Valentine's Day Do's and Don't's for the Office

It's Valentine's Day, and a great way to celebrate the holiday is by giving gifts to your colleagues. However, when you mix Valentine's Day, the day of love, with the workplace, things can get a little awkward. It's possible to avoid the potential awkwardness of Valentine's Day while still celebrating it at the office by giving non-personal, similar gifts to each of your colleagues and your boss. Here are just a few fun and easy ideas:

Homemade Cookies

Homemade Valentine's Day cookies for your colleagues will always be well-received because they're tasty, thoughtful, and comfortably casual. Make red and pink heart-shaped sugar cookies, put them on individual plastic red dessert plates, and make sure you bring enough plates to the office for everybody.

Flowers for the Office

A Valentine's Day gift for your whole office rather than for your colleagues is also a great option. If you like flower arranging, you could volunteer to create a beautiful Valentine's Day bouquet for the break room or receptionist's desk. Store-bought flowers are okay, too, and you can find some beautiful arrangements for the office at Flowers.com

Gift Cards

If you're a high-level exec at your company, Valentine's Day gift cards for your colleagues and employees is a present everyone will love. Buy one generic gift card for each person good towards movies, a nice restaurant, or Starbuck's. You'll gain respect with this gift, and you might be able to right it off as a company expense.

These gifts are all guaranteed to give you and your colleagues a fun and festive Valentine's Day experience. Whatever you give your colleagues for Valentine's Day, just make sure you stay away from the presents described below:

Some Horrible Ideas for Valentine's Day Gifts for Colleagues:

Just like romance, Valentine's Day can be very unwelcome in the workplace. Here a few gifts you should NEVER give to your boss or colleagues on Valentine's Day:

Jewelry: Jewelry is a too-personal gift for the workplace and is associated with romantic commitment, which is always a bad message to send in the workplace.

Clothing: Clothing is never a nice gift; f you get the wrong size, your recipients will be offended, and your colleagues will feel guilty if they want to return the clothing you chose for them. Also, you'll feel bad if your colleagues never show up to work wearing what you bought for them.

Different Gifts for Different People: For any kind of gift in the workplace, its best to give a generic gift to every colleague so you don't offend or single out everybody. You can personalize your presents with hand-written cards, and if you have a special colleague you want to exchange more intimate gifts with, do it outside of the workplace.

I hope these suggestions of both good and bad gift ideas will help you decide what to give your colleagues for Valentine's Day. Celebrating holidays in the workplace makes office life more fun, as long as you avoid the awkwardness that office gift-giving can bring. Have a great Valentine's Day!