this is through a Secret Santa, either among the staff or for charity.
A side note on the office Christmas party
Everyone has stories of the “forced fun” of the office Christmas party. With a little thought, though, you can create an event that is both celebratory and builds the team. Ann’s sister’s school holds a cookie competition, which also helps everyone take care of their holiday baking. Ann’s company — they really did work, she promises, but they also had some good parties — held a potluck dinner at her co-founder’s house. For entertainment, they played trivia based on questionnaires that each filled out earlier. They learned that their most driven and competitive colleague had a secret superpower of kindness and that another wanted to go to Newfoundland. Most of them would take books to a desert island. The winner received a gift certificate to a restaurant and was acclaimed as a secret member of the CIA.
But beware of the chaos involved in trying to fit everything into the short holiday period. It may be more fun and relaxing if the team goes to a sports event or a dinner, maybe even in January. And although it might be tempting to overindulge in spiked eggnog, it’s not good for your career path, in the long run, to get wasted at the company holiday party.
Be grateful
You knew this was coming from us! While giving holiday gifts is an act of gratitude in itself, don’t be shy about saying the words. “Thank you for your business/service this year.” We all need to hear it.
These are just a few ideas based on our admittedly limited experience. But we hope we’ve given you some ideas about recognizing both clients and employees at this busy and festive time of year. And from us, thank you for reading our columns. We hope they’re helpful.
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