a grab bag a nice theory…

so… we all know the office i work in at this point. unfortunately. and there's about 11 of us in my dept. in the past, we've all had to buy gifts for everyone, which gets expensive very quickly. so i thought we could do a grab bag this year. in early november i started discussing the possibility and everyone was up for it. so i sent an email around. everyone understood the idea. everyone signed on. very simple rules.

1. pick a name

2. buy gift for said name

3. give gift to said person on designated "grab bag" day

4. smile and open gift from other person

5. enjoy a stress-free, cost-limited holiday gift exchange at the workplace

well… apparently i work with different people.

ya see. we had our grab bag yesterday. and today i found out that 5 people in our department bought gifts for everyone. and not just like, here's a card and an ornament gifts… like, bottle of grey goose gifts. well strike that. they didn't buy those gifts for me. they bought them for eachother. those 5 people apparently decided to buy gifts for eachother above and beyond the grab bag.

ok. fine. no problem.

well then they also bought gifts for our boss. and our boss' boss. and her boss.

and our boss bought a gift for everyone. including me.

and our boss' boss did the same.

and out boss' boss' boss.

so now here i (and a couple others) are sitting, having fully followed the rules of the grab bag… but in a position where i have received gifts from many people, and only given to one. and feeling like crap. and now obligated to spend more money. on people i don't like anyway. hooray.

merry christmas. happy holidays.