One of the women got a HUGE box, and was all excited. It turned out to be one of those 24 roll packs of toilet paper.
Okay, this might just be silly normally. As in, it’s the right price point, and everyone needs it, and at least it isn’t a stinky candle or whatever the recipient is allergic to.
The problem is, is that it is generally known about the place that this woman frequently steals rolls of tp from the bathroom. I don’t know if it’s miserliness, or she’s genuine in financial trouble (I don’t think so, but who really knows about other people’s finances?), or some weird quirk. So far as I know, no one has ever confronted her about the tp, although due to timing and such we’re 100% sure she’s the tp thief.
So giving her that present was a horrible “we know” type slap in the face. :mad:
C’mon. This is supposed to give people a little fun, right? Why the hell did you have to do that?
Anybody else have MEAN present stories?
I think that yeah, it’s kind of mean…but it might be a great wakeup for her. She’s stealing work supplies, and she really does need to stop. She’s an adult, and this behavior isn’t cute.
I have a very low tolerance for thieves. Very low. Especially workplace thieves. Since nobody has confronted her, she might have thought that she’s getting away with it. Now she knows that at least one other person knows.
I’d like to give my nephew a book on manners, since everyone else in the family gives him a pass on things like not saying hi when arriving to a room full of folks, not saying thank you for gifts (the ungrateful brat), having his mother ask other people to do him favors, and generally being a little ass. By the time you’re in your 20s, you should know better - unless everyone lets you get away with that crap for years.
Anyway, giving him such a book would probably be seen as being mean… or a waste of money.
In my junior high homeroom, I usually have a white elephant sort of gift exchange – 5 bucks or so, and everyone usually gets candy or dollar store trinkets. One boy, who was and is an insufferable annoyance, brought one used sock, neatly wrapped. The kid who got it was not amused, and neither was I. The sock was returned to the owner – I would have loved to have given him a swift kick in the butt along with it, and I gave the poor recipient a cool toy from my desk. Annoyance boy is a senior this year, and he had to have a parent/teacher conference with the principal, parents, and all teachers simply because he is so obnoxious, no one likes him. Pretty sad, when even your parents think you’re an ass.
I think the meanest gift is those fake lottery tickets. $10k or whatever could really solve someone’s problems and to give that hope and sense of possibility for 30 seconds before they read the fine print isn’t just mean but is downright heartless and cruel. Not the slightest bit funny.
In college a few of us chipped in and put together a basket of toiletries for another student. He felt the answer to not showering was dousing himself in Drakkar Noir (insert barfie smilie). So we bought him towels, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste - the whole shebang - and had it delivered to his dorm room.
This isn’t in the spirit of the OP, but I feel moved to tell it: When I was a kid, we drew names for Christmas, and this one boy got some notebook paper. I held my breath, thinking “What was someone thinking? That’s a crap gift.” Luckily, the kid who got it was more mature than I was, and he thanked the other kid graciously. That’s when I realized that the paper was from that boy in class I’m sure we all remember–the one who is not too bright, and from a poor family. It really made an impression on me, seeing how gracious the gift recipient was at such a young age.
To the OP: I think the gift was entirely appropriate. She got something she apparently needed, and a not-too-subtle message that she shouldn’t be stealing things from work.
Nobody should be using a gift exchange for that kind of personal insult. If you don’t have the guts to tell someone off face to face, you don’t qualify to criticize.
I used to work for a guy who was an overbearing asshole. He lived pretty far out in the suburbs, and so often stayed with his closest subordinate. Subordinate’s daughter told me about how obnoxious he was – hogging the couch and TV every night, and treating the place like it was his own.
When the holidays rolled around, he showed off the gift that he was giving subordinate’s wife – a vegetarian cookbook. “Maybe now she’ll get the hint”, he said.
It wasn’t really a mean present, just really really obnoxious. Fucking freeloading asshole.
I think the tp gift is hilarious.
I’ve witnessed a few of the anonymous personal-hygiene gifts. They never worked.
There have also been a few of the “ha ha you’re old!” gifts for people hitting whatever age milestones. Nothing particularly clever though. I guess those aren’t for Christmas though.
I suppose there is always the cliche of a man getting his wife a mop or some other cleaning supply.
Did you read the OP? This was a deliberate insult to the person. Even the OP seems to have participated in this childish behavior by speculating on the loss of tp. I suspect this woman may have taken a roll once because she needed one and knew she didn’t have time to stop on the way home. Then the office gossips start their whispering campaign, and next thing you know she’s a serial tp thief. Meanwhile one of the gossips continues to steal the stuff knowing this poor woman gets the blame.
It isn’t a gag gift in the circumstances described, it was a classless act. If you want to throw rocks, do it openly. If you want to lob them anonymously hidden within a crowd you deserve some used tp as a gift.
I like that! Reading it made me think of an idea for a Holiday ad for a 24-7 Locksmith:
“Its the Gift for Them that’s also a Gift for You…!”
Granted, its a lot more sporting than sending them on a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood for the receipt, the contact number and the truck number of the moving van rolling all their stuff south-bound…
We have a gift exchange but presents aren’t designated. You choose from wrapped gifts on a table or commandeer one already taken. This avoids any directed meanness.
However, in the OP I don’t see that as being mean. Obviously it was something she coveted. The gift itself, TP, isn’t mean. It wouldn’t be a slap in the face to any other employee and pales in egregiousness next to someone stealing from work.
I’ve done exchanges similar to the one **lieu **described and I’d considered doing TP just because it would be a big package. And frankly, I find the imagined tale of gossips stealing TP and pinning the blame on another to be just a wee but far-fetched. I suppose I could just be naive about the whole situation.
