Funny Gifts for Corporate Workers: Books for Secret Santa, Farewells and Promotions
The Corporate Copium Press makes funny, illustrated books about office life, built to be given as gifts to coworkers. Each one is a small matte paperback of about sixty pages that fits in a desk drawer, costs about the same as three coffees, and works for Secret Santa, farewells, promotions and any other day someone at work needs a laugh.
We started the Press because every office gift seems to end up as a mug, a candle or a gift card. They are fine. Nobody remembers them. A book that quotes the exact thing their manager said in Tuesday's stand-up gets passed around the floor, read out at lunch and kept on the desk.
What The Corporate Copium Press does
We are an independent press that publishes satirical books for people who work in corporate jobs: engineers, consultants, project managers, lawyers, finance teams and anyone who has said "let's take this offline" without meaning it.
Every book follows the same idea. Sixty short lines, each one taken from real meetings, real Slack threads and real all-hands, each one with a retro newspaper-style illustration. You can open it on any page, read one line and close it again, which is about as long as anyone has between meetings.
The books are printed on demand and sold through Amazon, so they ship worldwide and often arrive in a day or two with Prime. For teams, we also do bulk orders for Christmas, end-of-year parties and client gifts.
We also run this blog, the blog, which covers the rest of office life: gift guides, Secret Santa rules and the occasional investigation into email sign-offs.
The books, and who each one is for
Excuses for Demo Day
Sixty excuses for when the demo breaks in front of the client, ranked from "plausible" to "the office dog". For software engineers, developers, product managers and anyone whose laptop has crashed during a screen share.
Sh!t Consultants Say Unironically
Sixty real sentences from real meetings, each illustrated so you can show the picture to the person who said it. For consultants, analysts, partners and anyone who has been asked to "boil the ocean" before lunch.
Daily Affirmations for the Unwell Corporate Worker
Sixty affirmations for people who have circled back so many times they are now a circle. For the burnt-out, the triple-booked and anyone who answers "how are you" with "busy". It is the safest pick when you do not know the person well.
Funny gifts for coworkers, by occasion
Secret Santa
Funnier than the scented candle Brenda is definitely bringing.
Farewells
Sign the inside cover. Circle the page that was about them.
Promotions
It's too late to help them, but it's a gesture.
Secret Santa gifts for coworkers
Secret Santa at work has three rules nobody writes down: stay under the limit, make it funny, and make sure it is safe to open in front of HR. A book about office life covers all three. It costs less than the usual $30 limit, everyone in the room gets the joke, and nobody has to pretend to like the smell.
If you drew someone you barely know, go with Daily Affirmations. Everyone has had a week that needed it. If you know their job, match the book to it: Excuses for Demo Day for the engineer, Sh!t Consultants Say for the consultant.
For more ideas under $30, read our guide to funny Secret Santa gifts for coworkers, or the white elephant gifts that get stolen the most if your office does the swapping version.
Funny farewell gifts for coworkers who are leaving
The leaving card is a tradition, but it gets read once and recycled. A book can do the same job and stay on a shelf. Pass it around the team before the last day, have everyone sign the inside cover, and circle the page that was most like the person leaving. It becomes the funniest card they have ever been given.
It also works the other way. If you are the one leaving, a copy on your manager's desk on your last day says everything you were too professional to put in the exit interview.
Gifts for a coworker's promotion
A promotion means more meetings, more stakeholders and less time to do the actual work. The right gift is a small, kind warning. Daily Affirmations is for the newly promoted manager in their first month. Sh!t Consultants Say is for anyone who has just been made partner or director and will soon start saying these lines themselves.
Buying for the whole team for end of year or a big win? One book is a gift. Twelve is a culture initiative. Email [email protected] for bulk pricing.
More gift guides from the blog
- Funny Secret Santa gifts for coworkers (all under $30)
- 12 funny white elephant gifts for work, ranked by how often they get stolen
- Funny Christmas gifts for coworkers, picked by type of coworker
- Meme gifts for friends who work in corporate
- 21 unhinged email sign-offs for when "Warm Regards" would be a lie
