The "WorkSphere" survey polled 873 working U.S. adults last month by asking something along the line of: "So...are you planning to gift your co-workers this holiday season?" First off, can we please stop using "gift" as a verb? "Gift" is a noun, and should always remain so. We can consider the de-verbification of "gift" as our gift to the English language.
But back to the point of this blog post. More than half (56%) of employees surveyed said they do not plan to give their co-workers any sort of holiday gift this year, while even more of those surveyed (59%) do not plan on presenting the boss with a present. Good day, you lose!
Why aren't employees in the gift-giving spirit anymore? The employees surveyed had their reasons. Some said they don't know their co-workers well enough to give them a present, while others didn't want to look like a suck-up at work. Then there's the whole rigmarole of "If I buy something for so-and-so, then I'll have to buy something for everyone else, too." In fact, 43% of employees said this rigmarole was their main reason for skipping co-workers.
It's sort of like having 20 nieces and nephews and knowing that if we buy for one, then we should ideally buy for all, so we buy for no one because we're not made of money. Plus, these kids now range in age from 3 to 30, and why is our employed, 30-year-old niece or nephew still on the kid list? Not buying anything feels like the fairest thing to do, but in the process we might come off looking like a cheap/lazy/uncaring aunt or uncle -- unless there's a family-wide, "once you graduate from high school/college/have your first real job, you're no longer considered a kid at Christmas" gift-giving agreement in place to let us off the hook. Even then, we might feel a little bit guilty. There's no way to win this one. Moving on.
Corporate gift giving isn't cheap, either: The Harris Poll/Spherion Staffing survey reveals the average cost of gifts at work will be $67 this year. $67?! Wow. Who knew a coffee mug stuffed with a random selection of chocolates could cost so much, huh? But so much for teachers.
The good news? We may not get anything from our co-workers this holiday season, but our employers are starting to give back in the form of company bonuses! Remember those? A recent Bank of America survey reveals that 52% of small businesses will give employees a holiday bonus this year, a 3% increase over last year. So, that's something?
Besides, more than half (59%) of employees surveyed by Harris Poll/Spherion Staffing Services said they don't care if their co-workers go all bah-humbug on them this year. Budgets are tight, bills keep going up, and everyone had trimmed their holiday headcount down to the bare minimum. Our co-workers will be among the first to get nixed from our holiday shopping lists, too.
Perhaps we can simply pass a big bag of holiday Hershey's Kisses around the office as our co-worker brags about her holiday swag and call it good.
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