We chip in a bit for a collective office gift to our company's owners here, but it's a tiny company where everyone is friends or family, they're great bosses, and we generally receive holiday bonuses/gifts from them that far outstrip the amount any of us contribute toward the gift.

When contemplating my history of office gifts I'm suddenly reminded of the scene in Up where all the dogs say, "We like you temporarily!"

Because the outpouring of presents and affection I received during the in-office baby shower for Emmett was certainly sincere enough. And we got lovely, personal, thoughtful gifts.

And yet, those relationships all burned off like morning fog within a year or two.

I agree that we should show appreciation, -- but I somehow I feel like the way it is done here is just overly generous and embarrassing. We also all get called down to the big lounge and present the cash to the people, who have to make thank you speeches, and it is just over the top.

Wow, that all sounds really creepy. Especially if they are fairly compensated employees!

who have to make thank you speeches, and it is just over the top.

Oh, ew. That would be awful.

The bit with the speeches is too much, that's just an imposition. "Show your gratitude! Show how much you love us!" Even in the Victorian era, where the well-to-do made even more of a production of obvious charity, there were articles about how rude and condescending it was to force yourself on the poor who had better things to do.

The thing is, I am pretty sure everyone is just trying to be nice, and the school that I work with has just grown SO MUCH that instead of 10 or 20 people chipping in for a gift for 2 people, it is 200 people chipping in for a gift for 3 people.

Random question of the day: What's the last random act of kindness you participated in? (either as the doer or the receiver)

What's the last random act of kindness you participated in?

I was shopping at lunch yesterday, and I was next in line for the cashier, and a woman with an armload of clothes to buy was methodically making her way through the line behind me, telling people she had to be at a doctor's appointment in 10 minutes and asking them if she could go in front of them. So I let her go in front of me (despite thinking "Put the clothes back and COME BACK after your appointment, honey.").

I got up with the kid at 5:20AM even though it was DW's turn. To be fair, though, she does the same for me often since I'm PG.

Someone drove right through an enormous puddle yesterday, which sucked because I was soaked to the knees, but someone two cars behind her made a point to stop and say that he saw it and he was appalled, and sorry that it happened. Which didn't make me any drier, but did make me feel a lot better.