22nd Dec 2005

Ms. Theologian comments on gifts

Dear Ms. Theologian:My boss bought me a Christmas gift. I don’t celebrate Christmas. I’m not obligated to buy her a Christmas gift, am I? I’m Jewish.

Perplexed

Dear Perplexed:

In the most ideal circumstances, gifts are authentic symbols of our thoughts and are given out of kindness, love, appreciation, or generosity. But workplaces are not necessarily ideal circumstances.

In the workplae, sometimes “Christmas gifts” are really end of the year holiday bonus gifts, so I don’t think you are obligated to reciprocate, especially since the gift comes out of a religious tradition that you do not belong to. I do think you are obligated to write a thank you note.

–Ms. Theologian

This entry was posted by Ms. Theologian on Thursday, December 22nd, 2005 at 10:06 am and is filed under letters You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Ms. Theologian comments on gifts”

  1. December 23rd, 2005 at 6:33 am Anonymous Says:

    As was stated by my manager peers when I asked if they were buying their people Christmas gifts: “Remember to tell them, gifts flow down, not up.”

    Of course, this was right after they hit me up for twenty bucks to buy *our* manager a gift.

    H

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