"It's tough enough finding the right gifts for your spouse, kids and parents during the holidays. What do you do when you need to buy presents for your boss, secretary or co-workers?

Holiday gift-giving in the office can be a tense venture fraught with pitfalls, peer pressure and subtle protocol. Those new to a business, in particular, may not even know that gift-giving is the norm. When your boss walks over to your cubicle with a fancy fruit basket, a return gift of a stapler hastily wrapped in the Wall Street Journal might raise a few eyebrows.

Some area businesspeople have dealt with the pressure in innovative ways, and experts offer tips on how to read signals and give the right gifts -- in the right way.

For a while, employees at Lapchick Creative, a small Portland ad agency, were buying owner Jodie Lapchick $100 gifts, and she was reciprocating in kind. It just got to be too much, said Lapchick said.

""I felt like there was tension. I was uncomfortable going into it, always,"" said Lapchick.

To rein in the holidays a bit, they came up with a policy. Lapchick buys each of her employees a calender, with a holiday bonus inside. The employees pick names so everybody gets a gift but only has to buy one gift.

Having a basic policy takes away the pressure, said Lapchick, and makes it easy for new employees to understand what's expected during the holidays.

""It's like the first Christmas with the new boyfriend, and you don't know what the parameters are,"" said Lapchick.

Michele Johns, executive director at the Cancer Community Center, also turned to the ""pick a name"" strategy to make the holidays easier. The center is a small nonprofit that provides free programs for people diagnosed with cancer. A few years ago, everyone was buying presents for each employee, she said.

""There was pressure to be creative. A couple of the people who worked here were very, very creative and crafty, (they made) great gifts,"" said Johns.

""It's like 'Oh my god, I can't make paper! How am I going to make a journal?' "" Experts agree that having some sort of policy in place makes sense.

If you work for the federal government, there are very strict rules about what gifts you can accept, said Robin Bond, a Pennsylvania-based workplace legal expert. For instance, Department of Defense employees can accept small gifts of $10 or less from subordinates and $20 or less from contractors.

""It's not a bad rule for everybody. There's just so much pressure on people as it is financially to meet their own obligations and then to have to worry about competing with their peers and colleagues to impress the boss,"" said Bond.

Jacqueline Whitmore, Office Depot's ""holiday etiquette expert,"" said it's important for workers as a group to determine a spending limit for the group. Also, giving should be optional, not mandatory, but optional. And new employees should make sure to ask co-workers about holiday niceties.

""It's perfectly OK to ask around, and people will tell you,"" said Whitmore, who is based in Florida.

Suggested Hood: ""Really try to get a sense of the corporate culture.""

If you're a new manager and fail to get gifts for your staff, then find out afterward it was expected, you can still save face, said Hood. After the holidays, tell your staff you want to start out the new year the right way, then take them out for lunch.

There are a couple of pitfalls to avoid when giving gifts, Whitmore said.

--First, stay away from ""gag"" gifts.

""What may be humorous to one person may be offensive to somebody else, so stay away from anything that might offend somebody,"" said Whitmore.

--Likewise, avoid giving gifts that are too personal such as clothes, perfume, tobacco products and alcohol. That may also make a recipient feel uncomfortable.

--Another potential blunder in giving gifts to clients is failing to not check with the other company about gift-receiving policies. In some cases, gifts have to be returned. That can be uncomfortable for the gift giver and for the planned recipient, as well.

""If you give a gift to an individual, give it to them outside of the office.

Within the office, gift giving should take place in a structured gift distribution as part of the office holiday party, drawing names or numbers so people can choose among the presents,"" suggested Thelma Domenici, whose weekly etiquette column, ""Ask Thelma,"" is distributed nationally by the Scripps Howard News Service.

And, said Domenici, leave the guilt out of gift-giving.

""For workplace gift giving, only give a gift to those you want to show appreciation or gratitude. You don't want to give a gift out of a sense of obligation. Give a thoughtful gift to people that you want to remember, whether that's a boss, coworker, vendor or client,"" she said.

""Only give your boss a gift because you have a sense of sincerity and appreciation, not because you feel obligated. If you think you have to, it's the wrong reason to give a gift.""

That said, Whitmore and Hood have some suggestions for workplace gifts.

One idea from Hood was scratch-off lottery tickets.

""You can send a message that you hope the recipient is a big winner,"" she said. ""It could be a heck of a big gift.""

Another idea is homemade baked goods. ""People appreciate that you've given of your own time -- it's a labor of love,"" she said.

Gift cards are popular, said Whitmore, as are travel-related gifts, such as leather organizers. And, said Whitmore, remember the post-gift-getting etiquette as well.

""At the very least, write them a thank-you note, and I don't mean an e-mail, just showing them your appreciation that they did think of you,"" said Whitmore
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