Colleagues, teachers & staff
Which direction a gift travels decides almost everything — up a reporting line, down one, or sideways — plus teachers, doctors and household staff.
- Gifts for a Coach or GuruYears rather than terms, and a relationship India has a specific word for. What suits a guru, and why the performance archive is the material nobody uses.3 min read
- Gifts for a Colleague You Have Never MetTwo years of daily contact and no idea how tall they are. What a remote colleague can actually receive, and the one thing that beats guessing at their taste.3 min read
- Gifts for a College ProfessorThe one teacher relationship with a live conflict of interest, because they may still be grading you. When a gift is fine, and when it genuinely is not.3 min read
- Gifts for a Direct ReportThe direction with the fewest rules and the one that goes wrong most visibly. Why equal matters more than good, and what to give one person who is leaving.4 min read
- Gifts for a Doctor or NurseMany hospitals prohibit staff from accepting gifts, and that is the first thing to check. What works when it is allowed, and what is worth more than an object.3 min read
- Gifts for a ManagerA gift up the reporting line is read differently from one sideways, however it was meant. What makes it comfortable, and when to make it from the team instead.3 min read
- Gifts for a NeighbourClose enough to hold your keys, not close enough to know their taste. What that distance can carry, and the two occasions that actually call for something.3 min read
- Gifts for a Teacher at Year EndA teacher receives thirty of these in one week, and most of them are the same object. What survives that, and why the class gift beats thirty individual ones.4 min read
- Gifts for a Tuition TeacherA paid, private, often years-long relationship that ends abruptly when the exam does, with nobody marking it. Why that ending is the occasion, and what fits.3 min read
- Gifts for a Work Best FriendA friendship that exists mostly inside a building, with an archive nobody else has. What to give while you still work together, and what changes if one leaves.4 min read
- Gifts for Household StaffCash is what is wanted and it is not a lesser gift. Why an object can land badly here, what the bonus convention actually is, and when something made is right.4 min read
- Gifts for Someone Who Helped You Get a JobA referral, an introduction, a name put forward. Why a gift can make it awkward, when to give one anyway, and the thing that is worth considerably more.3 min read
- Secret Santa Under ₹500A cap, a stranger, and a room watching them open it. What works inside ₹500, what the cap is actually protecting against, and the three that always flop.3 min read
- When Not to Give a Colleague a GiftSeven situations where the right move is nothing at all, including three where a gift creates a problem the recipient then has to solve on your behalf.4 min read