Communication is key

At one of my jobs there was a serious lax in communication. On my last day the director rushed up and thanked me for all I had done and wished me well. She was a little dismayed when I said I didn't expect much of anything in way of a going away from the supervisory staff (as they had been lacking somewhat of late of being support of the staff, it was actually co-workers who had been arranging all the goodbyes recently). She again thanked me and rushed off.

During my exit interview, surprisingly the manager gave me a "gift" from the company. I was pretty taken back as I had not yet heard of someone getting a gift from this group, or at least not in our section. I thanked her very much for it (and wondered what the heck do you do with a glass plate with Inookshook's surrounding the outside).- no offense to the Inookshook, they are cool, I just don't like dust collectors.

Near the end of my shift the Director ran up to be very excited, as she had called our sister company in another city and had them rush me down a gift as a thanks. I had a pit of dread in my stomache as the box she was holding looked very familiar. She insisted I open it... and what do you know. It was a duplicate of the gift I had opened earlier.

Now, debate time, do I tell her thanks, but I already received such a gift and embarrass her. Or do I take it and let them figure out they gave me two. Or do I accept it then leave one behind when I leave with a note?

I took both. I figured, well, they proved my point on the lack of communication (which I had discussed in length in the exit interview).

Side Note: That night one of the girls who had previously worked at the company longer than I did was very bummed that she never received anything from them during her time there. So on her next birthday, as a joke, I gave her one of the gifts (still in it's original packaging, imagine that!!).

Then three weeks ago I get a text message from an old co-worker at the company, someone was about to retire and they wanted to know if they could buy the last gift off me. I laughed, I'm like pay me?? No way!! You can have it! And it was shipped the very next day to it's new owner. Who laughed long and hard about his gift...