9 Things We Hate About Secret Santa In The Office - Page 10

Before you call us grinches, take a minute to think about the last time you got a really great gift courtesy of a Secret Santa gift exchange.

We’ll wait.

While the idea of buying special presents for associates, congregates at our church, or people in our book club, sounds fun in theory, often by the time it comes down to actually making those purchases, the whole concept of Secret Santa becomes one big stressor. And that reality is even more true when it comes to doing these exchanges in the workplace. We’re not saying we won’t participate in Secret Santa if we have to, we’re just saying we won’t have fun while doing it. Here are 9 things we hate about Secret Santa in the office.

We already have enough people to buy for

Have people not already seen the stats on how people blow through their credit cards trying to get the perfect gift every time, for everybody, and Susie too? There’s no shortage of people on most folks’ must-by-for Christmas list, we don’t need any additions.

We don’t know our co-workers like that

It’s hard enough trying to figure out what to buy for our own family members, do we even need to explain the difficulty of deciding what to but for someone in a totally different department who you probably don’t talk to all that much, much less potentially not even like?

No one can ever agree on the price limit

Secret Santa commissioners always try to come up with a price limit so no one gets shafted in the exchange, but rarely does this ever please everyone. Sometimes you get hit with a minimum gift amount of $50, making you wonder if payroll can send a quick memo to let everyone know you ain’t got it like that. Other times the max is $10, which leaves you feeling like all the hooplah is hardly worth it for a $10 gift.

People don’t always stick to the agreed upon spending amount

Yeah so even though you may be told you have to spend a certain amount, someone who doesn’t have it or is just plain cheap won’t actually spend the $25 or $50 agreed upon and then one person always ends up with a candle that’s supposed to make them feel merry, jolly, and bright after they spent $50 on someone else.

You look like a butthole for saying you don’t want to do Secret Santa

You can choose to be that minority who, when someone gets the bright idea to institute Secret Santa and stars gushing about it to other agreeable coworkers, says I don’t want to do that ish, but just know you will be side-eyed and possibly even labeled a non-team player.

It’s not really optional

See last point. If everyone in the office is seeing wrapping paper and bows over the idea of organizing a Secret Santa gift exchange, there’s really no way to be the one person who’s not participating.

You rarely get something you want

Recall that candle reference. If your job is smart enough to have everyone list three things they want so the buyer at least has a jumping off point, you may actually end up happy — although that takes all the surprise out of it. And even then, someone will undoubtedly have the bright idea to get you something not on the list that they just know you’ll love and, of course, you hate it.

It never fails that somebody forgot their gift “at home”

Which is code for they probably didn’t buy a gift to begin with and will now be purchasing something on markdown the day after Christmas to bring to you on the day after New Year’s when you all come back to work and don’t care about Christmas anymore.