2011 Holiday Gift Guide: The Worst Gift My Boss Ever Gave Me
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andrea via Flickr
iStock
iStock
Getty
You’ve Been Naughty
Checks that Bounce
High Five
A Scented Treasure
Let’s Split the Check
The Victim of Re-gifting
Surprise, You’re Out of a Job
Merry Hanukkah
I once worked with the boss of a consulting agency who handed out adult toys after he landed this new client—a company that made these toys. He had two white plastic bags full. It seemed to be a random distribution, but I think he only gave them to his female employees. The reaction? Pretty hilarious, yet also quite horrific.
We took our boss out for a holiday lunch, and he was so touched that he went back to the office and wrote checks for all us. He had six employees total. The office manager then had to go back and tell us not to cash those checks. If we did cash them, they would’ve bounced. The company didn’t have enough money in cover the gifts. I should mention that the boss was so touched because he didn't have a lot of friends and had a personality that made him not so popular around the office—or outside of work.
—Charlie Ballentine
Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Metrix Bio Med
When I was 23, I was hoping for a coffee shop gift card. Instead I got a blueberry-scented oil diffuser. I donated it to the Salvation Army. One man’s junk is another’s--well, you know--treasure.
Years ago, I worked for a boss who took us all out to a very expensive restaurant in New York City one December evening. Throughout the night, he encouraged us all to eat, drink and be merry. He urged us all to order the choicest and most expensive items on the menu. So we did. At the end of the meal, he asked for separate checks.
Right before the dot com bubble burst, I worked at an online game company called Big Prizes! Five days before Christmas, he gave us a gift. He announced that the company was closing. We believed he only made the announcement because the news had leaked online.
My first job out of school was at a fitness company. The boss bought all the employees gifts that Christmas. He got me a coffee mug that sang Dradle, Dradle. I’m not Jewish. The cup wouldn’t stop playing the song, so I had to take the batteries out. I only worked there for a year.
