I'm in a weird situation here, because none of my actual bosses that I report to are likely to give me holiday presents, and I didn't send any of them one (I did send some candy to the SF library staff, but my boss won't eat it), but I have gotten one box of candy from a partner, who is sort of my boss too, and may get others next week.

I'm not even sure who my boss is this Christmas. The great guy who hired me has moved to a different position and they haven't replaced him or realigned us to anyone else. So, all I really want for Christmas (work-wise) is a spot on the org chart.

I meant to send some treats to coworkers, but meh.

But, erika, the self-defense argument would apply to "life/health of the mother". If people will excuse my indelicacy, the rape/incest clause is something more along the lines of "he had it coming."

My boss gave me a nice wooden box. I gave her a box of fancy truffles (really - you can't go wrong with chocolate). In even better news, we got bonuses this year!

Everyone here who has an admin assistant gets a present for that assistant, and sometimes the division chiefs give presents to all the admins in their divisions. This year one of my bosses gave me a $50 Safeway card, one gave me a $50 crystal serving platter (pretty, but it's going straight back to Macy's whence it came), and the third gave me a very pretty soap set last year but hasn't given anything this year.

The crystal serving platter boss has told me very sternly that he'll be extremely angry if any of the admins buy him any gifts, bless him.

I used to get gifts from my former boss at the mall. I got her a gift one year and she yelled at me. She said, "Gifting does down, not up." which I then replied with a very pervy comment.

Last year, I gave my minion (who was in her first real job) a stern talking-to ahead of time about never feeling obligated to give a boss a present.

I kinda refuse on principal on gifting up the work chain, unless I am just friends with my boss.

So much this.

Ditto. Although I have received gifts from reports (who I also gave gifts to). I forgot about this year, so, sorry team!

One of my DRs just won't stop doing this and it makes me supremely uncomfortable. But it's not like I can say anything.

We ususally get something smallish from our boss - she moved to San Fran this year so we got a big box of sourdough bread with cheese and tapenade and stuff the other day. I trust in lieu of anything individual.

My idea of gifting up to the boss is using my discount at the bookstore to save her a few dollars on her calendar.

ION, Two Lumps is pretty funny today.