This is the least Christmassy Christmas I have ever spent in the office. There is no tinsel stuck to the top of the photocopier. There are no strings of Christmas cards dangling from the ceiling. In fact, there are hardly any cards at all.
So far this year I have received only three. One is from a company I have never heard of bearing an image of the corporate logo with reindeer antlers on top. Inside is a scrawled signature that could say Ian. Or Jon. Either way, I don’t know him from Adam. The second has no signature inside it at all; only the third card comes from someone whom I actually know.
Nor has a single corporate gift come my way this year; only a stern memo from management outlining our anti-bribery policy and spelling out what to do in the event of receiving anything nice (refuse it, give it back, donate it to charity, etc).