Corporate Gift Grab Time Of Year

Well, it's that time again folks. Monday, here at work we got an email about sponsoring "needy famblees" for the holidays. I deleted it.

Last evening another email went around with a spreadsheet attached outlining all the "requests" to - GET THIS - everybody in the fucking company. Asking for everyone to coordinate with XXX on what you are purchasing, etc.

To top it off, one of the offspring of the owner is coming around personally to everybody and expressing their hopes for 100% participation in this "very worthwhile" effort.

You should see the shit on this list. Aside from all the greedy crap kids want, there is actually somebody wanting a 4.5 quart Le Creuset dutch oven. Amongst other expensive items.

For those of you not familiar with Le Creuset, check out the price: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/c310/index.cfm?pkey=ccookware%2Dle%2Dcreuset&ckey=cookware%2Dle%2Dcreuset

Sorry, if I buy Le Creuset for anybody, it will either be 1. myself or 2. one of 2 very close friends or family member.

I feel like emailing the "coordinator" with a tip that the person wanting a Le Creuset dutch oven should go to Aldi and buy 2 of their 2 quart dutch oven knock offs made in China for $30. Fuck that shit.

WHAT? Someone asked for a Le Creuset but not for a Coach Bag?

They NEED it to cook all that free food don'tcha know.

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"I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is easy and fun as hell"

:eatu

Ugh, I hate that shit. I only donate to animal shelters, and whenever someone approaches me about "needy families" I have no problems informing them that my money has already gone to the kitties.

These people have no shame whatsoever. I personally would be embarrassed to even ask for anything. If it was imperative for a company gift exchange, I'd just say, "Um...just get me a 10-dollar gift cert to a restaurant, thanks." The idea of having the nerve to ask for a 200-dollar Dutch Oven just wouldn't even cross my mind.

Seriously. And the people on this list are supposed to be needly famblees in the community. The county does this fabulous work to compile lists of needy famblees and has them at the ready for bleeding hearts who want to do this shit.

I love how it's not "needy persons" just needy famblees.

If you're so needy, I could think of better things to ask for than a $200 piece of cookware.

Sad thing is, some dumbass here who is paid way too much, will buy it for them.

Sorry, my hometown animal shelter is on the verge of closing, my money will be going there. www.hillsidespca.com

I don't like it myself, MWR. I think it creates undue pressure. It places an unnecessary impetus on people to "play along" or "show your team spirit" or "be a good co-worker", and I don't think it's a good idea. If you want to buy a gift for someone, just buy them a gift - but every time they do the Secret Santa thing I feel like I'm being forced to do so, lest I look like an anti-social ass who 'doesn't have team spirit'. It's an awkward thing at best, at worst it's just annoying.
It might be a good idea in theory, not so much in practice.

I think that the term "needy famblee" is synonymous with "careless breeders who don't plan ahead," and I have NO desire to donate one thin dime to any of them. Why does it always have to be a "famblee" that is "needy"? Could it possibly be that there are so few singletons or childess(for whatever reason) couples who are "needy," that it never occurred to whoever coined the phrase "needy famblee" to call it anything other than that??? A "needy famblee" very likely wouldn't be "needy" if they were not a "famblee" of self replicants in the first place. "Needy famblees" already get free food, housing, medical care and God only knows what else, NOW they have to financially rape more tax payers for their Santa Claus too?

Santa Claus brings me to another point. That is, why in the world would a "needy famblee" parent perpetuate a fantasy like that in the first place? Only one of two things winds up happening when they do. 1) The project brats get a HUGE loot via donations or maybe their baybee daddy made a good drug sale, and a sense of entitlement is encouraged. or 2) They don't get shit and they can't understand why they are being punished when they have been "good". They begin at an early age thinking that good behavior is not rewarded, but that the shitty welfare kyds next door, with the "Big Christmas", were rewarded for their bad behavior or that both their neighbors' bad behavior and their good behavior was overlooked by Santa, so what's the point? (they may wonder)

Personally, I think that the Santa Claus myth needs to be universally changed from a literal person who rewards good behavior and punishes bad via of literal presents, to the legend/fable (yeah, I KNOW there was a "real St Nick, I mean the red suited Santa) that it actually is and explained from the very beginning that it's all about the spirit of giving, loving, etc.....rather than some fat white man in a red suit who literally squeezes down a chimney, which of course is RIDICULOUS and confusing to smart young children. I think that it's mental child abuse to allow poor kyds to believe that if they are really really "good", that Santa will give them lots of nice presents. I think it's quite sad to imagine a poor/indigent kyd on Christmas morning who gets nothing but some used clothes and a candy cane (if that) in comparison to the poor/indigent kyd next door who had some charity load up his gift bag with the latest and most expensive electronics, games, and a shiny new bike. I can't begin to imagine how confusing and hurtful that must be.

So, I think we need to blow the Santa myth out of the water and then NO kids will expect anything beyond what they get year around. Maybe that way there won't be so many "needy famblee" charities and perhaps some of these welfare kyds can get a dose of realism early on and do something about their pathetic and often dire living situations as they get older. As long as they think that Santa or some charity will bail them out, they will likely wind up living on A street Apt.2, right next door to their moomie in the projects. They will wind up teaching THEIR kyds that Santa and St. Mary's charity will take care of the needs that the government hand outs don't meet. The childed would say I am mean and cruel, but I think what THEY do as far as Santa for some and not others is VERY cruel. If they can't give equally and across the board (which they can not possibly)then they don't need to give to a "needy kyd" at all. It's a vicious cycle and "Santa" only perpetuates it. IMHO.

Signed
MS. Scrooge

Holy shit, a $200 Dutch Oven?! Are they crazy?

Wait a minute........what's all this about a "Santa myth?"

Actually, a group hubby and I belong to are buying some stuff this year for a cause. We're buying the necessities for the guys in Iraq and doing a big shipment over there. THAT is the kind of stuff I have no problem with.

Where I'm from, we use two expressions for the poor folks: "needy famblees" AND the "less fortunate." That last one I think is a real hoot. Hell, everybody's "less fortunate" than someone else. I'm less fortunate than say, the famblee who lives in the hugh-jass three story Victorian down the street. Whereas the guy with a two-car garage is less fortunate than the guy with a three-car garage (and you'd be surprised how many of those there are in rural Wisconsin).

But yeah, I think it's a bit of a stretch to require brand-new stuff for the charities. Really, I grew up wearing second-hand stuff, and I still shop at thrift stores. It hasn't killed me yet!

I got put on the spot like this when I worked at a major financial institution years ago. I did donate a gift card to a bookstore but that was it- I so dislike them shoving their kids with their bloody sign up sheets for EVERYTHING in front of you.

married with rabbits Wrote:
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> By the way, how does everyone here feel about the
> secret santa thing that work environments like to
> push? Frankly I can't stand anything that pushes
> for people to buy one another gifts.


I stopped participating in my division's grab bag after my minor fiasco in 1994. The ~40 of us in my division drew names from a hat and they had suggested gifts we should buy. I had no problem with that, as many of the staff were rather new and did not everyone else very well. Anyway, I drew this woman's name with whom I had a work-related spat not long before. After trying unsuccessfully to find any of her suggested gifts, I found this book at a gag-gift store titled, "Flat-chested women are better because..." and had a good look at her face when she opened it up in front of everyone! LMAO that was fun, and it was a good way to end my run in that lousy annual ritual.

The last few years there was so little interest in this grab bag thay they cancelled it!

CherryBlossom Wrote:
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> Holy shit, a $200 Dutch Oven?! Are they crazy?

Seconded! That is a luxury, NOT a necessity!

My Collegiate High class is trying to get us into that mess.

We had a choice of three charity projects to participate in - you could do all of them if you wanted.

1. Baybee in a Box/Basket - basically make a huge gift for the underprivileged breeders with baaaaaaybees that they can't afford. It said "include bottles, toys, clothes..." because Moomy can't afford them - BAAAAAAAAWWWWW.

2. Angel Tree - Pick a star from the tree in my algebra teacher's office. Whatever's on the star, you buy for that kyd.

3. (My favorite) Senior Citizens Center Caroling - go to play piano and sing at the local senior citizens' center on the last day before holiday break.

I'm going to do number 3. I want to do number 1, however, and tape a tiny paperclip coat hanger to a box of Trojans...then wrap just that up and send it to the moomies. HA. My mother would never let that slide, though...

we are in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the great depression.

but not for the "needy fambly!"

what the fuck is wrong with these goddamned whores asking for le creuset, nike shoes for the brats and playstations? it's happening everywhere this christmas... the retail reports show that shoppers are spending less and buying less luxury, yet for the goddamned motherfucking breeders, oh they do not sacrifice anything! it's disgusting and they should all be taken out and dipped in a vat of babyshit.

Speaking as someone who loves to cook...a $200 ding-dongin' POT?!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh, my (wipes eyes).

Reality check to breeders: when my DH and I were in the thrift store on Sunday, we found a fabulous cast iron Dutch oven with handle among the random kitchen stuff for (drumroll) $8. I told DH to stash it away for Xmas and that it would be one of my Xmas presents. And I will love it! Cast iron is indestructible and heats food so well! Plus I love picking out my own Xmas presents! Hey breeders, I just saved you $192 with that li'l tip (rolls eyes).