-
AITA for not gifting the person I picked for Secret Santa after being laid off and put on garden leave?
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
-
When the time came to exchange gifts, the employee bowed out politely, notifying the organizer that it felt wrong to keep participating. It was not a protest, just a boundary. The manager could have reassigned the name, kept the circle intact. Instead, silence again. A week later, the employee still received a gift in the mail, a bittersweet reminder that the company could manage symbolic kindness even when it couldn’t manage people.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Office gossip filled in whatever meaning it wanted. Word got around that the former employee took a gift and gave nothing. The story twisted into selfishness, as if enduring the early stages of unemployment was not enough responsibility. There is a strange cruelty in how workplaces rewrite narratives once someone is out of sight.
-
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
-
-
-
In truth, this was not stinginess but detachment, the clean break that should have happened both ways. No one owes holiday cheer to a place that just erased their nameplate. Some gifts cost more integrity than twenty euros can buy.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!