Know the norms of gift-giving at the workplace

Published on Wednesday, Jan 09, 2008

Who doesn’t like getting gifts! The simplest gift can make us feel cared for, rewarded and appreciated.
Then again, a dreadful quandary creeps in too. While finding the perfect holiday gift for your brother is challenging enough, imagine the nerve-wracking quicksand of choosing something for your colleague or boss!
With a string of festivities and the New Year just behind us, let’s once and for all clear the decks on gift giving in the workplace.
Exchanging gifts is acceptable during the holiday season, special festivals or a person’s birthday or engagement.
Generally, you can gift anyone from your colleagues, subordinates and boss to your employees, customers and business associates.
Whatever the occasion, a thoughtful gift can be pleasantly surprising and build lasting relationships. Gifting the boss is a token of appreciative esteem while between co-workers it cultivates a dash of camaraderie. When coming from the company, it becomes a special way of saying ‘We value you’.
Yet, a small misstep, and even the most well intentioned gift, can go horribly haywire – sending across the wrong message and becoming painfully embarrassing.
To ease the potential tension and struggle, here are a few rules of the gift-giving game:

Toe the line
Some companies practise a mandatory gift-giving culture, while some place restrictive policies that outrightly forbid the practice. Others take the easy way out and throw parties, lunches or potlucks sans any additional gifting.
Therefore, it is best to check out the employee handbook or consult the HR manager to grasp the clear guidelines on what is and is not acceptable when exchanging presents as well as price limits, if any. In the absence of an express policy, check with your colleagues/boss on the informal office tradition or what has been done in the past.

When it comes to colleagues
Gifting personal friends in the interoffice realm will definitely alienate other co-workers and create resentment. Avoid polluting the team environment by gifting selective colleagues away from work. Then again, gifting someone you don’t know well just for the heck of it can put him on the spot and create hurt feelings especially if there are income differences or other financial pressures.

Do you give your boss a present?
It is generally advisable to skip ‘gifting up’; stick to a nice ‘thank you’ note to express your respect and appreciation for superiors. As individual gifts are sure to be interpreted as an undisguised attempt to curry favour, employees can, at best, chip in with a group gift for the boss where no one feels obligated or left out.

What to give?
An ideal gift is one that creates a pleasant feeling and has utility, ornamental value or is a keepsake at the least. Therefore, choose something appropriate keeping the recipient and his tastes, hobbies, likes and dislikes in mind.
It should not be anything too cheap or exorbitant, but a thoughtful item that you know the receiver will appreciate or can use. Also, consider people’s feelings, age and gender differences when choosing a present.
‘Safe bet’ gifts include stationery, calendars, clocks, books, picture frames, flowers, gift certificates and the like. Or, you can even opt for classic desk accessories, small leather goods, food baskets or fine chocolates. While fancy choices are almost endless, always pass up on personal items like lotions, perfumes and clothing.
Employers can customise their gifts to employees and clients with company-branded promotional items or even personalised presents with the receiver’s name/initials monogrammed on the same. For instance a top BPO distributed branded jackets this Diwali, while a software giant gave Formula One clocks embedded in pen stands. But, what will be appreciated most is a bonus, holiday or just additional time off!
Whatever you choose to give, do wrap it nicely as it adds value to the gift and says a lot about the type of person you are. Also, adding a personal note will go a long way in making the gift heartfelt and meaningful.
As writer, Susan Heathfield says, “Remember that a card and a thoughtful verbal exchange are often all that is needed for your boss or co-worker to feel recognised and rewarded!”
So, always spread joy and cheer by gifting something that is both beautiful and memorable.

PAYAL A.

Live up to your resolutions

Published on Wednesday, Jan 09, 2008

It’s that time of the year again when everyone is making resolutions. We may have spent a week putting together a list of virtuous ‘New Year Resolutions’ or conjured one at the last minute - with every intention to stick by them. But by January 15, most of them fly out of the window and a month down the line all lie broken. Come March, and we have difficulty even recalling what those noble vows were!
You may resolve to lose weight, quit smoking or succeed in your career, and start out all gung-ho on the first of January. But quickly, the enthusiasm wanes and motivation soon hits rock bottom. No wonder that a measly 12 per cent of all resolutions ever turn into reality.
But, this year can be different if you really want it to. Here are a few tips on how to make a success of your work resolutions:
• First and foremost, resolutions are not something to be made on the spur of the moment, either carried away by the heavy-duty revelry or at the stroke of midnight. It may be a customary ritual, but there is no magic dust on December 31 night (much as we would like) that can transform your life and ways.
To keep your resolutions from blowing away with the wind, take stock of your career and carefully choose something that you really want. Reflect on why you want to achieve this particular goal and whether you are willing to do what it takes to get there. This is the motivation that will keep you going even after the initial fervour has died down.
• You may want to move up the totem pole, learn a new skill, manage your time, network more, attain a work/life balance or simply meet your deadlines or delegate effectively. Whatever you decide, make it specific instead of a wishy-washy. It’s a fact that vague and subjective resolutions never get done. Take your pick – wanting to lose weight or planning to shed five kilos, which intention has more chances?
• Too many goals are a pitfall; moderation is the key. Instead of making a long list, take one thing at a time with one or two realistic and achievable resolutions. This way you will not run out of steam and can keep adding more goals once the earlier ones are achieved. Also, setting small goals or breaking them into steps and phases that you believe can be achieved is a more workable strategy. For instance, ‘become the CEO’ is quite far-fetched and unreasonable. Instead of setting yourself up to fail, break it into a well-defined step-by-step path with measurable goals and preset deadlines, that will slowly but surely take you to where you want to be.
• Address your concerns by writing them down and putting them in visible places for regular review. This will activate your subconscious mind and help you become aware of opportunities you would have missed otherwise.
• It is always said, ‘You have to see yourself doing something before you can do it’. Once you visualise yourself as happy after achieving your goal, the thrill of success and satisfaction will make you work harder towards making the mental picture a reality.
• Experts advise that going public with your resolution provides accountability and helps you stay on course. This way a friend or mentor can become a sounding board, an advisor and a support system all rolled into one.
• Again, its all about focus and commitment. You have to be proactive and firmly concentrate on the goal. As human resource trainer, Dan Bobinski exhorts, “Bottom line: You go where you are focused.”
• Apart from this, do not berate yourself if you falter or fail. Instead of abandoning the goal out of disappointment and frustration, learn from the setback and persist on getting back on track. Take on the challenge of a new start and you will definitely achieve something worthwhile. This time around, dispel the myth that resolutions are meant to be broken. And next year you will find yourself celebrating the sweet success of your resolution.

PAYAL CHANANIA

Invoke peer pressure to stem procrastination

Published on Wednesday, Dec 12, 2007

Ms. Preeti is always late (or should we say, barely in time) – be it her festival shopping or filing her tax returns. Every task or project involves a last minute dash to beat the deadline. It’s not that she is pushed for time, but actually prefers things this way!
For many people, being late is a way for life. They have a perpetual penchant for delaying work, lulled by an over-optimism of being able to meet tight deadlines or the adrenaline rush of managing to scrape in by a whisker or just sheer laziness.
But, how many of us can actually work well with a Damocles’ sword always hanging over our head? Frenziedly pulling together a project or presentation at the ‘eleventh-hour’ may be possible, but the work will definitely smack of a hurried shoddiness and negligence. Slack inadequacies and mistakes are bound to show. And, what if you are left in the lurch – the client is unavailable, the computer crashes or you fall ill at the last minute.
Lame excuses are no justification and will not serve any purpose.
Well, everyone gives in to the urge to put off doing things once in a while. But if the tendency gets chronic, it will affect your productivity, hurt your career and ultimately sabotage your success.
As job coach, Marty Nemko advises, “Procrastination is an ingrained habit, but if you don’t kick it pretty quick, you’re going to find yourself on the corporate slow track.” Not only will you miss opportunities, but also be overwhelmed with a debilitating guilt, helplessness and stress all the time. Contrast this with a feeling of competence, self-satisfaction, personal freedom and peace of mind when you are in charge of your work and life. So, what’s your pick?

Getting ‘started’
The first step to overcoming procrastination is to realise that you are deferring things unnecessarily and discover the real reasons for the delay. They could be:
• There’s always enough time - This assumption may delude you to defer work till a ‘later time’. But, by the time you get around to doing it, time will have caught up and you will be left with your back against the wall. So, instead of berating yourself for leaving things till the eleventh hour, focus on completing the tasks whenever possible, irrespective of the deadline.
• This is too boring – If you don’t feel like doing monotonous chores, try to psyche yourself with a reward for not procrastinating the drudgery. You will be able to perform better when there is a social activity, a hobby or even a coffee break or snack waiting at the end of a task. Else, incorporate an element of fun, and who knows, you may even start liking the work!
• I don’t know where to begin– Monumental duties or colossal projects can be quite unnerving and invite perennial procrastination. Tackle an overwhelming assignment by breaking it into small chunks of manageable tasks and complete one at a time.
• There isn’t enough time – When something requires a large block of time, do not put it off just because there is not enough time to complete it. Try thinking in terms of ‘begin it’ and not ‘finish it’. Instead of trying to complete everything at one go, concentrate on making a dent in the work and within no time it will get done entirely.
• This is so hard – There is a natural tendency to avoid tedious and demanding tasks in favour of the simpler ones. But can they be avoided forever? Will worrying over the difficulty of the work get it done? Instead, take it as a personal challenge and remember that once you get started, the focus will gradually shift from the complexity to completing the task well.
• What if I mess up? – A lurking fear of failure can make worrywarts stick to routine tasks as far as possible. You have to get out of your comfort zone and realise that having a head start will give you all the time to work your way through the new task and make a success of it.
• I need the pressure- If you find yourself putting off work because you cannot get things done until a deadline is banging on your door, recognise that your work will suffer, as the stress will ultimately get the better of you.
• I’m never going to do it to my satisfaction – Perfectionists hold themselves upto self-imposed and unrealistically high expectations. Afraid of failing to accomplish the unreasonable standards, they are always putting off work.
This defense mechanism may get you off the hook of substandard work, but ask yourself what is worse - not doing something ‘perfectly’ or not doing it at all! So, try to perform the task with time to spare, so that you can always work on improving it further.
Other tactics like self-discipline, publicising your plans to finish work (invokes peer pressure) and looking forward to savouring the moment of completion also come in handy.
So, do not dilly-dally unnecessarily every time you sit down to tackle a task. Break the habit of postponing work and begin it today.

PAYAL CHANANIA