#002 Orlando thinks: Embrace gifting your colleagues
Hello everyone, it’s me, Orlando. I’m an Apple fanboy and software engineer at arconsis. Every week I publish an article from the series “Orlando thinks” in which I highlight a certain topic that I see as important or interesting. Sometimes it might be just certain aspects of everyday life, but sometimes it might be tips, hints, thoughts, or appeals — but non-sense is not excluded either.
Today it’s about gifting colleagues.
Hopefully, you have all experienced this (or ideally still do): You work in a team where you have the feeling of cohesion, trust, and appreciation. Within this team you know each other pretty well — you work together. You may not be best friends forever — but you enjoy getting together.
Then one of the following events occurs:
The colleague has a birthday. The colleague has gotten married. The colleague leaves the company for a great career or life opportunity elsewhere. The colleague becomes a mother or father. The colleague successfully completes his or her studies. The colleague passes his or her driving test.
How do you react? The following options are available:
1. you congratulate via chat message
2. you congratulate in person
3. you participate in a gift that someone else organizes
4. you take care of an appropriate gift
If the answer is mostly 1 and 2, then that’s good at least in that sense as the minimum level of decency is maintained. If even that is not the case, I also doubt that the team will work together in harmony as I described above.
In the case of a normal birthday, a simple congratulation is often quite sufficient, although I’m sure the birthday boy or girl wouldn’t mind a bar of chocolate on their desk when they arrive at the office in the morning (assuming the person likes chocolate).
What I’m trying to say is that I can only recommend making sure that answers 3 and 4 are given as frequently as possible.
Some may take it for granted that this just magically happens in harmonious teams — but my own experience in the past has been that this is not necessarily the case, despite a good working atmosphere.
Remember, these events are important for these people — giving great attention shows appreciation and acceptance of the person as a person — and not just as a work colleague.
It is also interesting if you only answer 3. This means that you are certainly happy to participate in this gift-giving culture, but that it can be lost under certain circumstances if the same people always take care of making their colleagues happy.
And I hope I don’t have to mention that if you think “Yes, gifting is what women always care for here, they have a much better feeling for it” the problem also lies somewhere else. In the best case, you don’t believe that and just try to talk your way out of responsibility.
A good atmosphere must be fostered. And apart from the things that are then taken for granted, maintaining good communication and giving each other constructive feedback in everyday work, you should also not forget these events. Each individual is responsible — and if you ask the team whether someone is already taking care of a gift and the answer is “no”, then you should break your habits and take responsibility!
And if you can put a smile on people’s faces, it’s always worth it.
Embrace gifting!
Cheers 🍻
Orlando
