A coworker gave our boss a very big gift. What do I do?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

A coworker of mine was just sent by the company to a Microsoft conference. At the conference, attendees were given Microsoft's new tablet and the Lumia 920. During our weekly meeting, my coworker was told by our boss that the giveaways were hers to keep for her own personal use. She mentioned that she didn't have any use for the phone, and my boss mentioned he wished he had one. She ended up giving it to him.

I don't really know how to handle the situation. It makes me very uncomfortable. The phone is a 700 dollar value. I feel like that kind of gift creates a strange dynamic, but our team only has three people besides our boss. I feel if I say something to HR, it won't be very hard for the boss to figure out who turned it in, and I don't want him to take that out on me.

What should I do?

Do companies typically have policies that cover this sort of thing? I checked our handbook, and I couldn't find anything that seemed relevant in this case.

manpreet 2 years ago

Giving gifts to supervisors and managers is always a grey area; however, in this case, the equipment was obtained free of cost to the employee, as part of the fees paid by the employer to send said employee to the conference.

Thus, in this case, giving the device away to another colleague, including a manager, is less suspect than it would be if that employee went out of her way to obtain a gift for the manager.

This sounds like a simple case of obtaining property through work, not having a need for it, and then giving it to the manager to do with it as he pleases.

I don't see this as gift giving so much as redistributing property that the company essentially paid for by proxy. Even in my place of employment, it wouldn't be uncommon for people to redistribute items that they obtained that they don't need, and it never seems awkward to us.

As far as what you should do, say nothing. Don't make a big deal out of it, and most likely, others won't make an issue out of it either. Who knows, next time the boss goes to a conference and gets free stuff he doesn't need, he may give it to you or another colleague who could use it. By making an issue out of this, you may force your place of work to come up with a policy that may not be in your best interests.