Poll: Holiday Presents for Administrative Assistants and Secretaries
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2020 Update – We still think this is a great poll on the best holiday presents for administrative assistants and secretaries — you may also want to check out some of our more recent gift ideas.
A number of readers have written in asking about holiday presents for administrative assistants. We tend to agree with Above the Law's advice last year — cash is the way to go for holidays. Still, we thought we'd poll people to see what they're giving (and how much):
The Best Holiday Presents for Administrative Assistants and Secretaries
In general, this has been my understanding of the best holiday presents for administrative assistants and secretaries:
For birthdays, give flowers
This alerts the rest of the office that it's the secretary's birthday (and gee, doesn't s/he have a great boss for getting her/him such swell flowers?)
For unfortunate events, give food baskets
For example, if your secretary breaks her leg or her grandmother dies, it would be rude not to send something to the hospital or to her home — and foo
d is better than flowers because it recognizes that your secretary is probably too overwhelmed to be cooking right now
For Service Above and Beyond
for service above and beyond secretarial duties (anything from watering your plants while you honeymoon to covering for you while you interview elsewhere), give gift cards, plants, take him or her out to lunch, or give him or her a more personal gift
What to Give Your Administrative Assistant for Year-End Holidays:
For year-end holidays, give cash — by itself.
As we said above, we agree with the AtL thread last year, and have heard that you should give your secretary $100 for each year you've served your company or firm (so, a sixth year would pay $600, regardless of how long you've had your secretary — although we've heard some people cap that at $500) — on the theory that this is additional compensation to them for the year, and no one appreciates getting their paycheck in the form of a really amazing pair of shoes or a gift card to a fancy restaurant.
(We've heard time and time again that this is true for Big Law firms — we must admit, we don't know what the rules are for smaller firms and other industries.)
Readers, as always, please comment — what will you be giving this year as holiday presents for administrative assistants and secretaries? Do you agree with our theory of secretarial compensation? What would you recommend doing if you had your secretary for less than a year?
Photo Credit: Christmas present, originally uploaded to Flickr by kjoyner666
Further Reading:
- Secretary/Administrative Assistant Gifts: Open Thread [Above the Law thread in 2007]
(And incidentally, I don’t work at a firm and don’t have a secretary or assistant to chronically underreward, so I’m not really sure why I deserve to be called “scrooge.”)
ok so you don’t work at a firm and your telling someone with 25 years of working in biglaw that my situation is not like all of the others. It was the same with everyone at Farella, MoFo, Bingham, Wilson, Shearman, Brobeck, Fenwick but what do I know.
As a solution to determining what to give, it seems like we’ve come up with some factors.
Where do you live? How much does a nice dinner cost there? It’ll by different in NYC than in Chicago and Kansas City.
Then, What type of firm are you at? Someone working in big law is probably expecting more than a smaller firm.
How many people does your assistant work with? What does she do for you? If she works for you and you alone more is to be expected than if she’s got a partner and 4 associates. If she picks up your drycleaning, orders lunch, and covers for you when you’re out then give more than the occasional copy and stamp.
Does the firm pay a bonus to assistants, and how much? If you can find this out it should help a lot. If the firm is giving out $100, but all other factors point to a big gift on your part, then give big! If the firm is handing out 10% of her salary, then you aren’t the real bonus giver.
As a former assistant (and current law student) I was SO happy to receive $250 one year and $200 another in Portland. It basically paid for the Christmas presents I was giving. The firm also paid an actual bonus equivalent to one paycheck (2 weeks pay).
To the frustrated assistants here, I’d say wait the economy out and find a job you don’t hate. Or go to law school. I realized that if I stayed an assistant I’d be doing nearly the same amount of work and getting paid less than half if I didn’t invest in the education.
if you use your office services department at all during the year, don’t forget them at the holidays. Order them a couple of pizzas for lunch one day or give them gift cards to a local lunch place. They make crap money, stand on their feet all day, and seldom get “please” or “thank you” from the attorneys. It must really suck for them to hear us attorneys complain about getting low or no bonuses this year, when they’re probably worried about getting laid off.
I’m just going to say how I see it, and how most other assistants see it (every single one I’ve ever met).
Only cash. Don’t worry about it being impersonal. Our feelings are not hurt; quite the contrary, we love that you understand that we may need the cash to pay our own Super, or our rent, for that matter (particularly nowadays).
I’m not going to go all boo-hoo on you – we have a pretty good life right now compared to others: we have a job. Yeah, it’s a crappy salary, but, after all, we agreed to it, didn’t we? And there are crappier salaries out there.
I, personally, try to perform equally for all my assignments. I treat first-years, most likely, even with more care – it’s scary for them their first year and they really want to impress. I understand that.
I try to get mid-level or senior associate’s work done first, if at all possible – because they usually have the heaviest loads and the most responsibility. And bring in most of the money which, frankly, pays my salary.
I like my partner – he’s brilliant – and I have no problem whatsoever doing his personal stuff – he has bigger fish to fry than screaming at his laundry service. And I’m very good at screaming at laundry services.
Thankfully, I’m very good at multitasking, and understand that while a huge document is copying I can scream at someone on the phone. And that you can totally work on a document while five more are in a printing queue.
Will I perform worse for any of the above if they stiff me for the Holidays? Probably not. I don’t stoop to that level. They’ll still get the same level of help. But admittedly – I’m most likely an exception to the rule. And it’s not because I’m so wonderful.
I just know that Karma’s a bitch. I’ve seen it happen more than once. And – well, I’m not completely void of pettiness – I enjoyed it immensely every single time.
As for the amounts: in NY, $100 is a first-year gift. Mid- and senior-level associates gave $300-800, in my experience. I’m not saying what my partner gives – but I will follow him to his grave if he needs me. Literally.
But please – no gifts!!! I hated every single one I’ve received, but felt obligated to wear it or carry it or display it and it didn’t feel good.
And no gift certificates, either. You have no idea where I shop. TRUST ME. YOU DON’T.
It is pretty annoying to see people who think that they have the right to tell me how much money I should give as a _gift_ just because they know how much money I make. Nevermind that over half of it goes to federal and state taxes, as well as the other half dozen agencies that get a piece, and I have a mortgage, school loans, daycare, etc. It is not my responsibility to give some of my hard-earned money to you just because you are doing your job.
>>It is not my responsibility to give some of my hard-earned money to you just because you are doing your job.
Then don’t. It’s not written in stone that you should.
It’s pretty annoying to serve someone and get nothing. Maybe your waitress will spit in your food, your Nanny will forget to pick up your kids, your maid will steal from you. We can only hope.
You forgot maybe your secretary won’t bust her ass and call her friend at the court to get your filing in on time, afterall that’s not part of her job. Maybe she’ll just give it to the courier and hope for the best.
I say thank you to my secretary every single time she does something for me, and I have already gotten her holiday gift. But, please stop acting like you are entitled to some small fortune just because I make more money than you.
And as for hoping that the maid will steal or the nanny will forget to pick up the kids…I highly doubt that an associate can afford a maid and a nanny for multiple children…I know I cant…I cant even afford one of those. Also, if you are hoping for the “best” and that is the best, then you probably don’t do as good of a job as you think you do.
In my experience the year end “gifting” is just called “gifting” when in actuality it’s more like sharing the wealth. In restaurants, waitstaff share their tips with the hostess, busstaff and chefs. It’s usually broken down by percentage. We are ALL lucky to have jobs. We are not asking for your “support” in the sense that you believe, however, we are supporting you (in that other sense). And attorneys wonder how they get their bad names…
This isn’t the same situation as in a restaurant where the staff is paid with the expectation that they are going to make that extra 15%…The salary or hourly rate of a secretary is not set with the expectation that the attorneys they support are going to give them a nice chunk of cash at the end of the year.
I give my Secretary $500 for her birthday and $1000 for the holidays. This is the minimum, others give more.
Oh, nevermind…
I have to add that I am not at all annoyed with those attorneys who feel they shouldn’t give anything (or give very little) to their assistants – that’s fine with me.
What annoys me is that they habitually try to influence others not to give anything to their assistants.
I had one once – he decided that they all should pitch in and I got about 30% of what I would normally get. The other two were embarrassed. You know how I know? The next year they told him they don’t want to “pitch in” and I was back on track. He was forced to slip me that $50 on his very own. Which did kinda look crappy, as he was the most senior, had the most work, was the most helpless and gave 1/4 and 1/6 of what the other two did.
If you can’t afford it – fine, I understand; there are many things I can’t afford either (although I try – and succeed – to be generous with those whom I’m expected to give Holiday “bonuses” to). If you can afford it, but don’t want to give – fine with me, too. You may have your principles or whatever.
But don’t try to bully those who DO want to give just so you don’t look bad. There’ll just be that many more people who think you’re cheap.
Be a grown-up. Realize it’s your – and only your – decision and stand by it.
Esq. you are very generous.
Standard in silicon valley $500/$1000 but that was a few years ago and they also got a bonus from the Firm of a few thousand. Think about it, I got a bonus of $30,000, she got $ 3,500 for the year.
I received an iPhone ($400) and all the accessories, car charger, cute pink case, screen protector and *50* 20 dollar bills from the Partner, 500 from an associate, 100 from someone I worked for about three months and 75 gift card and bottle of wine from the paralegal. The year before I received from a Partner at a different Firm that was sexually harrassimg me, a box of home made chocolate Truffels and a key chain, the Truffels looked like they were made by a two year old (supposedly made by his new wife and new baby – he had an affair at work with a secretary before me and his old wife found out about it, he had kids in their 20s and now has a new young wife and a baby). The chocolates were put in the trash immediately, I didn’t even want to give them to a homeless person on my way home in fear they would get sick and my husband and I tried to run over the keychain with our car but when that didn’t work, I smashed it with a hammer. He had the nerve to ask me how I liked the Truffels on Monday, that a lot of hard work was put into making them!
I know I am late to the party on this, but for what it’s worth, all these comments have been very helpful. I now have a much clearer idea of what I am getting my secretary this year. Honestly (and, I guess, shamefully), it had not occurred to me to give cash, but I certainly will this year, in addition to a more personalized gift based on some stories she told me earlier this year. I am tremendously grateful for my secretary, and after reading these posts I am much less concerned with appearing to go “overboard” with the gifts. Based on my reading of the the comments, I feel like I am getting her a gift that reflects my appreciation.
I have 6 clerks. I can’t give them all $500.00. That would be ridiculous. I’m only a new lawyer.
I’m not in law, but I have an administrative assistant for the program I run. She reports directly to me, but she doesn’t wipe down my desk and phone or schedule my appointments – I run my own calendar, clean my own desk. She handles all of our students and applicants, and she does schedule their interviews. We’re a small team – just a director, assistant director [me], and my admin.
I plan to take her out to lunch with our director, and then give her a modest gift [$75 max]. Any more than that and I think we’d all feel uncomfortable. We work for a state university, I only make $105k, and I can’t be spending $2000 on anything, let alone a gift. Plus we’re used to very modest small thank-you’s. Too big, and you look strange.
That said, I wish I had a boss who bought me expensive gifts! In all of my years in corporate, the most expensive gift I got was a client thank-you of a Tiffany key chain. I traded it in for a necklace.
First of all, when I was hired, I was applying and accepted an EA role. Was not informed I would also be his personal assistant…planning extensive and elaborate personal parties, family vacations, paying all household bills an children’s tuitions, helping accountant with taxes! So I kind of expected something fabulous as a year end gift since I am busting my behind keeping his personal life on track. There was a slight fizzle of energy at my desk when he handed me a couple hundred cash (no card just handed it to me). No thanks or anything. I felt deflated. This year I thought, I have really worked extremely hard and do even more. Only a couple dollars more and he forgot to cash some checks that came to him so he signed them and gave them to me? REALLY? Thanks for the thought. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I appreciate the money. I need it. But I feel I deserve more and he is a gazillion-aire.