secret santa

[salsmum]

To think that my manager is being a little extreme to ban secret santa this year?.
I work in a large care home and this is my first xmas there, as activity person i suggested secret santa to have a little xmas spirit and improve some staff relations in the home..(moan groan 'we never have any fun' etc)..so along with the normal parties etc i suggested S.S. Apparently 2 members of staff had received naff gifts last year...1 from a member of staff with learning difficulties who gave a second hand gift set in a little battered box and staff member who got it complained to the manager . I thought the idea of SS is that you dont know who the gift is from it's erm..well a SECRET!. I'd like your posts too on secret santa and ss gifts you were happy with or less so. Do you agree its just a bit of (annonimous) fun? or do you think it should be banned?. Even if i received a 'less than desirable' gift manners tell me to not hurt the givers feelings am i wrong? x

What a mean-spirited person!! No YANBU!!!

It depends on how it's done. I like it when you draw a name to buy for: at least there's a chance you might get something the person likes. I object if you're spending £5 on crap for who knows who, IMO that's a waste of money. For example, in my workplace the 14 of us will spend a total of £70 on crap (last year's gems included a feather bra and an exercise mat for the fattest person on the staff), which most of us agree would be better given to charity. But because the boss wants us all to have "fun" we have to go along with it.
The original idea behind SS was good: 14 people buy 1 present each rather than 13, but it's become a waste of money in the name of fun.
Bah, and indeed, humbug.

YANBU

I think the manager is just trying to keep the peace but the arselickin bitch lady who told the manager is quite a gobshyte loud person and i think it could have been a act of revenge genuine mistake by the other staff member!

Someone complained to the manager! Bah! Humbug. I think you should have an unofficial one among a group of you. Surely your manager cannot ban you from buying eachother a gift?

SHHHH... don't mention SS.. I have to organise it for 200 people every year, this year my boss has forgotten about it.

Just got to get through tomorrow without a mention and I'll be home free

YANBU though, obviously

It's a bit OTT to ban it so YANBU but it always ends badly in my experience.

I'm doing one this year with a group I've been training with for a new job. We've known each other a month and I predict tears at the christmas party.

The last one I took part in featured a woman opening her present, going mad and yelling about what a load of bitches she worked with, and throwing it in the bin.

oooh i love Secret Santa but then i am a bit of a Christmas Whore.

We do SS at work every year. It usually works fine and we all make a point of getting each other a funny present which we exchange during our department "do". Last year however the person who organised the name draw screwed it up and one person ended up getting two presents and someone else wound up not getting any. Unfortunately the presentless person was of course the office drama queen who ran off to the toilets in the middle of our department Christmas dinner in tears because the lack of present made it obvious we all hated her etc etc etc.