And the week gets even more difficult....

This is the last week before the kids have their winter break. So far today I've had homemade cookies and homemade caramel popcorn "gifted" to me. I've written nice thank you's pretending to have enjoyed the treats. I will bring them home to my family and they will thoroughly enjoy them. I did feel somewhat like a fool when I opened the bag of cookies to see what kind they were (so I could write the thank you). I then stapled the bag back securely so I won't be tempted--- they look good!

It is wall-to-wall Harry & David gift baskets here today. I ate a pear :)

I also took a package of smoked salmon and a jar of charred pineapple relish.

All the chocolate covered cherries and baklava are KILLING ME.

I appreciate the humor of dealing with the food gifts, really I do. But I'm also really troubled by the fact that all of this corporate food gift-giving is taking place at a time when food banks all over the country are seeing 20, 30, 40% increases in potential clients, and when many formerly middle-class parents have burned through their savings and are having to choose between paying their mortgage, paying a hospital bill, or putting decent food on the table.

Giving a small gift of appreciation to a teacher or a coworker that you work with regularly is one thing, but a vendor sending *bags* of chocolate to distribute to everyone in the company? That's not meaningful gift-giving, that's purchasing favors. Maybe this year we should try to convince our vendors to make a donation to their local food bank instead of sending chocolates. Especially since half the food gifts either end up in the trash or around our waists.

FWIW, I'm taking the money I'd normally spend on (non-food!) gifts for the office staff and giving it to one admin assistant, a single mom whose hours have been cut way back and whose ex-husband can't pay child support because he was laid off. The rest of the staff will get nice, personalized thank you notes. And you know what? I think they'll appreciate it more, because they get to be part of making life a bit easier for a coworker who they know is struggling to keep her head above water and her kids in their home.

Rant mode off.

K

Originally Posted by kaw:
I appreciate the humor of dealing with the food gifts, really I do. But I'm also really troubled by the fact that all of this corporate food gift-giving is taking place at a time when food banks all over the country are seeing 20, 30, 40% increases in potential clients, and when many formerly middle-class parents have burned through their savings and are having to choose between paying their mortgage, paying a hospital bill, or putting decent food on the table.

Giving a small gift of appreciation to a teacher or a coworker that you work with regularly is one thing, but a vendor sending *bags* of chocolate to distribute to everyone in the company? That's not meaningful gift-giving, that's purchasing favors. Maybe this year we should try to convince our vendors to make a donation to their local food bank instead of sending chocolates. Especially since half the food gifts either end up in the trash or around our waists.

FWIW, I'm taking the money I'd normally spend on (non-food!) gifts for the office staff and giving it to one admin assistant, a single mom whose hours have been cut way back and whose ex-husband can't pay child support because he was laid off. The rest of the staff will get nice, personalized thank you notes. And you know what? I think they'll appreciate it more, because they get to be part of making life a bit easier for a coworker who they know is struggling to keep her head above water and her kids in their home.

Rant mode off.

K

LOVE this. Thumbs up! Thanks for sharing! :cp:

Our department's Christmas lunch at a local restaurant was actually quite easy, since we went to Mitchell's (a seafood chain that tries not to look like a chain & reminded me a little of Legal Seafoods). I had part of a glass of some New Zealand wine, since the wine glasses were big bubble types (as I've asked plaintively before, why does everyone's wine comes from New Zealand these days?). I also had seafood stew, translated to three scallops, three mussels, three clams, piled atop some kind of tomato-y reduction sauce, and looking more like an appetizer, probably because I told them to hold off on that topping of fried calamari & that I did not want a wedge garlic bread to sop up the sauce with. Also a garden salad with oil & vinegar, uninspired except for a sprinkle of toasted pignoli nuts. All this did was take the edge off my appetite. When I got back to the office, I had an apple & a cup of tea, and later on, a handful of dry-roasted peanuts.

I'm working from home for the two days that I'm working next week, but I'm not making the mistake of thinking I'm free & clear. There's that week between Christmas & New Year's, when all kinds of leftovers find their way into the office, and the workplace can feel so quiet & lonely that people tend to eat weird things at weird hours.