Workplace traditions are supposed to build goodwill, not breed resentment.

One new hire thought she’d knocked it out of the park with a Secret Santa gift for her colleague.

But her colleague’s ungrateful reaction quickly soured the whole thing.

Keep reading for the full story.

Secret Santa

I’ve been at my new job a few months, and for Secret Santa, I got one of the women who trained me.

During orientation, everyone filled out a sheet of their favorite things in case anyone wanted to get them a gift, so I went off that.

She tried to stay as close to what her coworker wanted as possible.

Hers said she liked fuzzy socks and the color lemon green. I also noticed she always had her nails done, so I slyly asked where she gets them done.

We had a $25 budget, so I got her a $25 gift card to her preferred salon. I also bought her fuzzy socks in her favorite color.

But her coworker wasn’t grateful at all.

After she received her gift, I asked her if she liked it, and she said no.

At this point, she had no idea that I was the one who bought it.

She made no effort in even pretending she was impressed by the gift.

I asked why, and she said, “Who buys someone socks as a gift?” I asked if she had seen the gift card in the bag, so she checked the bag again.

She didn’t seem embarrassed at all about saying it was a bad gift—just asked how much was on the card.

The coworker continues to make things awkward.

I then asked again if she liked it, and she half-heartedly said yes before asking again why I bought her socks.

I said she put it on her gift paper during orientation, and all she said was, “Oh, okay.”

This permanently changed how she saw this coworker from that point on.

I was annoyed at this point, so I ended the conversation.

I really liked this girl, but the whole situation left a bad taste in my mouth.

The socks weren’t the real problem here — the attitude was.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter would love getting a gift like this.

When getting a gift for a coworker, there’s only so much you can do.

Maybe it’s time to sit next year’s gift exchange out.

What this lady should have done is at least pretend to be grateful.

Gratitude costs nothing, but somehow this coworker still couldn’t afford it.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.