To make up for a hellish time living through the COVID-19 pandemic, some employers showed their appreciation for employees with elaborate holiday gifts.
“We’re seeing the average cost of the gifts fly up,” Leo Friedman, CEO of Chicago-based corporate gifts company iPromo, whose clients include Pepsi, Kellogg and Salesforce, told HuffPost in 2020. Friedman estimated that the volume of sales surged by 650% in 2020 compared to the prior year.
“We’re seeing more Apple AirPods ... Amazon Echo Dots, unique products like self-heating mugs, and even Theraguns” bearing company logos, he said at the time.
But are company-branded Theraguns and Apple products what most employees actually want from their employer? In a 2020 HuffPost/YouGov survey of 1,000 registered U.S. voters, only 3% said that they would most like to get a physical gift like a tech gadget or a clothing item, only 8% answered that a gift card to a store or restaurant was the most wanted gift.
Most would simply prefer money over an elaborate holiday gift. Among voters, a cash bonus was overwhelmingly the preferred choice of holiday gift from an employer, across all age, race, gender and family income demographics.
But only 10% of voters said they expected to get a gift from their employer at all.
When participants were asked what kind of holiday gift they would most like to receive from their employer that year (within reason), some shared practical desires like “continued employment” and others had quirky requests, such as “ham” and a “fucking candle.”
See for yourself. Here’s a sample of the responses:
“A fruit basket” – 44-year-old man
“A gift certificate for a massage” – 48-year-old woman
“Branded blanket or sweatshirt, maybe a mug” – 32-year-old woman
“Continued employment in 2021” – 71-year-old man
“Food shelf donation made in my name” – 26-year-old man
“Gucci” – 29-year-old woman
“Ham” – 53-year-old man
“Hand sanitizer” – 31-year-old woman
“I would rather have more work than a gift” – 59-year-old woman
“Most likely some kind of gun accessories” – 47-year-old man
“Turkey and a small gift” – 41-year-old man
“Virus prevention supplies” – 53-year-old woman
“A trip to Alaska” – 29-year-old man
“Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto” – 58-year-old man
“A bonus, obviously” – 33-year-old man
“A wristwatch” – 54-year-old man
“Hazard pay” – 33-year-old woman
“My employer let me choose between olive oil or food bank donation. I said do the donation” – 40-year-old man
“A fucking candle” – 57-year-old man
“A hefty check” – 60-year-old woman
“Something personal that was chosen for me” – 57-year-old woman