WE DON'T ACCEPT GIFTS/FILL OUT A FORM

To me, it sounds dumb and narrow-minded. If you want your employees to work well for you, they should be made to feel recognized and worthy. That's just my humble opinion.

mine too....

Make that 3 of us.

When I was a legal auditor, we weren't allowed to accept anything more than a cup of coffee from the firms we were auditing. We'd've lost our jobs if we took anything more. A colleague of mine was offered Red Wings tickets. Of course, he said no.

That's a shame Jes.

We have to declare any gift which we recieve over $100. Once we declare it, we normally get to keep it - not that anyone gives me any gifts at work

I've never been given gifts at work either Gautam :-(

Nah, it was an ethics thing; they were trying to bribe us into giving them better reviews.

Ohhhh, I see your point ;-)

My office has a "nominal gifts" policy and it's pretty strictly enforced. Nominal in this case = $25. Anything over that is a no-no.

fishin', that seems reasonable. A candle, lotion, and, especially, chocolate and other "goodies" wouldn't break that rule. We're talking appreciation here, not the creation of a personal fortune.

And I speak from experience, it just feels better when someone gives something than to find that a semi-anonymous Attaboy has been posted in your file...

Now if those Attaboys added up to a real, cash, tangible-type raise, well, maybe then we'd be talkin'!

Onyxelle, what prompted the change? New boss, trouble with uneven gifting/complaints from the ungifted? Maybe there's a way to change the policy back. An office with flowers is nicer than one without!

When I worked in the corporate accounting office of a title company, there were some years that we wished there was a "no gift" policy.

I believe the record for See's chocolate candy poundage topped off at approximately 84 pounds one year for our 15 person office.

Between banks, realtors and our branch offices we were all extremely sick of chocolate by the end of the holidays.

Nominal applies here too. If people want to send something in that can be shared with the whole office then it's o.k. Nothing for individuals past a coffee. I think it's better this way.

I am not sure of the prompting other than the Clerk doesn't want any hint of favoritism. But that's hooey because we don't do anything but record the information.

As for those attaboys (and attagirls) We in my division rarely get them because we work with the same individuals on a daily basis. There no
'customer service' forms for attorneys and judges to fill out. We're pretty much kinda left inthe lurch with that.

Get this: The Clerk's office has a monthly contest where the division with the most 'attaboys/girls' get recognized in our weekly newsletter and something else, but we Trial clerks don't get representation inthat, because our customers don't fill out the surveys - it would be redundant for them to do so. I've fired off an email to the higher-ups to see how they're going to implement something that recognizes us.

When I was in retail advertising and working with various artists/illustrators and photography crews (hair and makeup stylists, photographers, assistants, models, retouchers, etc.) art directors received major gifts up the whazoo. It was almost sinful, the amount of gifts and the kinds of gifts we got, but it stood to reason when someone made 10's or 100's of 1000's of dollars a year based solely on your selecting them instead of someone else just as talented. Unfortunately, some of the copywriters on staff would become infuriated, envious, and hate the art directors during the holiday period.
It was just one of those things. :wink:

Someone at our office was fired last year for not admitting that he'd received a gift. Nothing huge, but it was discovered - he was confronted, denied it - given another chance to admit it - then he was walked out. Companies are taking this sort of thing very seriously these days.

When I started in this industry, it was not unusual to come home to find large and interesting gift baskets at the door. Now it's a bucket of popcorn delivered to the office to be shared with everyone.