Hi, I'm Julia Frelan, and this is MPR's Life Kit.

This week, we're pinning up some tissue paper and pulling the plastic punch bowl

from the back of that one filing cabinet nobody ever opens.

That's right, we're talking about holidays in the workplace.

We asked you what your thorniest, most awkward and difficult questions were, and

whew, did you get back to us? And then we asked somebody very important to answer your questions.

Allison Green, whose blog Ask a Manager is one of my favorite corners of the internet.

We begin our journey with an evergreen question for holidays in the workplace.

Must I?

Allison says this is one of the most common questions she receives, but it's also very tricky.

This is from listeners, Suly.

I work for a very small nonprofit seven employees total, and I'm the newest employee

there. I've been there for just over three years. The office has a stocking tradition where

everybody has a stocking, and we're all expected to stuff the stockings of our co-workers.

I don't even exchange gifts with close friends and family, and really don't like participating in

this activity. It's just uncomfortable for me. Add to that, and I'm kind of the office introvert,

and I'm already viewed as standoffish because I'm generally pretty quiet and don't join in a lot

of the oversharing that seems to go on in the office. On stocking presentation day, everybody

goes through their stockings in front of everyone else, which is awkward, and it becomes apparent

who put time and effort into it and everybody but me, and who did not. Me. So yeah, it's uncomfortable

for me, and I'm just not into it. Last year I suggested we draw names, and just by a gift for one

person. It went over like a Led Zeppelin. Do I just need to suck it up and participate?

...