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Company Gift Time Again?
realratso asks: "So it's that time of year again... the holidays. Time to choose the 'company gift' for everyone in our small programming company. We've done all the stuff with the company logo- sweatshirts, t-shirts, travel bags, glasses, mugs, etc. It all seems so boring. Is there any gift which you have received at your workplace that was super-cool, not gender specific, and relatively inexpensive? Something that was really usable and worthwhile that you appreciated, but might not buy for yourself? Maybe a new techno-gadget? (and no, 'just money' is not a valid answer)"
If not, I recommend a jaunt to Thinkgeek and get a boat-load of those Digi-Q remote controlled racing cars. :)
Cute, cheap, teaches responsibility.
And It has the side benefit that next year the workers will hope you don't get them anything.
Best Windows Freeware
Could you give females one thing and males another or does everyone need to get the same thing?
You like pain, don't you?
www.kleinbottle.com is pretty cool, but I'm sure it's too expensive for what you want to do.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Most geeks already have problems just washing their clothes. No thanks.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Our company just gave us layoffs
Tickets to the Lord of the Rings movie?
condoms with your company logo on the tip!
One for the office. It's actually pretty cheap compared to big bonuses, it'll always be rememberd, and it's a great recruiting tool.
-- Ken Kinder ken@_nospam_kenkinder.com http://kenkinder.com/
How about an Everglide mousing surface? I have one at home and one at work. Anyone who's used them loves them. And their prices have dropped to about 12 bucks for the standard elliptical one.
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
These are things that I would love to have, but don't want to buy for myself. Plus, if you're feeling down, there's nothing like two mental depressants to get your spirits up. "A surefire healer: Hashish and Tequilla"
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
I work for a small network security company. Last year they gave us a fleece blanket with the company logo on it (the joke was that its a security blanket). Really, though, it was the best piece of swag I ever got. I don't think it's too expensive, gender neutral, one size fits all... and everyone liked them.
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Find something cool on Thinkgeek ...
I'd recommend a red Swingline stapler for everyone. Not only will it keep your employees happy, but it'll cut down on your fire insurance rates!
Get stuff from think geek.... or buy them little stuffed tux penguins.... Or even better... find and buy the large tux penguins (you know... the ones that are like two feet tall), so they can put them in the passenger seat in their cars. If anybody knows who sells the large tuxs... please post a link.
Lots of people have replied talking about ThinkGeek, but pay particular attention to the Nerf guns that they have. If your company atmosphere is the same as mine (small, everyone knows everyone, and good-natured) there's nothing like having a Nerf gun handy to express your disagreements with.
Be sure to load up with extra darts, however. Those things can get themselves lost in the time it takes you to blink.
LOL! If I got anal beads from my company I would start to love my job!! Not that I'd use them, not on myself anyway, butt (pun intended) a company giving anal beads to its programmers is just the one thing that you'd expect the very least.. ;) And I'd love them forever for it! ;)
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
Yes, money. I am married with 2 children. I would rather my workplace give money than some newfangled toy that will collect dust and only be used as a novelty. Making my family happy makes me happy. Money, food, clothes, and toys from Santa makes my family happy. Don't think you are being uncaring or cheap by giving money, as it is probably the MOST welcome.
We gave umbrella's to beta testers a couple of years ago; the tall ones that one usually associates with golfing. It was considered odd at the time, but since then we've had lots of positive comments on how much everyone appreciated them. BTW, we had the product logo silk screened onto them.
One was an unexpected paid day off:
Everyone was working on Monday already, Christmas was on Tuesday. The friday before, boss walks in, says everyone has monday off, fully paid, and took us out to lunch.
The other best gift was gift certificates to the restraunt of our choice, Boos just went around, asked everyone individually where they liked to eat out, and bought $30 gift certificates to that place with a card, and put them in a holiday mug.
Get everyone a Leatherman Micra. It's fantastically useful and is very portable (2.5" long, 1.75oz).
It's got Scissors, Clip-Point Knife, Tweezers, Nail File / Cleaner, Flat Phillips Screwdriver,
Extra Small Screwdriver, Medium Screwdriver, Bottle Opener & Ruler (Inch / Metric)
Best of all thinkgeek are doing them for $20
(Yes, I've got one. I've also got a Leatherman Wave. They're a bit more expensive...)
Nothing beats cash.
You can't pay bills with a company shirt, a coffee mug, or a company party. I would rather have something that is of actual value.
Why read the article when I can just make up a snap judgement?
I got one of those keychain LED flashlights at work a year ago and loved it to death. I recently had to buy myself a replacement.
That was a perfect office gift; cheap, slightly geeky and useful.
Case in point: I have never received anything from my employers except a couple hours off early [paid] before Christmas Eve - of course, that will not happen this year (at least for tomorrow and Friday) because of my contractor status - except:
When I worked as a government employee, the four in our little unit were friends and I got gifts from everyone far more fortunate than my broke GS-4 self.
And last year the company I was working for sent me smoked fish in one of those freezer shipment packs - which was very nice because the person doing all the client and employee gift-giving noted that I liked smoked fish on my bagels.
Which does illustrate my point: I remember that gift better than any other probably because it was food (except for the extra-expensive sweater my ex-boss/good friend Jim Banks gave me that was a SMALL - but for big and tall men so it swallowed my tiny 19yo frame and fits very well and comfortably now *chuckle* He won't read this but he knows that thing has kept me alive in the freezing cold a few dozen times).
Something no one except a bulemic could complain about is gathering everyone up and feeding them at whatever the local favorite is - it doesn't have to be expensive but it could be more memorable than Applebee's or the like. You've avoided any cliches and not given someone something they will discard in the future. Add a Christmas card or Thank You note for good measure.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
How about the entire Baen library on CD? Priced right!
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
From my company what I'd enjoy the best is a paid day, or half day off - without any major strings attached.
Other than that, I'd recommend gift certificates. I realize that isn't a cool techy thing to give, but at least then everyone gets what they want - not what you guessed they'd want.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
My wife sells that sort of this. They have gift catalogs is a varity of price ranges. I anyone is interested I'd be glad to connect you.
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -- Homer Simpson
Probably the *best* company gift I've ever received was a personalized latte mug. Everyone got one with their name on it. It's the only mug that doesn't walk away!
I'm a big fan of yo-yos. Letter openers (the plastic kind with a little razor safely hidden) are really useful. If you're going more high-end I'd recommend one of the nice messenger style bags. They seem to be appreciated.
I've received a couple of watches and never used any of them. Also, I am so sick of getting men's shirts I could scream. Luckily one of the founders here is a woman. She went out of her way to have some women's shirts embroidered with our logo for the females here. Finally, logo gear I can really use!
Sarah
- adam
P.S. WARNING: This company is in Redmond, thus any money you spend there might wind up getting funnelled through a business tax and eventually pay for a roadway lane painting that might be used to get an employee to Microsoft -- so use your best judgement.
lallie, c'est quoi ca?
...was a GameBoy.
Granted this was back during the boom period, but it wasn't that expensive. I think, in the quantity that they ordered, they were on the order of $50/ea.
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
And not consuming useless crap? AdBusters
You want a great gift: add a vacation day, or a half day if that's too much.
You know, this might be in addition to the regualr holiday cash bonus. Maybe something a manager wants to give his underlings to show his appreciation -- it is a small company. Honestly, a thoughtfully chosen, and inscribed card might fit the bill.
If you're already getting the bonus, what else would you like from your boss?
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
Say you're getting a $1000 Christmas bonus, would an extra $20 make that much of a difference? But say that $20 was used to show that your boss was considerate enough to think about you. It's entirely possible that this kind of a gesture might make someone feel appreciated. This is probably the goal here.
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
Those keychain usb drives. They sell them with company logos on them too..
Great for taking home work, files you download in the office etc..
a lallie is another word for a 'dental dam'. It's a little latex square you use to avoid exchange of body fluids during cunnilinguis.
Anyone else have suggestions for gifts in this mode?
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Make some little cards with some holiday themed pictures, and this poem.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
The economy is dead, so
There's nothing for you.(except this card.)
Happy Holidaze anyway.
How ya like dat?
I enjoy the Griffin Technology "PowerMate"
They are these litte cast steel scroll volume deals that you can alias out to anything. They have a slick ass breathing like glow under them that will make everyone that walks by stop and say "What the hell is that thing?!".
I got 5 of these things for my friends for x-mas and everyone loves them. They work on pretty much everything as far as I can tell. They have drivers for every flavor of windows, osx, and os9 on the mac. I did not see any linux drivers but I am sure they are out there somewhere if you can get it to run on osX. You can give the spin a key to send when you use it, say "send left-arrow" when you spin it to the right, right-arrow to the left...send alt-cntrl-del when you click it. One of the guys uses it to scroll web pages and the click to switch tab in pheonix...the perfect porn browser...err game site...whatever..
Anyway check em out.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead