IF SUMMER brings goodwill towards often-invisible support staff — a chance for them to put on their best bib and tuck at corporate events — then it is also a potential minefield of business “gifting” and hospitality.
Though in June and July office invitations to events such as Henley and Wimbledon abound for staff who spend the rest of the year glued to their workstations, the growing practice of distributing gifts such as presentation glassware and gold-plated pens can, says the Institute of Business Ethics, spell disaster for the unwary.
“Though many companies have a gifts register on which staff are encouraged to record items worth over £25 or £50, backroom staff such as PAs may inadvertently fall foul of the policy.”
Nicole Dando, IBE’s project director, says: “Our advice is to tell your manager about anything you are offered by anyone outside the firm – that way, you’ll be immediately aware if it’s not acceptable and should be handed back.”
A bottle of perfume or a bouquet in return for hard work may not appear to be of too much consequence, but there have been cases of PAs being “targeted” by canny clients. In an attempt to smooth their path to the managing director or CEO, support workers in the “inner sanctum” of a company may, says Dando, be offered gifts of holidays, expensive jewellery and even cars.
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Paula Synott, a 31-year-old legal secretary and PA to her London firm’s managing director, was offered an all- expenses trip to Barcelona for two when she attended a summer ball thrown for her firm by a grateful client. Assuming that her trip was one of many being offered, she mentioned the holiday to her boss the next Monday and was criticised for having accepted it.
It emerged that the client was trying to buy the practice and was hoping to put Paula “on side” and to use her to source important information.
If accepting gifts from outsiders can be fraught with danger – and the rules of business gifting are that if you can’t return, like-for-like, a golfing trip to St Andrews or a cruise to the Caribbean, you shouldn’t accept the gift — so too can letting your hair down when the sun shines.
Dando says: “If you are not used to corporate entertaining and can’t hold your champagne or Pimm’s, don’t be tempted to try to do so in front of the firm.”
She adds that though the average MD may be accustomed to drinking fairly heavily at corporate events and may suffer no apparent ill-effects, PAs and secretaries should guard against “making fools of themselves” at any one of the alcohol-fuelled hospitality events on offer this summer.