my boss steals all the holiday gifts meant for us

A reader writes:

I work for a small company, only eight people. Every December, we receive all kinds of gifts from vendors and clients – gift baskets, cookies, candy, wine, and so forth. These are usually accompanied by cards making it clear that the gifts are intended for the whole office to thank us for our work that year. Sometimes people even drop off gifts in person, and they will say things like, “This is for the whole office to enjoy.”

Every time, my boss will take the gifts into his own office so no one else can have any of them, or he takes them home for his family. The only time we ever get to enjoy the gifts ourselves is if it’s something he doesn’t like. (The highlight of last year was that the rest of us got to eat some really fancy pears a client had sent because the boss doesn’t like fruit.)

These gifts are clearly intended as a thank-you to all of us. Is there anything we can say to him to get him to share?

You can read my answer to this letter at Slate today, where I also answered :

• Should I stop collecting money for a gift for our boss?
• Our Christmas lunch sounds irritating
• Employee is pushing Christmas on people
• How can I tell my employees not to buy me gifts?
• My office goes wildly overboard on holiday activities

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