Lip balm. A pair of socks. Some kind of “comedic” mug; The selection of Secret Santa presents gifted by colleagues each festive season ranges from the boring to bizarre and – more often than not – wind up in only one place by January: the bin. These forced-fun emblems stand to see a lengthier shelf life in the supermarket they spawned from than in our begrudging homes. Which leads most Grinches to reach the same conclusion: with a (corporate) Christmas haul this disappointing, surely it’s time to give the tired tradition Santa’s big shiny boot?
According to a survey conducted by rubbish removal company Hippo, a fifth of us admitted to launching gifts from our colleagues straight into a black bag. “These workplace exchanges are proving to be more wasteful than wonderful. Small gestures can have a big environmental impact,” the company’s managing director, Gareth Lloyd Jones, observed.
