Choose gifts for colleagues with care, for the gesture may be interpreted in many different ways :-
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The New Year is the season of cheer. It’s the time when the top brass of companies — at least the westernised ones — exchange gifts. Such companies also dole out year-end bonuses. In India, these gestures happen during Diwali or other religious occasions. It’s a time for renewing ties.

The gifting culture in the West has employees giving presents to each other and even their bosses. Inevitably, this will come to India once the marketing types realise that it can be as big a goldmine as Valentine’s Day. There is a protocol one should be aware of.

“A gift sends a message,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant Shashi Rao. “In an Indian environment it is a practice best avoided. There are so many ways the gesture can be misinterpreted.”

Gifts of personal items may lead to trouble. If you give a pair of silk stockings to your secretary, she will either walk out or walk in (interpret that how you will). Office romance is at times unavoidable. But, as a Harvard study shows, sooner or later one partner has to leave. It’s generally the woman, who also finds it more difficult to get a better job.

What happens when your secretary gives you a gift? To some extent, it depends on the rapport you enjoy with her. If you are always borrowing her pen to sign a document, she can safely give you one.

Anything related to the office environment is probably also safe — a Dummies’ Guide to computers (if you are techno-illiterate), for instance. If she gives you something more personal — a photograph of the two of you at the last office party, say — there could be shoals ahead. And read real danger signals if she gives a present to your wife, who she otherwise does not come much in contact with. Of course, it depends on the sort of gift. But with the wrong (or right?) choice, it can be a home-breaker.

“Keep bosses and immediate reports at bay,” says Rao. “Or give them the same thing you are giving others and publicise that fact. The chances of misreading your meaning are much less.”

What about gifts to your colleagues? In a sense, it happens all the time. People often share lunches. If there is a marriage in the family (and your colleagues aren’t close enough to invite or it’s in a different city), it is common practice to come back with a box of sweets. Ditto for when you are celebrating some special occasion.

“There is a personal touch to the way things are done in India,” says Rao. “You give your office friend, at the peer group level, a gift on his or her birthday. You don’t de-individualise them by making them part of a crowd who get gifts for the New Year.” Indian workplaces have long been an extension of the family. But the recent crisis has shown that the pink slip culture has come to this country too. Offices have necessarily become more formal places. So gifts will also acquire formal wrappings and ribbons.

Poets have warned about gifting. US writer Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.”

Philosophers have a different attitude. Says Nigerian musician and social activist Babatunde Olatunji, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.”

Give a quote like that on a coaster to boss, junior or peer alike. They might dub you a skinflint. But nobody will take it amiss.

You may click to see:->Top 10 Christmas Gifts For Your Boss

SEASON’S GREETINGS

Eight gifts you should never give your coworkers :-

• Adult items: Items that could be considered sexual in nature

• Gifts that carry a discriminating or demeaning message

• Politically-oriented and religious gifts

• Personal care products: Grooming items and sundries are generally too personal to give, especially to a member of the opposite sex

• Intimate clothing: All undergarments, and in most cases, any articles of clothing except for hats, scarves or gloves are not good gifts to give coworkers or your boss

• Romantic jewellery: Stick to small, casual items and give them only to members of the same sex

• Flowers: Do not give roses. It is better to give “lucky” bamboo or other plants instead of flowers

• Cash: Never give your boss or a coworker cash.

Source: Adapted from about.com