Professionals More Likely to Shop for Themselves than Someone at the Office

Anyone counting on receiving a holiday gift from someone at the office is likely to be disappointed this holiday season. A recent Office Pulse study of 400 business professionals found most are more likely to spend on a gift for themselves than on one for a co-worker or boss. Just 29% of business professionals plan to buy a coworker a gift this holiday season, while nearly half (48%) plan to self-gift.

Skimping on co-workers, splurging on themselves

71% of working professionals won’t buy a gift for a co-worker and most of those who will don’t plan to spend a lot.

How much will you spend on a co-worker’s gift? Under $25: 79% $25-50: 17% $50-100: 4% $100+: 0%

79% plan to spend under $25, while no one plans to spend over $100. The opposite is true for those self-gifting: 63% plan to spend over $100 on themselves. Among men who are planning to shop for themselves, 79% intend to splurge on a gift over $100. That’s a drastic contrast to the 53% of women who are planning to spend that much.

Most won’t buy their boss a gift

However, gifting to a higher up isn’t as common this holiday season. In total, just 30% of business professionals plan to buy their boss a gift this year. That’s down drastically from last year’s Office Pulse study, in which 43% of employees planned to shop for their boss.

Men are less likely than women to get their boss a present, with 77% of them opposed to the idea compared to 66% of women. Of those who do plan to include the boss on their shopping list this year, 49% said the going rate for a present would be between $25 and $50.

Are you a re-gifter?

Those who do give gifts to coworkers or bosses can feel confident that it won’t be re-gifted, as 60% say they won’t re-purpose gifts they’re less than psyched about, unless that gift goes to someone in the C-Suite, where 46% of respondents said they do re-gift.

Professionals who have received gifts from a boss or co-worker have some fond, and not-so-fond memories of those presents.

Some past favorites include: Wine iPad Cufflinks Vacation days Trips to places like Japan and Las Vegas Box set of the first six Star Wars films

Some not-so-favorite gifts include: Toilet seat Toothpicks Stinky cheese Expired, melted chocolate Weight-loss pills Oven mitt

 

One gift was universally popular…Cash!