I Never Thought My New Year’s Party Gift Would End Up Like This

As most of the office was away during Christmas, my company decided to hold their Secret Santa gift exchange during our New Year’s Eve party. The system was quite simple – we would randomly draw a name from a hat and prepare a present for that person, all while keeping it anonymous.  

I drew a name I did not recognise. You see, I had only been working at this company for less than a month, so I didn’t know anyone outside of my department.  

As I didn’t personally know who I was buying a gift for, I chose a book that had helped me on my financial journey, titled “Budgeting for Dummies”. At first, I thought it would be a great gift, but everything went sideways when I found out that the person receiving my gift was a manager from a different department. As he tore open the wrapping, he held up the book and read the title aloud. The silent room was suddenly filled with the sound of laughter.  Several colleagues immediately called out, “That’s perfect for the Manager!” I could only sit there, frozen, while my face felt like it was on fire! 

Fortunately, the Manager smiled and said, “Maybe this is a sign that I need to start learning about budgeting!” Everyone laughed again, but I stayed silent. 

I thought the incident had passed and was forgotten, but a few days later, a colleague inadvertently spilled the beans. “Hey, the Manager liked your gift!” he said, as we were in the pantry. The Manager overheard the conversation. He turned and smiled at me, and said, “So, was that from you?” 

I started to panic.  I thought I was going to get a talking to, or worse, be looked down upon. But he just gave a little chuckle and said, “Thanks, the book’s pretty good. We should chat about budgeting sometime.” 

Since then, the Manager always greets me when he sees me. During an inter-department meeting, he even asked for my opinion on the budget strategy for a new project. I shared my thoughts and offered a few suggestions, which seemed to impress him. Now, I am helping with the project and have learned so much in the process. Who would have thought that a simple gift could lead to this – being more recognised and involved in meaningful work at the office? Sometimes, I think that the book was destined to find its way into his hands after all. 

This article is part of TSS Confessions, a weekly column where we delve into personal finance topics that are unscripted and genuine real accounts from people.