How to Coordinate a Group Gift for the Boss

Buying a gift for your boss can be tricky. It seems rude to ignore major holidays and her birthday--especially if she gives gifts to her staff. The solution is a group gift. If she loves it, you won't be the lone brown-noser. If she hates it, at least she'll be giving other people the evil eye, too. Read on to learn more.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Elect a leader. As with anything else group-related, someone has to be in charge. And if getting the boss a gift is your idea, that probably means you.

2. Determine who is going to be part of the group gift. If Phil in accounting has his own idea for the boss' birthday and Judy in payroll is going to ignore it, you need to know before selecting a gift.

3. Decide on an amount. Will everyone be contributing $20 or $50? The amount may determine who's in and who's out, so keep the contributions fairly low. Even four people throwing in $20 each can buy a nice gift.

4. Gather gift ideas. Maybe one co-worker had a conversation with him the other day about his favorite wine. Perhaps his assistant knows that he enjoys a certain type of cigar. Ask around until something feels right--and it is within your budget.

5. Purchase the gift. Once everyone agrees on a gift idea, make the purchase. Decide ahead of time what to do if there's money left over: re-distribute it to your colleagues or use the remainder to add to the gift.

6. Ask everyone who contributed money toward the gift to sign the card. Double check that you've included everyone because there's no graceful way to go back to the boss and say, "oh yeah, so-and-so was part of the gift too."

Tips & Warnings

• Try to encourage people to stick to whatever dollar amount the group has pre-determined. If one person wants to throw in an extra $20, he or she may feel more ownership over the gift. On the flip side, if one person only contributes $5 and everyone else gives $10, there may be some disgruntlement among those who gave more.
• Stay away from gift certificates that have the face value printed on them. If you give him a dinner voucher for $100 and there are five signatures on the card, he's going to know how much you each spent. If you give him a gift certificate for two rounds of golf at a local club, the amount of your gift won't be staring him in the face.
• Stay away from anything even remotely personal in your gift selection. If you have any doubts, skip it and find something else.

[KRONeil]

on 10/19/2008 There's a new online service called www.FrumUs.com that allows you to collect, vote on ideas, solicit comments, etc....it's free! Check it out.