Office Baby Shower Etiquette

brittneyandadam · August 2014

Yesterday, DH's coworkers threw him a surprise baby shower. Along with food, cake, and a lovely bouquet for me, about 15 of them pitched in for a very generous gift. I'm just not sure how to go about the thank you writing....should I write a thank you to each person who signed the card, or a group thank you?

ETA: If my coworkers throw me a shower, I'll be writing each person a thank you since I see them on a daily basis. I've never met DH's coworkers, so I didn't know what was the proper way to go about it.

whitney4126 · August 2014

I would think a group one is fine, but I am no expert on etiquette.

Djcieply · August 2014

When my coworkers threw me a shower, I wrote each one of them a Thank You card. Most of them got me individual gifts though only a few went in on something together. I think if you know it will end up in a common area where everyone will see the card then writing one is fine, but if everyone is spread out I would write individual ones.

bohemianlc · August 2014

I've never had an office shower myself, but it seems like everyone in my department had babies in the recent past.

Every one of those individuals wrote one nice group thank-you note and gave it to our department head to post on the community board in our shared office.

It would be a nice gesture to write one to each person if you feel that the gift was especially generous, but if you don't really have the time, I wouldn't worry about individualized thank-you notes. Just my opinion.

Daisy1232 · August 2014

I would write one to the group and maybe send them a nice picture after baby is born as a little extra "Thanks".

AccioKittyCat · August 2014

Both my husband's office and mine threw small showers and we wrote individual thank you notes. We also gave the organizers Starbucks cards and sent flowers to the woman who was in charge of the shower at his office. For the woman who was in charge of the shower at my office we sent a large gift card to an art supply store because she's very creative. She drew every single invitation by hand and we plan to frame the invitations and hang them in the baby's room. Moral of the story: I'm no etiquette expert but I prefer individual notes to a group note.

trebekastan · August 2014

Daisy1232 said:

I would write one to the group and maybe send them a nice picture after baby is born as a little extra "Thanks".

WSS^^

Bella2425 · August 2014

Is your DH really close with the co-workers? Could he write the thank you's? I'm big on personaized notes, but I think a group one is fine too, maybe deliver it with a plate of cookies?

wrightpalomo · August 2014

I would error on the side of caution and write each person a thank you card. You could also send a group card after baby is born with a picture for the break room/community area. 15 thank you cards is a lot of writing... I wrote 10 the other night and my hand was pretty jacked up afterward! Try to space it out over a couple of days/evenings so your handwriting doesn't look all cray by the time you get to number 15.

Irisheyes1247 · August 2014

When it was family that went in on a bigger gift, I sent individual, but I think in an office setting a group on would be fine, and send in a picture or an announcement when baby is born.

slowmo · August 2014

Aww, how nice of them! Because it was a group contributing to a group gift, I think one lovely, sincere card from you would suffice. I also like the idea of sending it with cookies or donuts (because who doesn't love cookies or donuts?). Assuming you don't know these 15 people personally, I think it would be hard to write individual notes for a group effort. You'd basically be writing the same thank you card 15x. For some reason, that strikes me as less sincere than one card (and, like someone said, you risk leaving out someone who simply forgot to sign the office card). Just my two cents. I also agree with PPs who recommend sending a baby picture/announcement to the office.

cozybluebear · August 2014

If it were me, I'd write just one thank you card and put it in the break room with a box of donuts or something.

Minmcgar · August 2014

I work at a school and for my shower each grade level contributed for a gift and signed their names in a card. I wrote out individual thank you cards and one big one for the school that I put in the main office for all to see!

AnyMax · August 2014

For my office shower, I received gifts from some individuals and then a group gift and a card signed by everyone. I wrote individual thanks yous for the ones who gave their own gift, then wrote a thank you to the whole group and put it in the break room with cupcakes.

brittneyandadam · August 2014

Thanks ladies. They don't have a break room, but maybe I'll have DH bring some brownies and put them on the filing cabinets in the middle of the floor. :-)

mcstrepp · August 2014

When DH and I got married my coworkers shipped in and got us a gift card. There were about 25 people so I wrote a group note. The ladies that I'm close with about 5 of them did something different and took me out seperately. I wrote individual notes for them.

bf43005 · August 2014

My DH was working for a client at their building when we found out and the people there felt very involved. When he completed the project and was leaving in the end of June they threw him a going away lunch and had all chipped in for a bunch of gifts that ended up being a large sum of money from our registry. We sent a card to the department head specifically and then sent a large Edible Arrangement to the whole department.

BKLiz · August 2014

"ETA: If my coworkers throw me a shower, I'll be writing each person a thank you since I see them on a daily basis. I've never met DH's coworkers, so I didn't know what was the proper way to go about it."

So then why doesn't DH write the thank you note or notes since he has met them and sees them on a daily basis? If you weren't at said shower, the thank-you should be more from him than you...

brittneyandadam · August 2014

BKLiz said:
"ETA: If my coworkers throw me a shower, I'll be writing each person a thank you since I see them on a daily basis. I've never met DH's coworkers, so I didn't know what was the proper way to go about it."

So then why doesn't DH write the thank you note or notes since he has met them and sees them on a daily basis? If you weren't at said shower, the thank-you should be more from him than you...

Haha...DH write a thank you, you're funny. I do all of the handwritten stuff--addressing envelopes, cards, thank you's, etc--since DH's handwriting is so awful. People have a very hard time deciphering his penmanship, so I write things out. He's not very good with any sort of etiquette and I think it's just because it wasn't stressed when he was growing up. It was always done for him and he never picked up the habits.

TL; DR: If I didn't do it, it wouldn't get done.

ham0216 · August 2014

My office workers all chipped in on a group gift, so I wrote a group thank you card, DH signed it as well, and I put it in our common area with sausage balls. I work with mostly men, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with food as a thank you. For the others who gave me individual gifts, I wrote individual thank you's to them.

Linz-E · August 2014

DHs unit did the same when DD was born and I sent a group thank you card to the office as well as a follow up birth announcement once she was here. HTH

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