Business Intelligence Reporting Services [BIRS]

The best office holiday gift for your boss or coworker

Last year everyone was worried about keeping their jobs. Employees were saving every penny because they didn’t know what was going to happen. I saw this as an opportunity. I knew management wouldn’t be giving out bonuses or holiday gifts. What a perfect time to give a gift to my boss, and his boss. The challenge was finding a gift that was not too showy, but would be remembered.  Not too expensive, but display quality. After a lot of thoughtful research, I found a great gift.

A pen.

No, really, a very cool pen. For starters it’s historical. Pens were given by Presidents George Washington and Harry Truman  and also used in Space. In fact, there’s a great urban legend about the first pen used in space: when the race to space was very intense the US and Soviets knew there would be problems writing in zero gravity. The US spent millions developing a gravity-defying ballpoint pen… and the Russians… used a pencil.
While the story is not accurate, it does make for a great conversation piece. Fisher was the first to make a pen that writes upside down, under water, and theirs was the first pen used in space.

My experience was that giving a space pen was perfect for the office; it was priced right, had a great story, and was memorable.