The Best Holiday Present is Your Presence
Every Monday Blogging4Jobs invites our resident Etiquette Expert, CareySue Vega (@Etiquette101), to share tips when it comes to etiquette in the workplace during our own Manner Monday segment. This segment is for the practitioner who is focused on creating a more etiquette-friendly environment.
It’s crunch time, we’re all rushing around trying to tie up last minute Holiday shopping and wrapping all of those gifts, making ourselves more stressed than we already are trying to get the perfect thing for everyone on our list. And not to mention – if you have children, more than likely their Holiday ‘wish list’ is long (and expensive) adding to the stress.
If we’ll take a minute to stop, we know deep down that the best present we can give our family and friends over the holiday break is the gift of our presence. I know it sounds cliché, but think about it… we all know it’s true. When is the last time you had a really good conversation with someone – without the interruption of a ping taking your attention away to something else?
I bet you can agree, that no matter how much money you spend:
- Your Significant Other wants your Presence
- Your Child(ren) want your Presence
- Your family members want your Presence
- Your friends want your Presence
They want you for ‘you’, not to hear about your latest ‘deal’.
As much as we all think we HAVE to check our email, we HAVE to check our social media accounts… do we really? If you’re ‘addicted’ to checking your phone, then you may need to leave it in your car. Will the world stop if we turn the technology off for a few hours at a time and focus on good old-fashioned face-time? We know the answer. And yes, our work will still be waiting for us after the break, but we can dig into it then.
Don’t miss another Family get together because you’re lost in your phone. Work can wait. They want uninterrupted time with you – the best present money can buy!
…I don’t know about you, but for now, I look forward to unplugging a bit and having some family time.