Personal Stories

My Colleagues Wasted My Money By Not Using The Holiday Souvenirs I Bought For Them, So I Stopped Buying

When I first started working, my company had a culture of putting snacks in the pantry or buying gifts when someone travels overseas for a holiday or work trip.   I thought that was a norm and so I developed buying gifts back for colleagues as a natural activity to do whenever I was overseas for a holiday.   It was also fun to pick out nice snacks or touristy gifts like souvenir pens or notebooks.   There was once I returned from a holiday in a neighbouring country and I bought many snacks for my colleagues. I was shocked when I checked the pantry 1 month later and my snacks were still not eaten.  I felt disappointed as I could have spent that money buying something I liked. Were they not good enough? There was even a colleague who said that the snack was not as good quality as the ones she could get if she went herself. Talk about ungratefulness!   There was another time I bought cute pens for my colleagues but then I realised that most of them just threw them into the drawers and didn’t use them.   Since those bad experiences, I told myself to resist the urge to buy souvenirs and snacks for colleagues whenever I was overseas. I only buy a few items for a selected group who appreciates them. It’s alright if they think that I am stingy and don’t buy gifts for them.    I also managed to save more money which I used for myself.  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.