Trouble With Trolls - Day 18

Say Thank You!

I am responsible for the Christmas gifts my company gives our employees. Some days this is a joy. All the way back in October I got to do some online shopping, and even better I have vendors falling all over themselves to show me what they think is a great idea. This year’s hot items were gloves that allow you to use your smart phones. $25 and it didn’t really work. Good thing I passed on that one.

We usually do apparel of some sort, plus a bag with our logo and maybe one other item. This year, in what I thought was a genius move, I gave shirts that came out of our shirt inventory. Since I have been tasked with eliminating some of the slow moving shirt inventory, this seemed like a great idea. Plus it allowed me to spend a little more on the extras and the bag.

If you happen to work in the office, or are a District or Regional Manager you got really lucky this year because in addition to the stuff the store employees get, you get extra logo swag; padfolios, coasters, key chains, gloves, teeth whitening pens. DM’s and RM’s who attended our leadership retreat really cleaned up because we had vendor swag to go with it, plus in keeping with the “Drink the Cocktail” theme, they also got cocktail glasses.

All this to say, our employees got some fun stuff this year. Which brings me to my point, how hard is it to say thank you? I am not fishing for people to go on and on about how amazing the gifts are, because, yes I could have given ipads. Well, not really, I do have a budget, and an office employee who would turn me in to the IRS for not including the monetary value of an ipad in the employees year end taxes. In any case, I had 4 employees go out of their way to thank me. I said “You are more than welcome, we appreciate all the hard work you do.”

It isn’t a complicated exchange. But 4? Out of almost 500? Who raised these people?!? Were they raised by wolves? Actually, come to think of it, given the grooming habits of some of them, they might have been raised by wolves.

So unless you were actually raised by wolves, or maybe want to be smacked upside the head. PLEASE remember to say thank you when someone gives you a gift. If I can do it, I am pretty sure anyone can.