Office gifts - help please!

[Mrbay]

Hi All

I've been tasked to get everyone a gift in our office (which I am really grateful that the company is doing this).

To get some engagement and raise moral, it'll be in the style of name out of hat, pick a prize via video call as all WFH. However, I am a bit stuck on what to offer.

Budget is £2k excluding VAT, 44 people. 60/40 female, aged between 22 - 65, average age is 35. Some single people, mostly married with children.

So far, I have some take away vouchers, shopping vouchers (recipient's choice) local cheese hamper, pamper vouchers, family day out climbing, dinner on the company oh and water activity vouchers.

Anything that you would really love to receive? I'm trying not to buy tat that people with just drop off at their local charity shop, plus our company tries to be as green as possible so it wouldn't align with our company values.

Thank you!!

whatever happens I'm sure some will feel annoyed/peed off so I'll stop trying to appease everyone

There’s no reason why anyone would be annoyed/peed with a voucher for Amazon, JL, M&S or even something like the high st ones that cover loads of shops

They would be peed at a cheese hamper if they were vegan or a family activity for a singleton

Or just getting a much less expensive gift than others

It would be a shame to get it so wrong and potentially create all sorts of ill feeling - especially whilst trying to do something nice

I think people can be pissed of with vouchers as well as gifts. I would love an Amazon voucher but a lot of people boycott them for ethical reasons. I don't have a John Lewis near me and would end up spending an M and S voucher on food. I've got a generic high street voucher sitting right now I keep forgetting to use.

Like the OP said there is no way to keep everyone happy and vouchers are probably the best bet.

Good point about the money sustaining retail. Don't worry, I am equally bitter when DH gets similar at Christmas at bonus time and I benefit directly from that! It's hard not to be envious of those in the private sector when we've been on a pay freeze (literally the exact same salary) for ten years. But that's another debate entirely!

I'd get them one of these gift cards as they can be used a many different places. www.one4all.com . You can pick them up in the post office.

Bit of an odd comment @pandamoniummm. My DH will still (hopefully!) be getting an end of year bonus, and since they can't do their usual very fancy Christmas do in a local posh venue, they're all getting sent gift vouchers of a similar value (plus some sort of organised fun on MS Teams which sounds like hell). Worlds away from Christmas in my nhs role where we go to a local cheap pub and our head of department doesn't even stretch to so much as a "thank you for your hard work this year" let alone a round of drinks.

Not sure why you think that's odd. Different opinions and circumstances, yes