quote:Originally posted by mart: Go on then. Make up a number.
8.3 (recurring)
Although I think someone might have thought of that one already.
I'm glad to be doing secret santana again, they'll probably do one at work but it's not the same. Last year at my previous job we weren't allowed to do one due to a few non-pc presents the previous year. It was even brought up as evidence in an industrial tribunal FFS!
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I'll join in if you like, though I am particularly crap at buying presents, but if you will consider the thought that counts, then maybe I can join. Plus as I normally don't really get any presents at christmas that will be a nice change.
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I'll give it a go this year. But the post takes ages to get anywhere from here. And it goes through South Africa so theres always the chance someone will nick the package. Ummm... But Im still keen.
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I'll do it again - I'm pretty confident in my gift-giving ability, as long as the recipient doesn't mind that it is late. We can never make those International deadlines*.
*This is of course because of all the thought and research I put into the package.
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I haven't a clue what I could bring to the mix, but I'd be down...
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quote:Originally posted by Keef: It was even brought up as evidence in an industrial tribunal FFS!
Surely 'FFS' here depends on what the present was and who it was given to. For example, if someone bought a black colleague a bunch of bananas, a spear, and a book about gorillas with "Say hi to your grandad for me" scrawled on the inside front cover, using it as evidence in a tribunal would probably be fair enough.
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Unless the book was given by a Christian extremist, wanting to highlight what they perceive as the idiocy of Darwinism..
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quote:Originally posted by Keef: It was even brought up as evidence in an industrial tribunal FFS!
Surely 'FFS' here depends on what the present was and who it was given to. For example, if someone bought a black colleague a bunch of bananas, a spear, and a book about gorillas with "Say hi to your grandad for me" scrawled on the inside front cover, using it as evidence in a tribunal would probably be fair enough.
Fair point. The two presents in question were a mousemat with built in wrist rest and a mobile phone holder. The non-pc element was the wrist rest was a pair of t1ts and the phone holder was a c0ck. The people who received them were not offended, the rest of the department also saw the funny side. Only when a particular employee was asked to leave under less than amicable terms did she make the complaint to the company. Good job she wasn't around a couple of years previous when someone was given a tube of thrush cream with the message "Because you're an irritating ****".
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quote:Originally posted by vikram: joke or not, that both of those 'gifts' strike me as particularly inappropriate in a workplace setting.
Depends whether you work in an office full of uptight prudes or one full of adults who are friendly enough that they can have a bit of a harmless laugh together.
Presumably the person buying the gift felt comfortable that the person they were buying it for wouldn't be offended and from what Keef says they were right, I mean there's a big difference between a novelty gag phone holder and something genuinely and willfully offensive surely?
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In some circumstances I agree that the feelings of others in the office should be taken into account, but when it's something as minor as that I'd feel genuinely sorry for anyone so uptight they could be offended by such a harmless novelty item that wasn't even bought for them.
And in this instance there's a lot more backstory than keef has given, the woman in question wasn't some shrinking violet herself, she simply used the incident in question as part of an attempt to get money from the company are an unhappy parting of ways.
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Maybe there should be a standardised potential gift list sent to all employees, who could note their objections to any offensive item. Anything left on the list after this process would be considered fair game.
"Oh another box of Ferrero Rocher! You really are too kind."
quote:Originally posted by Physic: ...the woman in question wasn't some shrinking violet herself
It's true. She had no grounds for complaint as far as 'being offended' is concerned. Only woman (or man for that matter) I've known to use **** in office conversation for one thing, I could go on. But I won't.
People have until Saturday 1st December to say they want to play, or pull out.
On the evening of Sunday 2nd December I, with raging hangover from work Christmas party the night before, will pull names from a hat and assign Santas accordingly.
My method will be as follows:
I gor first. I will send a gift to the first person out of the hat, who will send a gift to the next person, and so on until the hat is empty.
If there is an even number of boys and girls, do you think there's value in picking names from two sex hats? Like boy-girl-boy-girl round the table at wanky dinner parties.
So can you start emailing me your names and addresses please: martinphillips -at- hotmail -dot - com.
Up for discussion: how much to spend (roughly) on gift? Possible answers:
a) Five pounds b) Ten pounds c) Up to the individual d) Something else
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No better not. It could take a couple of months to send or receive mail from abroad (seriously...) and that'll just bugger it up for everyone else.
I vote for £10ish but with individual discretion, and think boy-girl could be good - even if there isn't an even number you could still do boy-girl until you ran out of names in one hat, then carry on from the other hat.
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Yeah, I'm going to do it that way - TMO thrives on hot boy-on-girl-on-boy-on-girl action, after all.
And I am removing myself from the list, otherwise whoever has to send me a gift will know that I know, which is a bit rubbish.
Grianagh said she'd be up for it, so I might replace me with her (and not tell her who her santa is), but she hasn't posted for ages so people might have difficulty deciding what to send her.
And, yeah, about a tenner, but only as a guideline.
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im not taking part this year. i have such a vast amount of accumulated emotional secret satan damage from the last three years, its best that we dont even go there.
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I'm not sure whether I'm in or out this time around. I've had good luck in the past (more as a recipient, probably, than a sender) but it's probably enough that I just stay behind the scenes. Perhaps if someone gets rooster as their secret santa the lucky recipient will get a little something special from me as well.
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no way am I letting you steal my thunder! Past recipients have already assumed their gifts were from a rooster/froopy amalgamate. I want all the credit for myself, nyah.
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