Working Life > Business Behaviour > Christmas Gifts

Christmas Gifts: How to Deal with Them and Behave

Definition, Explanation

Every year: Christmas is also a time of giving presents in companies and institutions. Business partners, i.e. customers and suppliers, as well as employees receive recognition in the form of a gift as a thank you for your co-operation. Internally, this voluntary act is for reasons of motivation. Gifts to customers are meant bind the customer even closer to the company.

Another aspect of Christmas gifts is that many employees are increasingly converting to doing their shopping from work. As the private use of the internet in particular can lead to losses in productivity and security risks, employers often limit it in company agreements.

Tips, Checklist

• Start planning and preparing your gifts as early as possible, in order to keep stress in the Advent season as low as possible. Especially at the end of the year, work conglomerates, as projects have to be completed, holiday is due and additional time for Christmas parties has to be allowed for
• Be careful when giving presents. The following applies: the more dependent the givers and takers of gifts are on each other, the more they become exposed to suspicions of corruption
• Gifts for business associates and employees may no longer exceed 40 euros (including VAT) per person and per annum for tax reasons. Otherwise, they cannot be deducted from the company's expenditure. The receiver, in this case, has to pay tax on the gift as a pecuniary advantage
• All employees can be given a gift, independent of their contract, i.e. whether part-time of full-time. Gifts are exempt from income tax and national insurance whereby Christmas pay is treated like employee's wages
• Who gets what present in which department in the company is registered exactly by the colleagues. In order to avoid unequal distribution and in order to not impair the working atmosphere through the Christmas gifts, it is recommendable to raffle the presents received at a Christmas party. Another possibility is to generally do without gifts and to appeal for funds
• The employees best embrace donating to a caricatural institution if a long-term mutual project results from it
• Gifts are usually seen as a gesture of appreciation. Particularly those who receive few or no gifts on occasions like Christmas are even more pleased about a small gift
• Numerous companies have set up ethics guidelines, which regulate how to handle giving gifts. In doing so, they want to prevent being accused of corruption. Find out whether regulations are present in your company and adhere to them
• Gifts can also be offending, especially among colleagues, even though they are usually regarded as a private affair. A gift like lingerie can be regarded as sexual harassment
• Choosing gifts is thus always difficult and can lead to long faces if the other's taste has not been met. For this reason, vouchers can be recommended
• Say thank you one or two weeks after receiving the gift at the latest. It is recommendable to do this in a personal letter. Doing so by email or by phone is not advisable. How you write the letter depends on how you received the gift; answer in the same form

Last update: 01/21/2010