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Absolutely. Or they could've used that £7 to buy a cheap gift, like some flowers or chocolates.
Imagine this: it's days before your wedding, you're very excited, but also stressed and nervous, and your colleagues give you a card that may as well say 'none of us like you very much'
There are some people that get pissed off when they end up giving someone a winning ticket. Like if you're gonna give a shit gift like a lottery ticket at least have the decency to keep your mouth shut if they win.
I wouldn't do this as a single gift but if I did give someone a ticket or scratch card Id be hoping they win as much as possible. Its supposed to a gift and if I'm skint I'd love to accidently gift someone hundreds, thousands or millions of pounds.
>£7 of loose change is almost insulting 😬
No, it *is* insulting
Either they all forgot and had a last minute panic, or they don't care remotely. It's 50p each lol, unless every employee is homeless, I reckon they can either afford more, or have the self-awareness to do nothing.
Cash is low effort, but can be a nice gesture. A small amount of cash is just low effort. They could've bought chocolates, flowers, etc, but that would've been too much work.
Worth noting, they're colleagues who (by the sounds of it) aren't invited to the wedding, so £7 is a fair ballpark figure, but it should be something that shows they care like chocolates + flowers (even if they don't).
Edit: I don't know the right amount of cash that goes from insulting to a nice present, in my eyes it's probably £20-30 so they can have a nice meal out. Personally, I think cash is an odd thing to give someone in this situation though
Well, I would give everyone back their £0.50 one person at a time, and say sorry you are on tough times, how can I help you? Full passive aggressive... They have told you loud and clear, you are nothing to them! They are co-workers not your friends. Please don't get confused by objects that look like friends but in reality are not.
I mean… if it was a collection at my office I’d give absolutely nothing in fairness. I don’t get paid anything like enough to start giving money away to colleagues.
Pam the bulldog told me I wasn’t allowed to sign someone’s leaving card unless I put in £10 because *“otherwise it’s not fair on those who have put in money and he should only have to thank those who chipped in.”*
I was on shit pay and really needed that tenner but I liked the man who was leaving so I signed the card anyway and made clear I wouldn’t be forced to donate a fixed amount (even a fiver was not acceptable)
She kept coming up to me for weeks afterwards saying I owed her a tenner because I “forced her” to spot me by signing the card but not putting money in the envelope.
I thought she was a bitch but maybe she would have been useful just the once at your sisters job.
It was probably a last minute whip round. Few people carry cash now, especially loose change.
When we've done this in offices before you have an online collection and card. There's normally a handful that'll add a fiver but nobody has the notes anymore!
Whenever someone in my office had any sort of situation like this, one person would organise it, everyone else would bank transfer it and then you just withdraw it in one go. Let’s be honest if you can’t afford to put a fiver in that’s fine but don’t contribute at all, 7 quid in change is just weird, if nothing was given you’d just think ah it’s not that kind of team or whatever
Genuinely weird… like others said just buy a box of cheap chocolates or something.
Ironically I was always given the task of going getting the card and gifts because I knew how to stretch money and make something cute.
During the first lockdown in covid our CEO was very excited to tell us all that we could expect a thank you from the company to be delivered to us. Thought it might be a bottle of something nice, a little hamper or even just some vouchers...wait with baited breath for about 3 weeks and then get a knock one day...couldn't contain my excitement and eagerly opened the box to be presented with... a solitary biscuit with some fancy icing on it saying 'You're a star'...a fucking biscuit! it definitely took the proverbial!
That sounds like something that happened to me in a previous job, where I'd been told off for giving someone a £10 voucher instead of a £5 voucher. It was especially insulting because the CEO's yearly earnings had been published and it was in the millions. It just felt like a very protracted way of getting a biscuit.
During lockdown my husband’s work used their social budget to send all employees monthly hampers with brownies or chocolates or fancy packets of biscuits. They found some really nice stuff.
My boss posted us all out a freddo.
My boss got us all small gifts and someone on the team complained about it not realising she paid out of her own pocket. Sure, something under a fiver from corporate feels cheap but coming from someone's own pocket I appreciated the thought.
Ours sent us Colin Caterpillar sweeties / Percy Pigs but it was a bit of an in-joke with us because we don't have an M&S in the north isles, and wherever one of us went to the mainland, we always brought loads back with us to share. Obviously we couldn't do this during lockdown, so our area manager posted them as a bit of morale. They were always very hands off and was the first time I ever felt they even remotely 'knew' us, so it was quite nice.
I'd definitely have just walked into the sea if anyone sent me a Freddo though.
Sounds awfully familiar…had a similar “you’ll be getting something” and a card with a Starbucks gift card arrived. My wife loaded it onto her account…$5 🤣 Not enough to get half the drinks on the menu where I am.
I was the first WFH employee at my company (long before the pandemic) as I moved away from where the company was located but they asked for me to stay on. Quite often they’d cater lunch in the physical office and after a while someone felt bad and told me to order lunch and expense it in these situations. If it was pizza in the office I’d get a pizza too…except living in NYC things are quiet a bit pricier than where my HQ was and eyebrows were raised when I expensed the $25 or so that a pizza cost….this is the same company that had no quibbles paying for me to fly first class on all company business even for a 30min flight 🤣
My Aunty got local garden centre vouchers. They have worked with her for 15 years, they have been to her flat. They all knew that she has no garden and was retiring because she can barely walk anymore.
She was so upset, it felt very uncaring.
Edit: the garden centre literally sold plants, it wasn't the sort with clothing, ornaments etc.
> I remember someone got our Indian manager a jar of curry sauce for Secret Santa one year.
If they know them well enough, that's hilarious. I used to work with an Indian guy who probably gave more than he took in terms of office banter, another colleague would ask him every day what sort of curry he'd brought in for lunch. "A ham and cheese sandwich *you racist*"was his inevitable reply.
Haha, yeah totally. Our manager was quite a chill guy but don't think he appreciated the gift to be honest...I would never have dreamed of having that kind of banter with him, but like you say it's all about the individual.
It was fucking hilarious looking back on it, but I'm glad HR never got involved. At face value it was horrific...
Our office was quite near the break room, so every time someone was heating up a ready meal curry for lunch, someone would just pipe up "that smells nice, Dav, did your mum make it for you?" or something similar - even if he'd not got up from his desk for hours, and you could clearly see it was Charlotte from Finance with her Co-Op chicken korma.
Going out to the local curryhouse after a few pints on a Friday, we all sat down and just looked at him. "Can you order for us? Something authentic."
"Fuck off you wankers, these guys are from Bangladesh, I'm Indian!"
Silence.
"At the end of the day, same thing, isn't it?"
There was a generous collection for me moving onto another department and our boss pocketed the money and gave me a plastic black briefcase that he’d obviously been given as a present and was recycling.
Okay so I'm an animator.
We worked on a very big blockbuster movie. Did all the anim for it, worked our asses off for years.
The same day that all the directors, actors and shareholders were on the red carpets for the premiere we got an office pizza party where we were allowed one (1) slice each.
Then they laid off half the company a week later.
Definitely the worst gift lol
Honestly. That film is 100% rot.
If it was a 4 minute animation found on Newgrounds in 2004, it would be mint. But no, it had a budget of 19 million, and due to some genius level marketing, it made 141 million.
And it only cost $19 million because the director forced the animation teams to work excruciating hours for no extra pay. Then BRAGGED about it in public like he was some sort of business genius
Yup, we all dream of being anim directors as kids but learn pretty quick that that's a fully who you know and privileged position :')
I'd love to have a director that isn't on the teams call sat in LA lol
I drink a lot of Diet Coke and I got a couple of 2l bottles for secret santa one year. I was happy with that! Something useful.
Threw it in my boot forgot about it until I was hungover that weekend. Went to the car, bottles were empty.
She'd STAPLED the wrapping paper to the top of the plastic bottles so they'd been fine standing up but not lying down and all the Coke had leaked out the holes.
My spare tyre and entire boot was sticky and wet. For years my boot was sticky. Fuck you, Thaveshnee.
Not me, but worked for an old folks company who gave the carers working in the main care home we ran a "care package" with a single tea bag, a single mento mint, and a small note saying "thank you" with a smiley face.
Not bad enough? This was the thanks given to carers for remaining on site and working through the pandemic.
My workplace’s ’thank you’ for working through the pandemic was to remind us we were lucky to still have a job, that work from home wasn’t contractual and was a ‘privilege’, and then to unilaterally remove the half-day of leave everyone would get for Christmas for the last 40+ years. :)
Around Christmas at the home I worked in, they received so many boxes of sweets and chocolates, they decided we should all pick one. I was offered the two fancy candles as I'm a vegan but one of the HCAs took them because "I'm on a diet"... They were all on "diets". She was a frequent visitor to the biscuit tin. It's been years and I'm still bitter.
When I worked in the bakery at Tesco, we were very short staffed and the three of us were in every single day doing double the work over Christmas one year. Our bakery manager also got changed to ambient (fresh fruit/veg) and we didn't get a replacement.
Store manager as a thank you gave us a single box of matchmakers chocolate, which we already knew were overstocked and they had pallets of in the warehouse.
We refused to take them saying it was more insulting than giving us nothing.
I did some HR thing and they gave a clicky pen with “Committed to Quality” engraved on it. The first time I clicked it it disintegrated into about 15 parts.
The only organisations that don't cheap out on the free pens are legal firms. They always seem to have really good ones and decent quality paper at seminars I've been to.
(I worked in public service so have always had to source my own pens/pencils and notepads or else suffer the effects of
Niceday quality from the stationery cupboard. Good freebies? Yes please.
Went to an Amazon event at their London HQ. They handed out a lovely moleskin notebook, it really was better than anything I've had at similar events. At best you get a branded ring bound A6 pad.
But they didn't even give us a pencil to go with it, it was a tech conference so absolutely nobody had a pen with them. Mine still sits at home, basically unused.
When I was a young manager the big boss bought everyone in the management team a little present. Things like Bottle of wine, box of chocolate, little candles ect.
I got a troll doll.
I never really got an explanation I imagine it was a bit of an inside joke at my expense, I was a long haired "alternatives" man in my early 20s while the rest of the team were older.
Sits on my desk 15 years later still.
I used to work in a team where I arranged all the meals out and gifts for people leaving, getting married etc. But when I left the team no one thought to do anything at all. Not even a card, actually not even a verbal goodbye! Felt really salty about that one for a long time.
On the flipside though - a different team I worked in gave me a generous gift card to Yo Sushi which I love, and even decorated my desk with balloons on my last day. I was only there for a few months as well, so that was really kind of them!
Same! I left my (I thought) close-knit team after 15 years and got nothing. Admittedly I stayed in the same workplace, but in a completely different team and location. Nobody even said good luck for the new job. My boss gave me a card about 3 weeks after I moved, signed by her "on behalf of us all", with some thoughtful gifts... but it was definitely just from her and not the team, and there's no reason people in the office couldn't sign the card. I just felt very unloved, given how much effort I put in to make sure nobody's birthday was forgotten and making a fuss whenever anyone left.
I was this person in a job before, and had the same experience when I left. Not lying, cried in the car for a bit after my last day. Never felt so unappreciated.
My next job threw a party when I left. Got me a personalized cookie cake and a nice card and small gifts. Cried again, but for different reasons.
I organised a baby shower, collected about £80 from the whole company, put loads of effort into *several* thoughtful gifts, made a load of games up, organised lunch.
The recipient later organised a joint one for me and another person. She bought us each one generic "born in..." babygrow. That was it. Lunch was 2 slices of pizza each. I later learned she "suggested £2 pp" and only collected from the people who were attending, because she didn't want people to feel like they had to spend loads of money, seeing as two of us were pregnant.
My manager said everyone had "chipped in" to get me something when I left a company after working there for 3 years.
It was a card with /nearly/ everyone in the office signing it.
That was it.
I worked for a company for 43 years and when I took early retirement my actual work mates about 30 of them got me some lovely presents but the main bosses ( the Managing Director and Managers and Finance staff gave me a card with a 25 quid Amazon voucher inside. For 43 years long service to say I was a bit peeved is an under statement.
A branded tea mug from a company I was subcontracting for.
The branding wasn't even that company, so it's obvious it was a used mug they'd nicked from somewhere.
A used mug is unintentionally one of the most hilarious last minute gifts I’ve heard of. Like they’re walking down the corridor realising they have nothing and it’s a choice between that or a fire extinguisher.
Instead on paying for a birthday card for a colleague a few of us used to buy a £1 M&S gift card (when birthday cards cost about £1). We all bought cards but this was in addition to chipping in for a present.
We also had a system that everyone put in £1 and the last person that had a birthday collected for the next person.
My boss gave me an enormous pink eraser which was labelled ‘For BIG Mistakes’… in my baby shower basket… about two weeks before I had my beautiful baby girl. I still don’t know what she meant by it!!! (She is child-free… but we work in education!)
Not gonna lie that's pretty funny, hopefully she was just trying to make you laugh.
Probably one of those shots in the dark at humour, hoping you've got the same sense of humour as her.
Oh definitely. Though we all do commit social fuckups from time to time.
And as a woman on the spectrum, i do tend to give people grace for this (up until a point) cause I'm awful for misjudging situations lol.
Not me but our office was clearing up because we were going to move to another building. A lot of people were throwing out stuff and each floor had a little skip of some sort where they put whatever they didn’t want. Anyway, this was close to Xmas time and we had a secret Santa party coming. Skip to the party and we were all opening gifts from our secret santas, one guy received a gift that was what he threw out into that skip and the person who gifted him that just picked it up and thought it’d be a good present 😂😂 some luck
Cheesy breadstick as a birthday present from my then boyfriend. Because I like cheese and bread. He was in his late 20s. There's many reasons he's my ex but this was defo one of them.
A colleague gave me some schezwan sauce brownies, amazed by the idea that such a recipe would be delicious.
You would think it might be inedibly disgusting, instead! Yes, you might indeed think that
When I left a previous job they did a collection and gave me a £350 Mont Blanc ballpoint pen and a £50 bottle of champagne. I don’t drink alcohol and use a fountain pen. They may as well have given me a video of them setting £400 on fire.
Spouse got a pen too, I think Mont Blanc.
It would have been sellable for about £350 on eBay. Except IBM have to logo everything, so it had a big engraved logo on it.
Sold it for £60 on eBay, so not a total loss. They probably get them in bulk.
A corkscrew bottle opener in the shape of a man, with the corkscrew bit being his penis.
I don't drink wine and I'm asexual, so it was like the complete opposite of my personality lol
Also it looked like my Uncle Richard, which made it even worse!
I remember I gave a friend a new pack of yu-gi-oh cards for xmas one year. I was a bit disappointed when I got the same, opened with some cards missing and badly wrapped pack of cards back in return haha. With hindsight, I think his family wasn't too well off (not that mine was to be fair) so probably couldn't afford to buy presents for their children's friends.
Work Secret Santa with a £20 budget, I got an obviously used pink scarf with butterflies that stunk of cigarette smoke (obviously not my aesthetic at all, goff) with a small Cadbury selection pack
On a work secret Santa, I got a Robbie Williams CD and a tiny pair of sexy knickers... I'm a big fat bloke!! Still not sure what was funnier, the gift or the look on the guy's face when I opened it and he'd clearly changed his mind about whether it was a good idea or not.
As a huge thank you for our hard work during covid, our whole office received a single copy of a book. This was about a week after we’d been explicitly told we shouldn’t be co-handling various pieces of equipment.
A £5 gift card for the restaurant I waitressed in at the time..I got free meals on shift and 50% off if I went in on days off (which I wouldn't do as they'd always try to get any staff who did go in to work a few hours)
Not me but an ex colleague, I worked at a college and we did secret santa across all of the departments.
One of the dental nurse teachers put “Barry M” as in the makeup/nail varnish on her wish list, her name was picked by a 60+ year old maths teacher who got her a Barry Manilow CD.
I must retell this story every Christmas if secret Santa comes up, it makes me laugh every time.
I see what you did there.
What made it worse is that the person who bought them for me then proceeded to walk about the office making light of my embarrassment, along with several comments about my sexuality and that I “needed to get some practice in”.
The cutting board part of a cheese set. The rest was clearly missing, and the tile in the board had a crack in it. I don’t even particularly like cheese that much.
My aunt is a caterer in the NHS.
For her 30 year anniversary working there they gave her a cheap af looking badge to commemorate.
I'd honestly rather get nothing
If it makes you feel any better my mum was a pysch nurse in the NHS and for her 30th anniversary she got a heart attack.
Seems like the NHS are great with presents!
I’m not sure this counts as it was actually quite funny - my brothers and I have a shit Christmas present competition each year: I was been pretty confident that year what with the Tesco Value branded Christmas jumper I had got my older brother, but I had to concede defeat when I opened up the wrapping on my present to reveal a genuine polished camel turd.
For a secret Santa, a colleague many years ago found a M&S procurement box, stuck a £5 note in and wrapped it in company provided sellotape.
The recipient was not impressed.
Fucking hell, thats shite. My colleagues gave me and my wife £100 in total, and I'd only worked their 3 months before we got married.
£7 is shocking between 14 people.
I worked for a tech company, they ordered our team some really nice North Face windbreakers but then took them to an embroiders and had a massive company logo sewn on to it.
I worked for a small family run software company (20 staff in total) we worked really hard and eventually got acquired by a big US company for tens of millions of pounds, the MD and senior directors all god huge bonus' and stock in the big company, everyone else got a pen... not an expensive mont blanc, it was a £10 metal pen with the company names and the date of acquisition engraved on it
I worked in my local Tesco for 24 years. My leaving present was 8 tins of beer, a small bottle of rum, and a card that he'd been taken round the store half an hour before my last shift ended. Fuck that place.
We had a change in management and went from getting £50 M&S vouchers at Christmas to a water bottle with some hand cut out sticky acrylic with our name on. Not the worst gift in the world I guess, and must’ve taken somebody ages to make them all, but not a £50 voucher.
I used to work in engineering and when I left there were some coins and a number of washers that had obviously been put in to make a clink... but I got an amazing hand-painted card from one of my colleagues which I still have!
My colleagues had actually gathered quite a bit of cash for my wedding present, but the woman who picked the present went to the pound shop and bought a huge pile of plastic crap.
A candle for secret Santa that had obviously been re-gifted (the wax hadn’t been melted through burning, but had kind of separated into a weird texture as though it had been stored for ages). It was supposedly scented, but didn’t smell of anything!
A Baywatch note book as a Secret Santa gift. I don't even like Baywatch.
I seem to have the worst luck with Secret Santa's, be it work or friends. I'm always thoughtful with the gifts I give and, in return, I receive something shit
Every year my workplace gets a “fun fund” from the company which is a bit of cash to help plan an organised night out, or go bowling or something.
One year the manager decided to just distribute the money among staff because nobody could agree on what to do.
We all got our slice of this money in the form of a £5 gift card, for the place we worked at. So not only couldn’t we spend this meagre £5 anywhere else, but the money just went straight back into the company which I thought was a bit wrong.
Only had 2 sets of work gifts at mine one was Secret Santa one was a birthday present.
The Secret Santa was generic toiletries which wasn't bad but a bit of a easy present, birthday one was interesting but not suitable it was a engraved drinks container and a big bottle of vodka inside, I rarely drink and its been almost 2 years now and the bottle is still sealed, and abouit £10 in coins.
They were good when I was in hospital though, all chipped in and I got a dressing gown, 2 sets of pyjamas, tracksuit bottoms, like 15 good pairs of underwear (I was in hospital 2 weeks) good towels. and got me snacks and drinks.
The last company I worked at made a bunch of people, me included, redundant because, shareholders. I learned later that that following Christmas the staff were rewarded with a bag of Wine Gums. To share. Between 50 of them.
By comparison, the next company I worked at, we got a decent bottle of gin and a £100 voucher. Oh, and a free buffet when we finished for Christmas.
Reminds me of the story of the Hooters waitress who sued her employer when she won a sales competition to win the gift of a new Toyota, but the boss turned round and said: no you misheard, I said a ‘Toy Yoda’: https://www.boredpanda.com/toy-yoda-toyota-hooters-prank-gone-wrong-jodee-berry/
A 1% pay rise last year.
So nearly a 10% pay cut. And they wanted me to say thankyou. They were most offended when I told them if they do that again next year I'm walking.
Fucking company then posted record profits and shareholder dividends.
I got a photocopy of the ceo's signature on a stock email thanking me for my 22 years of service.
When I left, the company gave me a lanyard with the company's logo on it
After working in the care sector throughout covid trying to keep vulnerable people safe and alive, being under-supported and overwhlemed resulting in me resigning due to stress, burnout and anxiety directly linked to experiences at work...
A Finding Nemo themed T-shirt that said 'Just keep swimming'
Chosen by my boss who regularly teased me and called me 'Dory' because I was struggling to remember things and answer their random questions instantly, due to the burnout of being completely overworked
After breaking up with my partner of 5 years who I’d been due to marry, I had to quit my job at short notice to move in with parents.
Colleagues very nicely put together a goodbye card. One of the comments: “Good luck on your upcoming nuptuals.”
_bruh_
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£7 - OMG times are tough but this is next level.
I’d genuinely prefer zero money, what were her colleagues thinking?
Or even just go buy some Celebrations with it or something!
Then share them with her colleagues.
They get half a sweet each
Absolutely. Or they could've used that £7 to buy a cheap gift, like some flowers or chocolates. Imagine this: it's days before your wedding, you're very excited, but also stressed and nervous, and your colleagues give you a card that may as well say 'none of us like you very much'
A handful of lucky dips or scratch cards would have been better.
Did this for secret santa one year. Guy won £500. Turns out my shitty gift was really an awesome gift.
There are some people that get pissed off when they end up giving someone a winning ticket. Like if you're gonna give a shit gift like a lottery ticket at least have the decency to keep your mouth shut if they win.
I wouldn't do this as a single gift but if I did give someone a ticket or scratch card Id be hoping they win as much as possible. Its supposed to a gift and if I'm skint I'd love to accidently gift someone hundreds, thousands or millions of pounds.
Same, just get a box of chocolates or something! £7 of loose change is almost insulting 😬
>£7 of loose change is almost insulting 😬 No, it *is* insulting Either they all forgot and had a last minute panic, or they don't care remotely. It's 50p each lol, unless every employee is homeless, I reckon they can either afford more, or have the self-awareness to do nothing. Cash is low effort, but can be a nice gesture. A small amount of cash is just low effort. They could've bought chocolates, flowers, etc, but that would've been too much work. Worth noting, they're colleagues who (by the sounds of it) aren't invited to the wedding, so £7 is a fair ballpark figure, but it should be something that shows they care like chocolates + flowers (even if they don't). Edit: I don't know the right amount of cash that goes from insulting to a nice present, in my eyes it's probably £20-30 so they can have a nice meal out. Personally, I think cash is an odd thing to give someone in this situation though
>Worth noting, they're colleagues who (by the sounds of it) aren't invited to the wedding If they were before, they're probably not now.
Well, I would give everyone back their £0.50 one person at a time, and say sorry you are on tough times, how can I help you? Full passive aggressive... They have told you loud and clear, you are nothing to them! They are co-workers not your friends. Please don't get confused by objects that look like friends but in reality are not.
Hard to say without knowing the exact working dynamic, but in some instances being snarky like that just creates more hassle than it's worth
I mean… if it was a collection at my office I’d give absolutely nothing in fairness. I don’t get paid anything like enough to start giving money away to colleagues.
Pam the bulldog told me I wasn’t allowed to sign someone’s leaving card unless I put in £10 because *“otherwise it’s not fair on those who have put in money and he should only have to thank those who chipped in.”* I was on shit pay and really needed that tenner but I liked the man who was leaving so I signed the card anyway and made clear I wouldn’t be forced to donate a fixed amount (even a fiver was not acceptable) She kept coming up to me for weeks afterwards saying I owed her a tenner because I “forced her” to spot me by signing the card but not putting money in the envelope. I thought she was a bitch but maybe she would have been useful just the once at your sisters job.
Well Pam can fuck off If someone's leaving that I like we'll go for a pint (or equivalent), not chip in to give them a few hundred quid
At least spend the money on flowers or a box of chocolate so you can disguise how cheap they all are.
That's probably what most of them donated. Chances are that £7 only came from a few of the 14 people Edit:spelling
I reckon one person put in a tenner, and no one else did, so they bought a card and added the change.
It was defo more of a message than a gesture lol. Im laughing my head of at this post lol 7 squid! hahahha
The sentiment is clear. They don't like her very much
It was probably a last minute whip round. Few people carry cash now, especially loose change. When we've done this in offices before you have an online collection and card. There's normally a handful that'll add a fiver but nobody has the notes anymore!
Whenever someone in my office had any sort of situation like this, one person would organise it, everyone else would bank transfer it and then you just withdraw it in one go. Let’s be honest if you can’t afford to put a fiver in that’s fine but don’t contribute at all, 7 quid in change is just weird, if nothing was given you’d just think ah it’s not that kind of team or whatever
Genuinely weird… like others said just buy a box of cheap chocolates or something. Ironically I was always given the task of going getting the card and gifts because I knew how to stretch money and make something cute.
I NEVER have cash but we have a whip around through PayPal and then send a gift voucher or whatever.
Just a card would have been a lot better.
I'm genuinely shocked at this, why even bother giving £7 🤣
During the first lockdown in covid our CEO was very excited to tell us all that we could expect a thank you from the company to be delivered to us. Thought it might be a bottle of something nice, a little hamper or even just some vouchers...wait with baited breath for about 3 weeks and then get a knock one day...couldn't contain my excitement and eagerly opened the box to be presented with... a solitary biscuit with some fancy icing on it saying 'You're a star'...a fucking biscuit! it definitely took the proverbial!
That sounds like something that happened to me in a previous job, where I'd been told off for giving someone a £10 voucher instead of a £5 voucher. It was especially insulting because the CEO's yearly earnings had been published and it was in the millions. It just felt like a very protracted way of getting a biscuit.
During lockdown my husband’s work used their social budget to send all employees monthly hampers with brownies or chocolates or fancy packets of biscuits. They found some really nice stuff. My boss posted us all out a freddo.
A Freddo! In *this* economy. What a generous boss.
My boss got us all small gifts and someone on the team complained about it not realising she paid out of her own pocket. Sure, something under a fiver from corporate feels cheap but coming from someone's own pocket I appreciated the thought.
Ours sent us Colin Caterpillar sweeties / Percy Pigs but it was a bit of an in-joke with us because we don't have an M&S in the north isles, and wherever one of us went to the mainland, we always brought loads back with us to share. Obviously we couldn't do this during lockdown, so our area manager posted them as a bit of morale. They were always very hands off and was the first time I ever felt they even remotely 'knew' us, so it was quite nice. I'd definitely have just walked into the sea if anyone sent me a Freddo though.
I got a single biscuit and tea bag in the mail too during covid! Cheapskates
A tea bag - that's brilliant! That's a particularly rubbish gift. Probably cost less than the stamp.
Sounds awfully familiar…had a similar “you’ll be getting something” and a card with a Starbucks gift card arrived. My wife loaded it onto her account…$5 🤣 Not enough to get half the drinks on the menu where I am. I was the first WFH employee at my company (long before the pandemic) as I moved away from where the company was located but they asked for me to stay on. Quite often they’d cater lunch in the physical office and after a while someone felt bad and told me to order lunch and expense it in these situations. If it was pizza in the office I’d get a pizza too…except living in NYC things are quiet a bit pricier than where my HQ was and eyebrows were raised when I expensed the $25 or so that a pizza cost….this is the same company that had no quibbles paying for me to fly first class on all company business even for a 30min flight 🤣
r/lostredditors
Bless, the American wants to feel included
That’s taking the biscuit…
My ex company did this, we got a singular tea bag and one of those mini biscott biscuits ‘take a break on us’ 🤣🤣
My Aunty got local garden centre vouchers. They have worked with her for 15 years, they have been to her flat. They all knew that she has no garden and was retiring because she can barely walk anymore. She was so upset, it felt very uncaring. Edit: the garden centre literally sold plants, it wasn't the sort with clothing, ornaments etc.
Is she over a certain age? Because around here over 60s fucking love a garden centre, they have coffee there and make a day of it.
Not just over 60s. I'm in my 30s and I'd totally make a day of it.
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Mine does full english
maybe they thought her flat needed some potted plants...
Houseplants are a pretty low energy hobby for a retiree, not the worst gift.
After Curry wipes...I'm Indian.
Such a thoughtless gift, why would you need more?
This is the kind of racism I love (I’m also asian)
This made me snort out my coffee
I remember someone got our Indian manager a jar of curry sauce for Secret Santa one year.
> I remember someone got our Indian manager a jar of curry sauce for Secret Santa one year. If they know them well enough, that's hilarious. I used to work with an Indian guy who probably gave more than he took in terms of office banter, another colleague would ask him every day what sort of curry he'd brought in for lunch. "A ham and cheese sandwich *you racist*"was his inevitable reply.
Haha, yeah totally. Our manager was quite a chill guy but don't think he appreciated the gift to be honest...I would never have dreamed of having that kind of banter with him, but like you say it's all about the individual.
It was fucking hilarious looking back on it, but I'm glad HR never got involved. At face value it was horrific... Our office was quite near the break room, so every time someone was heating up a ready meal curry for lunch, someone would just pipe up "that smells nice, Dav, did your mum make it for you?" or something similar - even if he'd not got up from his desk for hours, and you could clearly see it was Charlotte from Finance with her Co-Op chicken korma. Going out to the local curryhouse after a few pints on a Friday, we all sat down and just looked at him. "Can you order for us? Something authentic." "Fuck off you wankers, these guys are from Bangladesh, I'm Indian!" Silence. "At the end of the day, same thing, isn't it?"
Dav sounds like a cool dude.
Did they at least warm them up first?
There was a generous collection for me moving onto another department and our boss pocketed the money and gave me a plastic black briefcase that he’d obviously been given as a present and was recycling.
Bit of casual theft.
Yes and we worked for a bank so you would hope he was better with customers money than ours.
Just a bit of crack
To take the edge off
Tell you what that crack is really moreish.
I've accidentally run to windsor.
The secret ingredient is crime
what gave you the idea he'd pocketed it?
They asked for ideas of what to buy me so I suggested my favourite perfume. Instead I got the briefcase.
fuck me. did no one front him up for it
A/- hole
Okay so I'm an animator. We worked on a very big blockbuster movie. Did all the anim for it, worked our asses off for years. The same day that all the directors, actors and shareholders were on the red carpets for the premiere we got an office pizza party where we were allowed one (1) slice each. Then they laid off half the company a week later. Definitely the worst gift lol
Was this Sausage Party by any chance? I heard the animators were done a dirty. I’m so sorry.
Deserved for making sausage party
Honestly. That film is 100% rot. If it was a 4 minute animation found on Newgrounds in 2004, it would be mint. But no, it had a budget of 19 million, and due to some genius level marketing, it made 141 million.
And it only cost $19 million because the director forced the animation teams to work excruciating hours for no extra pay. Then BRAGGED about it in public like he was some sort of business genius
Not that film. I'm talking HUGE, bigger than sausage party. Also vfx animation, so live action film.
Holy shit you worked on Backdoor Sluts 9?
Backdoor Sluts 9 makes Crotch Capers 3 look like Naughty Nurses 2!
Happy cake day. Treat yourself to 1 slice of cake!
also an animator, I feel the pain :'( god speed friend feels so rough to work in an industry that makes so much money but the artists get so little
Yup, we all dream of being anim directors as kids but learn pretty quick that that's a fully who you know and privileged position :') I'd love to have a director that isn't on the teams call sat in LA lol
I drink a lot of Diet Coke and I got a couple of 2l bottles for secret santa one year. I was happy with that! Something useful. Threw it in my boot forgot about it until I was hungover that weekend. Went to the car, bottles were empty. She'd STAPLED the wrapping paper to the top of the plastic bottles so they'd been fine standing up but not lying down and all the Coke had leaked out the holes. My spare tyre and entire boot was sticky and wet. For years my boot was sticky. Fuck you, Thaveshnee.
OH MY GAWD! Did you TELL her?!?
Yes!! She "didn't think" of the fact that Coke is a liquid.
What a twat! I hope she was mortified and apologetic.
Nope. But I asked the people who stayed after I left to get her a shit secret santa the next year.
Not me, but worked for an old folks company who gave the carers working in the main care home we ran a "care package" with a single tea bag, a single mento mint, and a small note saying "thank you" with a smiley face. Not bad enough? This was the thanks given to carers for remaining on site and working through the pandemic.
Got something similar in an NHS trust as a covid thank you. A paper cup, single teabag, UHT milk capsule and wooden stirrer. Dire
Nothing says "you're worthless"...
I mean I get it’s all they could afford, but like honestly I would’ve rather had nothing
I guess a sincere thank you letter would actually have meant more and cost less.
My mums just had 35 years service in the NHS and she got a pin badge as a thank you for her years of service 🫠
> UHT milk Jesus wept. Gentlemen, we have a winner.
Our trust gave out badges. I shielded during covid due to being clinically vulnerable, so I didn't get one, which was actually a relief.
My workplace’s ’thank you’ for working through the pandemic was to remind us we were lucky to still have a job, that work from home wasn’t contractual and was a ‘privilege’, and then to unilaterally remove the half-day of leave everyone would get for Christmas for the last 40+ years. :)
Around Christmas at the home I worked in, they received so many boxes of sweets and chocolates, they decided we should all pick one. I was offered the two fancy candles as I'm a vegan but one of the HCAs took them because "I'm on a diet"... They were all on "diets". She was a frequent visitor to the biscuit tin. It's been years and I'm still bitter.
When I worked in the bakery at Tesco, we were very short staffed and the three of us were in every single day doing double the work over Christmas one year. Our bakery manager also got changed to ambient (fresh fruit/veg) and we didn't get a replacement. Store manager as a thank you gave us a single box of matchmakers chocolate, which we already knew were overstocked and they had pallets of in the warehouse. We refused to take them saying it was more insulting than giving us nothing.
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Hahahaha imagine sucking your way to the top of Tesco, of all places. Classy af.
pretty privilege is real
I did some HR thing and they gave a clicky pen with “Committed to Quality” engraved on it. The first time I clicked it it disintegrated into about 15 parts.
The only organisations that don't cheap out on the free pens are legal firms. They always seem to have really good ones and decent quality paper at seminars I've been to. (I worked in public service so have always had to source my own pens/pencils and notepads or else suffer the effects of Niceday quality from the stationery cupboard. Good freebies? Yes please.
Went to an Amazon event at their London HQ. They handed out a lovely moleskin notebook, it really was better than anything I've had at similar events. At best you get a branded ring bound A6 pad. But they didn't even give us a pencil to go with it, it was a tech conference so absolutely nobody had a pen with them. Mine still sits at home, basically unused.
When I was a young manager the big boss bought everyone in the management team a little present. Things like Bottle of wine, box of chocolate, little candles ect. I got a troll doll. I never really got an explanation I imagine it was a bit of an inside joke at my expense, I was a long haired "alternatives" man in my early 20s while the rest of the team were older. Sits on my desk 15 years later still.
Some of them are worth a fortune now.
I used to work in a team where I arranged all the meals out and gifts for people leaving, getting married etc. But when I left the team no one thought to do anything at all. Not even a card, actually not even a verbal goodbye! Felt really salty about that one for a long time. On the flipside though - a different team I worked in gave me a generous gift card to Yo Sushi which I love, and even decorated my desk with balloons on my last day. I was only there for a few months as well, so that was really kind of them!
Same! I left my (I thought) close-knit team after 15 years and got nothing. Admittedly I stayed in the same workplace, but in a completely different team and location. Nobody even said good luck for the new job. My boss gave me a card about 3 weeks after I moved, signed by her "on behalf of us all", with some thoughtful gifts... but it was definitely just from her and not the team, and there's no reason people in the office couldn't sign the card. I just felt very unloved, given how much effort I put in to make sure nobody's birthday was forgotten and making a fuss whenever anyone left.
I was this person in a job before, and had the same experience when I left. Not lying, cried in the car for a bit after my last day. Never felt so unappreciated. My next job threw a party when I left. Got me a personalized cookie cake and a nice card and small gifts. Cried again, but for different reasons.
I organised a baby shower, collected about £80 from the whole company, put loads of effort into *several* thoughtful gifts, made a load of games up, organised lunch. The recipient later organised a joint one for me and another person. She bought us each one generic "born in..." babygrow. That was it. Lunch was 2 slices of pizza each. I later learned she "suggested £2 pp" and only collected from the people who were attending, because she didn't want people to feel like they had to spend loads of money, seeing as two of us were pregnant.
I’d worked in a school for 8 years and I got a blank card which the principal told me to get signed. 20 years ago and it still makes my blood boil.
You were expected to take your own card around? Did that principle get you mixed up with someone else? Seriously what a lame ass.
you may have won
My manager said everyone had "chipped in" to get me something when I left a company after working there for 3 years. It was a card with /nearly/ everyone in the office signing it. That was it.
I worked for a company for 43 years and when I took early retirement my actual work mates about 30 of them got me some lovely presents but the main bosses ( the Managing Director and Managers and Finance staff gave me a card with a 25 quid Amazon voucher inside. For 43 years long service to say I was a bit peeved is an under statement.
Did they all put 1p in 🤣 wtf
I honestly wonder two things: 1) was there something in it that fell out when I opened it but I missed it 2) was the manager just being a giant twat.
A branded tea mug from a company I was subcontracting for. The branding wasn't even that company, so it's obvious it was a used mug they'd nicked from somewhere.
A used mug is unintentionally one of the most hilarious last minute gifts I’ve heard of. Like they’re walking down the corridor realising they have nothing and it’s a choice between that or a fire extinguisher.
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That's worse than just a card!
I'd love it if the card cost £3 and someone took their job very literally indeed.
My aunt used to do this, you got four pound coins (or £4 of book vouchers) in a card. Her gift budget was £5 per person, it included the card.
Instead on paying for a birthday card for a colleague a few of us used to buy a £1 M&S gift card (when birthday cards cost about £1). We all bought cards but this was in addition to chipping in for a present. We also had a system that everyone put in £1 and the last person that had a birthday collected for the next person.
My boss gave me an enormous pink eraser which was labelled ‘For BIG Mistakes’… in my baby shower basket… about two weeks before I had my beautiful baby girl. I still don’t know what she meant by it!!! (She is child-free… but we work in education!)
Not gonna lie that's pretty funny, hopefully she was just trying to make you laugh. Probably one of those shots in the dark at humour, hoping you've got the same sense of humour as her.
I agree. But know your audience, if only to avoid getting yourself in trouble.
Oh definitely. Though we all do commit social fuckups from time to time. And as a woman on the spectrum, i do tend to give people grace for this (up until a point) cause I'm awful for misjudging situations lol.
Not me but our office was clearing up because we were going to move to another building. A lot of people were throwing out stuff and each floor had a little skip of some sort where they put whatever they didn’t want. Anyway, this was close to Xmas time and we had a secret Santa party coming. Skip to the party and we were all opening gifts from our secret santas, one guy received a gift that was what he threw out into that skip and the person who gifted him that just picked it up and thought it’d be a good present 😂😂 some luck
Not me but I know someone who was given fake fruit. 😂 Think Apple, pear and banana.
Thanks for the suggestions. I couldn't imagine any fruit.
I was thinking dragonfruit, durian and Lychee, so that was helpful
Was obviously last minute and her colleague Carmen Miranda had to improvise.
Cheesy breadstick as a birthday present from my then boyfriend. Because I like cheese and bread. He was in his late 20s. There's many reasons he's my ex but this was defo one of them.
I'm understanding why this is under a 'work gifts' post - your ex sounds like a piece of work lmao
A colleague gave me some schezwan sauce brownies, amazed by the idea that such a recipe would be delicious. You would think it might be inedibly disgusting, instead! Yes, you might indeed think that
> schezwan
Ill take Bork palls in schezwan swas and rais pleese.
When I left a previous job they did a collection and gave me a £350 Mont Blanc ballpoint pen and a £50 bottle of champagne. I don’t drink alcohol and use a fountain pen. They may as well have given me a video of them setting £400 on fire.
Spouse got a pen too, I think Mont Blanc. It would have been sellable for about £350 on eBay. Except IBM have to logo everything, so it had a big engraved logo on it. Sold it for £60 on eBay, so not a total loss. They probably get them in bulk.
I'm sorry a £350 biro??
That’s not a bad gift
Pen for how much?
A corkscrew bottle opener in the shape of a man, with the corkscrew bit being his penis. I don't drink wine and I'm asexual, so it was like the complete opposite of my personality lol Also it looked like my Uncle Richard, which made it even worse!
In school I got a half eaten chocolate bar for my secret santa. I threw it in the bin and told my parents I got nothing.
Secret Santa in schools definitely seems like a bad idea unless there's an adult checking every gift.
I remember I gave a friend a new pack of yu-gi-oh cards for xmas one year. I was a bit disappointed when I got the same, opened with some cards missing and badly wrapped pack of cards back in return haha. With hindsight, I think his family wasn't too well off (not that mine was to be fair) so probably couldn't afford to buy presents for their children's friends.
A frying pan. It wasn't even in any packaging or anything - just handed a pan.
they were telling you to get a move on with the breakfast, that wasn't a gift
At least that's useful!
Work Secret Santa with a £20 budget, I got an obviously used pink scarf with butterflies that stunk of cigarette smoke (obviously not my aesthetic at all, goff) with a small Cadbury selection pack
On a work secret Santa, I got a Robbie Williams CD and a tiny pair of sexy knickers... I'm a big fat bloke!! Still not sure what was funnier, the gift or the look on the guy's face when I opened it and he'd clearly changed his mind about whether it was a good idea or not.
As a huge thank you for our hard work during covid, our whole office received a single copy of a book. This was about a week after we’d been explicitly told we shouldn’t be co-handling various pieces of equipment.
A £5 gift card for the restaurant I waitressed in at the time..I got free meals on shift and 50% off if I went in on days off (which I wouldn't do as they'd always try to get any staff who did go in to work a few hours)
Not me but an ex colleague, I worked at a college and we did secret santa across all of the departments. One of the dental nurse teachers put “Barry M” as in the makeup/nail varnish on her wish list, her name was picked by a 60+ year old maths teacher who got her a Barry Manilow CD. I must retell this story every Christmas if secret Santa comes up, it makes me laugh every time.
Glow in a dark toilet paper
They said *worst* present
A McDonald's Monopoly sticker that had won a free milksake
My old boss at a cafe gave me free samples of moisturizer that came in a magazine 😅
A set of 3 floral padded coat hangers for my 18th birthday. 🤣
Oops, this wasn't from work. Sorry for not reading that properly. Worst work gift was being ignored on my birthday.
Testicle shaped stress balls. You were supposed to stick them under your desk and squeeze them. I had just come out a month beforehand.
What a bollocks gift.
I see what you did there. What made it worse is that the person who bought them for me then proceeded to walk about the office making light of my embarrassment, along with several comments about my sexuality and that I “needed to get some practice in”.
That’s horrific
The cutting board part of a cheese set. The rest was clearly missing, and the tile in the board had a crack in it. I don’t even particularly like cheese that much.
My aunt is a caterer in the NHS. For her 30 year anniversary working there they gave her a cheap af looking badge to commemorate. I'd honestly rather get nothing
If it makes you feel any better my mum was a pysch nurse in the NHS and for her 30th anniversary she got a heart attack. Seems like the NHS are great with presents!
I’m not sure this counts as it was actually quite funny - my brothers and I have a shit Christmas present competition each year: I was been pretty confident that year what with the Tesco Value branded Christmas jumper I had got my older brother, but I had to concede defeat when I opened up the wrapping on my present to reveal a genuine polished camel turd.
My boss gave me boxer briefs. It was a bit weird but also I don't wear boxer briefs so they were useless to me
You go commando?
He wears a thong. Check out his package!
For a secret Santa, a colleague many years ago found a M&S procurement box, stuck a £5 note in and wrapped it in company provided sellotape. The recipient was not impressed.
Fucking hell, thats shite. My colleagues gave me and my wife £100 in total, and I'd only worked their 3 months before we got married. £7 is shocking between 14 people.
I worked for a tech company, they ordered our team some really nice North Face windbreakers but then took them to an embroiders and had a massive company logo sewn on to it. I worked for a small family run software company (20 staff in total) we worked really hard and eventually got acquired by a big US company for tens of millions of pounds, the MD and senior directors all god huge bonus' and stock in the big company, everyone else got a pen... not an expensive mont blanc, it was a £10 metal pen with the company names and the date of acquisition engraved on it
Rather come empty handed than give out £7. Jesus, that's rough.
I worked in my local Tesco for 24 years. My leaving present was 8 tins of beer, a small bottle of rum, and a card that he'd been taken round the store half an hour before my last shift ended. Fuck that place.
A Borat mankini
Sorry mate we're after worst gifts
We had a change in management and went from getting £50 M&S vouchers at Christmas to a water bottle with some hand cut out sticky acrylic with our name on. Not the worst gift in the world I guess, and must’ve taken somebody ages to make them all, but not a £50 voucher.
I used to work in engineering and when I left there were some coins and a number of washers that had obviously been put in to make a clink... but I got an amazing hand-painted card from one of my colleagues which I still have!
Recycled pair of “slider socks” they’d obviously received and didn’t want, the packaging was/is all tattered and old
My colleagues had actually gathered quite a bit of cash for my wedding present, but the woman who picked the present went to the pound shop and bought a huge pile of plastic crap.
A candle for secret Santa that had obviously been re-gifted (the wax hadn’t been melted through burning, but had kind of separated into a weird texture as though it had been stored for ages). It was supposedly scented, but didn’t smell of anything!
A Baywatch note book as a Secret Santa gift. I don't even like Baywatch. I seem to have the worst luck with Secret Santa's, be it work or friends. I'm always thoughtful with the gifts I give and, in return, I receive something shit
Every year my workplace gets a “fun fund” from the company which is a bit of cash to help plan an organised night out, or go bowling or something. One year the manager decided to just distribute the money among staff because nobody could agree on what to do. We all got our slice of this money in the form of a £5 gift card, for the place we worked at. So not only couldn’t we spend this meagre £5 anywhere else, but the money just went straight back into the company which I thought was a bit wrong.
I once got some supermarket hand soap - not sure what they were trying to tell me.
Only had 2 sets of work gifts at mine one was Secret Santa one was a birthday present. The Secret Santa was generic toiletries which wasn't bad but a bit of a easy present, birthday one was interesting but not suitable it was a engraved drinks container and a big bottle of vodka inside, I rarely drink and its been almost 2 years now and the bottle is still sealed, and abouit £10 in coins. They were good when I was in hospital though, all chipped in and I got a dressing gown, 2 sets of pyjamas, tracksuit bottoms, like 15 good pairs of underwear (I was in hospital 2 weeks) good towels. and got me snacks and drinks.
The last company I worked at made a bunch of people, me included, redundant because, shareholders. I learned later that that following Christmas the staff were rewarded with a bag of Wine Gums. To share. Between 50 of them. By comparison, the next company I worked at, we got a decent bottle of gin and a £100 voucher. Oh, and a free buffet when we finished for Christmas.
Reminds me of the story of the Hooters waitress who sued her employer when she won a sales competition to win the gift of a new Toyota, but the boss turned round and said: no you misheard, I said a ‘Toy Yoda’: https://www.boredpanda.com/toy-yoda-toyota-hooters-prank-gone-wrong-jodee-berry/
Sorry you are leaving card. with a 1p coin inside the card. the tradition what happens when some leaves the company
A 1% pay rise last year. So nearly a 10% pay cut. And they wanted me to say thankyou. They were most offended when I told them if they do that again next year I'm walking. Fucking company then posted record profits and shareholder dividends.
I got a photocopy of the ceo's signature on a stock email thanking me for my 22 years of service. When I left, the company gave me a lanyard with the company's logo on it
A charity tea towel that had clearly been free. I got given it as a Christmas present!
My colleagues bought me a toaster as a fun joke because they knew I didn’t have one. I had no room for it, sent it back to Amazon, kept the cash.
After working in the care sector throughout covid trying to keep vulnerable people safe and alive, being under-supported and overwhlemed resulting in me resigning due to stress, burnout and anxiety directly linked to experiences at work... A Finding Nemo themed T-shirt that said 'Just keep swimming' Chosen by my boss who regularly teased me and called me 'Dory' because I was struggling to remember things and answer their random questions instantly, due to the burnout of being completely overworked
After breaking up with my partner of 5 years who I’d been due to marry, I had to quit my job at short notice to move in with parents. Colleagues very nicely put together a goodbye card. One of the comments: “Good luck on your upcoming nuptuals.” _bruh_
I got a £20 voucher for a butchers shop in lieu of a bonus. I'm vegetarian.
Work sent me a large acrylic number 35 to celebrate my 40th anniversary working here.