What do you give the at-home worker who has everything? Indeed, gifting remote workforces can be a bit tricky. After all, tools and devices that increase their efficiency or enable them to “do their jobs” may not be the best way to induce holiday cheer. No one wants to conjure up the old joke about giving mom a new vacuum cleaner for Christmas.
Fortunately, there are plenty of cool gift ideas that can help make the home-based work space a bit happier and healthier as we head into a new year. Here are a few of suggestions along the lines of good cheer courtesy of the gift hunters and veteran home-based workers at Remote Work Solutions. Ho Ho Ho!
Custom Bobblehead
Make someone feel like a celebrity or sports star with a customized bobblehead of their spitting image sitting right on their desk. Several services such as Bobbleheadsme.com, MyCustomBobblehead.com (pictured here), FigureBobblehead.com and AmazingBobbleheads.com can create a bobblehead of a person’s likeness from an uploaded photo. Bobbleheads can be further personalized with themes and designs that reflect an employee’s job, favorite sport, superhero, hobby and more. Custom bobbleheads start at about $60.
The Cutest Corner Desk Cleaner
Yes, we admit this might not be the most functional of gift ideas but just think about how darn cute it would be coming out of the gift box. The Honbay ladybug-shaped desk vacuum cleaner is powered by two AA batteries and is powerful enough to pick up dust, food crumbs and eraser shavings. The handheld mini-vacuum measures about 10 centimeters long, is easy to operate and retails for around $15.
A White (Noise) Christmas
Sure, you can put noise-cancelling headphones on to block out distractions happening in the home, but sometimes headphones and earplugs can be overkill. White noise machines play a background noise that muffles surrounding sounds while leaving ears open for anything that needs to be heard. Originally marketed as a sleep aid, white noise is now being employed in office settings to enhance concentration. Instead of being just another distracting sound, white noise is designed to be ignored, say its proponents, enabling a more significant part of the brain to stay active on primary tasks. The Magicteam white noise machine offers 20 non-looping sounds including white noise, brown noise, pink noise, blue noise, fan, brook, rain, ocean and bird. It retails for about $30.
A Little Green Package
Plants are well-known to promote a healthy office environment. And the founders at Lively Root (www.livelyroot.com) believe the unboxing of a live plant makes for a unique gift experience. Online retailer Lively Root delivers live plants across the United States on behalf of its customers, taking special care to raise and ship plants kindly, safely and well secured with “little to no spillage.” Business plant gifts from Lively Root can personalize with a logo, special note or custom design. Pots range from 4 inches to 10 inches, and up to 5-gallon sizes.
Pet Care Package
Sending a gift or care package for a pet simultaneously treats your teammate and their loyal companion, and it shows there are no hard feelings for the occasional crashing of Zoom calls. Mega-pet online retailer Chewy offers several holiday themed gifts for dogs, cats and pet parents including treats, toys, apparel and care packages, such as the one pictured here, which retails for about $25.
Virtual Holiday Cookie Party
Looking for a way to add some fun and uniqueness to a virtual holiday party? Tiny Campfire from TeamBuilding.com is a virtual event for remote workers that includes icebreaker questions, ghost stories, team-building competitions, mini-games and real s’mores. Before your event, participants are shipped a gourmet s’mores kit, which includes handcrafted marshmallows, artisan chocolate and graham crackers. During the activity, a camp counselors will lead the group in s’more making while retelling spooky ghost stories. Team Building’s remote worker events run between 60 and 90 minutes and start at about $30 per person.
Clean Sweep & Swipe
Sure to be appreciated by anyone who’s pounded a bag of chips over their keyboard, the two-in-one OXO Sweep & Swipe Laptop Cleaner keep laptops and tablets free of crumbs, fingerprints, dust and debris. The retractable brush sweeps away dirt and crumbs, while the specially shaped microfiber cleaning pad reaches into corners to clean smudges, oils and fingerprints. A storage cap protects the cleaner when not in use. The compact design is perfect for storage right on a desk or in a laptop bag, and cleaning is easy with soap and water. The Sweep & Swipe retails for $12.
The Smartest Highlighter
The perfect device for the technophile who has everything, Scanmarkers are pen scanners that allow users to highlight text or written notes and instantly transfer the text to a PC or mobile device wirelessly via Bluetooth or through a USB connection. These smart highlighters can scan up to 3,000 characters per minute or a full line of text in a second, quickly translate to more than 40 languages and read the text aloud as it is scanned. Some models can even edit text as it’s scanned or scan and upload small images. Retail prices start at $89.
A Bit of DIY with Your Coffee
What’s a winter holiday without toys, even if it’s a toy for bigger kids? The Build-on Brick Coffee Mug comes with three packs of bricks to keep hands busy and the mind relaxed when considering important things. The 12-ounce mug is made from BPA-free food-grade plastic, is odorless and is available in several colors and themes. The Build-on Brick Coffee Mug is compatible with standard Legos, and retails for less than $20.
Staying Active with the Office Board
As standing up becomes more common in the workplace, office workers are now facing new troubles: standing fatigue. Just as sitting all day is bad for your health, so it is standing statically. That is where the Active Office Board comes in: by simply adjusting the platform into a number of configurations, users can subtly adjust movement in the board. Suggested retail is $99.95.
The Case for a Case
It’s not hard to spot AirPod owners; just look at their ears. And many users of earpods like to put their case into a case. This particularly case not only stores the headphones, it also converts to a stand for the phone for hands-free viewing and videoconferencing. The AirPod Kickstand Case from Square Jellyfish includes a hand strap and carabiner for easy carry on, provides access at the bottom for AirPod charging cables, is compatible with wireless chargers and can be used with both 1st and 2nd generation AirPods.
Mini Pixel Smart Speaker/Clock
According to a survey by YouGov, Bluetooth speakers are among the most-wanted tech gifts for the 2021 holiday season. The Timebox mini pixel art clock and Bluetooth speaker packs in major functionality. In addition to functioning as a speaker and alarm clock, it can inform your day with its LED-lit screen via notifications and reminders, voice memos and social media alerts. The device plays FM radio through professionally tuned audio with a compact 5W full-range speaker, and users can customize their own pixel art. The Timebox retails for about $50.
Wheel of Choices
One can balance all the pros and cons and still not know what to do. Let this clever device ease the burden of having to make so many decisions. One spin of the Bey-Berk Spinner Decision Maker Paperweight and you’ll know if you should answer yes or not, “sit on it” for a bit or “pass the buck.” The decision-making paperweight retails for around $30.
A Safer New Year
There was a time when a phone sanitizer would be considered a perfect gift only for a true germophobe. Not anymore. The PhoneSoap 3 UV phone sanitizer and dual universal phone charger houses two scientifically proven germicidal UV-C bulbs that completely sanitize your entire phone, killing 99.99% of all bacteria and germs. In addition, the unit offers one USB port and one USB-C port for charging. Retail price runs around $70.
