Take that, Scrooge: More employers are planning on some kind of holiday get-together for employers this year. And that could mean a greater opportunity for people to give their co-workers totally wacko gifts.
According to CareerBuilder, more than half (52%) of employers are planning a holiday party for their employees this year, up from 49% in 2009.
And 29% of employers plan to give holiday gifts, up from 26% in 2009.
Here’s the part that interested us most: 25% of employees surveyed said they’d be buying holiday gifts for co-workers this year. Just 22% said they’d buy their boss a gift.
The strangest gifts workers received from colleagues in holidays past? CareerBuilder, always a prime source for this kind of arcane intelligence, offers this lineup:
- a bag of ice
- a bra
- a self-recorded CD of the co-worker singing (badly)
- a unicorn
- a statue of Dracula
- a turtleneck sweater covered in piranhas (embroidered or printed, we’re assuming, not the actual piscatorial predators)
- a used cookbook
- coupon to a strip club, and
- pack of toilet paper (20 rolls!).
Enjoy the holidays.