Receiving a bad gift gracefully is a social skill not everyone has mastered.

When a man was gifted a garish dog garland by coworkers who had ignored every obvious clue about his taste, he skipped the smile entirely and let his disappointment do the talking.

But by the end of the day, the ugliest thing was his bad attitude.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for not liking my birthday present and saying so?

I work in a small company — 6 employees.

My birthday is two days apart from one of my coworkers, who is also now my good friend since we have been working there for almost 4 years.

This is a very generous workplace when it comes to gift giving.

Every birthday we make sure everybody gets something thoughtful and all contribute.

Everyone is ok participating as long as it’s not too expensive, but I always think that it is better to spend the same amount for everybody.

To this employee, equity is the most important thing.

And since we are celebrating my coworker/friend’s birthday and mine at the same time, I feel like it should be the same amount.

I usually say something about it, how equity is important, and this time directly asked if our presents were more or less the same amount.

So he sets up the conflict.

When asked about it, they said they got me something small but that it was the intention that counted and that I would be very happy with my present.

And if I wanted my present to be the same amount, I shouldn’t spend so much money on my friend/coworker’s gift (his present is 35€ and everyone agreed to participate).

My other coworkers were aware of both presents and they helped me choose my friend’s gift.

He thinks it should have been easy to find him a good gift.

I have particular tastes which actually makes gift giving pretty easy. I moved into a new apartment and am decorating, and because it might be relevant, I have a dog which I love very much and is a big part of my life (as anyone with a dog would tell you).

We went celebrating the birthdays yesterday evening with the whole team.

Time for presents.

My friend was very happy with his, so I was happy.

But he didn’t share the same excitement for his present…

But as I opened my gift and realized what it was, I couldn’t contain myself and said: “what is this thing…”

It was the most hideous thing I ever saw: a dog garland, very poorly painted dogs on thin cupboard put in a garland.

I was so surprised and disappointed that I couldn’t fake liking it.

He made his displeasure quite clear.

I didn’t openly say I didn’t like it, but kept repeating it was a “dog garland” and that they obviously knew me well — quite ironically and angrily, to be honest.

I quickly moved on to another subject because I felt I was being disrespectful (and also I knew I could cry easily).

Later in the evening, they said my reaction was not appropriate.

His coworkers weren’t a fan of how he behaved.

They tried to justify choosing it because they didn’t know what to get me and that they saw this in the plant store next door and really thought I would like it.

I didn’t want to make them feel bad about the gift and tried to reassure them.

So he tries to get outside opinions to make himself feel better.

I showed the garland to a bunch of people to try and get different opinions. They all say it is hideous and that it wasn’t a nice attention.

But I don’t know what to think. Is it normal to let this affect me so much?

AITA for reacting this way?

He would have been a lot wiser to just grin and bear it.

What did Reddit think?

This is no way to behave — especially in the workplace.

His reaction was just plain embarrassing.

Maybe it’s time to put an end to gift giving in the workplace.

This was objectively not even that bad of a gift.

The only gift this man deserved was a good ol’ fashioned reality check.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.