Do Christmas corporate gifts work?

LutonGirl

Never really been swayed by freebies - never been important enough! Where I work now, anything sub £15 has to be declared to our department director. Anything over £15, you have to politely decline.

One company I worked at had a policy of collecting all the Christmas gifts and then raffling them off. Everyone usually got something, even a diary or a bottle of wine, and it meant that the behind the scenes staff who never saw suppliers also got a chance to get something.

I've also worked in places where hampers, TVs and other goods got silently handed over off site into car boots and were never seen again. Not my car boot I'd like to add.

As for the low level gifts - pens, highlighters etc - it would never persuade me to use a company or not use them, but it is a helpful reminder of a phone number or company name if you need it

nomoneytoday

Mugs, umbrellas and pens are actually useful, as well as cheap

Pennywise

nomoneytoday wrote: »

Mugs, umbrellas and pens are actually useful, as well as cheap

Only if good quality. Nothing worse that finding your "gift" pen has run out of ink the second time you use it or the umbrella falling apart in the first gust of wind. Those personalised parker pens are nice, especially as refills are easy/cheap, but cheap tacky ballpoints just go in the bin, as do those engraved pseudo metal cheapies where the metallic coating starts to come off the first time you use it! If you're paying less than a few pounds per pen, you're probably doing more harm than good.

iammumtoone

No, gifts at Christmas or at anytime do nothing for company loyalty, good service and competitive prices do that.

If someone sends in something too extravagant my immediate thought is they are charging too much!

years agos you would get loads from suppliers at Christmas almost everyone would send something in, now you hardly get anything, sign of the times.

I have never been allowed to keep what I receive, wherever I have worked, shame as I have had some great things in the past. The thought is appreciated but would not make me think twice about being loyal to that company, the two are not connected.

I do like the small gifts you get during the year (I can keep those ), pens, branded usb sticks, cups, diaries etc. These are all useful for my job and all get used, if I receive more than what I need they are shared with my colleagues.

MataNui

Many years ago i used to work in the purchasing department of a manufacturing company. We used to get loads of things at Christmas. Booze, chocolates and biscuits mainly. Some we kept, some went around the other office tables. Then management decided to raffle everything. The suppliers pretty much stopped the gifts. Their attitude was they were personal gifts for relationships forged over the year and not corporate bribes to be shared out.

iammumtoone

MataNui wrote: »

Their attitude was they were personal gifts for relationships forged over the year

Yes I have heard this many times, suppliers do get upset if they think their gift is not going to the recipient it was intended for. You could view that two ways, I can see what they are saying but you could also view it as they are disappointed that their 'bribe' will not work as the person making the decisions doesn't get to keep it !

Quite a few times I have had people ring me up offering if I want my gift sent to my home rather than workplace. The answer was always no (not worth losing my job over), strangely you would get the same people ask year after year just in case I changed my mind :rotfl:

FatVonD

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I think there were occasional bottles of alcohol, but I had no interest in these!

The children's party was brilliant, I still remember those! But that was his company, not a supplier.

Sue, did your dad work on Fleet Street? Mine did and I remember the Children's parties too!

Savvy_Sue

FatVonD wrote: »

Sue, did your dad work on Fleet Street? Mine did and I remember the Children's parties too!

No, I don't think he was ever in newspapers. I think his final employer was Metal Box, and he used to take great pride in showing us their work: NatWest cheques, labels for jam with foil embossing etc. I'm not sure if it was their parties I remember (it is a very long time ago now!)

He was a Chief Printer's Estimator when he retired - I doubt the job still exists but there were actual qualifications for this: we found his City and Guilds certificates after Mum died. He never used a computer in his life, but could convert inches to mm in his head, faster than you could key the numbers into a calculator.

This is very off topic, but we also found his linen tester, which he used for seeing how many colours had been used in the print process. I've kept that. I still regret that I never found the Just Type calendar while he was alive: he would have loved it!

Getting back ON topic, our new IT support service have sent us a small desk calendar. I haven't checked if their support phone number is on it: I have that on speed dial ...

Ozzuk

We aren't allowed to accept anything, wine, tickets, you name it we can't take it. As a global company we're primarily governed by the UK bribery laws, Brazilian Anti corruption laws and the American corruption standards.

A few years ago it wouldn't have mattered, but there is definitely a trend towards refusing these things and we now face dismissal if we accept anything.

For us, the best possible pro active service is better than a bottle of wine.

paddyrg

I got a girl in trouble in UAE once for leaving a box of dates for the office staff to say thanks for putting up with me processing 300 visas in a month, 10-20 passports a day, we'd sit opposite each other for an hour twice a day. I just wanted to thank her when the job was over, the dates were probably worth £10 (they were quality, but not excessive). I happened to go by one more time to renew one more passport for a change of plans - she was so grateful I'd come back so she could refuse the gift in case it gave the impression of corruption.

Must admit I was quite impressed that an Emirati civil servant took the high ground.