It's an age-old dilemma and it comes up several times each year. What do you do for that special boss or coworker on their birthday, their company anniversary, their engagement, the birth of their child, or to celebrate the holiday season.

Gift-giving occasions are endless - and endlessly challenging. Find holiday gift ideas here for how and what to give your boss or a valued coworker during the holidays.

Another age old dilemma, that comes up every year for me, is how and how much to tip or gift the people who make my work and life possible. This website and my other work is enabled by my cosmetologist, my housekeeper, my handyman, and the people who pick up our trash and deliver our newspapers and mail, as examples. I found this handy guide to tipping all of the people in your life useful. The guide also offers some simple gift giving advice for bosses, coworkers, and the other special people in your life.

More About the Holidays

• Create a Very Merry Holiday Season.
• Holiday Pay Practices: Do You Know Legal Requirements?
• Holiday Stress Hotspots.
• Stress Less for the Holidays.

© Lise Gagne

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I have several offsite, useful resources for you today. Take a look sometime this weekend.

Your new Carnival of Human Resources, hosted by Rowan Manahan at the Fortify Your Oasis blog, is available for your reading pleasure. Read recent posts from HR and management online writers and bloggers. Find the time, I hope; yours truly was the first post this week - think Rowan liked my comments about holiday party drinking.

Blogging and Social Media Policies

I've also spoken to you about the need for blogging and social media policies so your employees have guidance as to expected behavior. Also, a policy enables the employer to take a stand when you believe an employee has crossed a line that is injurious for the company or another employee. I've talked about how to develop a policy, too, since every workplace is different.

Now, Brandon Prebynski at the Social Media Blog has pulled together 113 (and counting) sample blogging and social media policies. If you're venturing on this path, this is a wonderful resource to find out what other organizations are conveying to and expecting from their employees.

Holiday Happiness and Help

The holidays are upon us and sometimes, I feel as if I am frantically trying to stay on top of all I need to do, but life changes as families grow older - not so many people to see and they are scattered. But, I will take the time here to address several important holiday issues. First, job searching during the holidays may give you the boost that you need to locate your next opportunity; jobs exist and not so many people are searching.

Second, the holidays are a thoughtful time to consider the implications of diversity in our lives and work lives. Diversity's about more than a "happy holidays" card. I debated listing diversity as a trend in my recent article about the Top Ten HR Trends of the Decade, it is so important. Diversity made Honorable Mention.

_{Image Copyright Mark Tantrum}

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At About.com, we will soon run a special section that highlights the top trends of the past decade in each area of interest. With this in mind, I wrote my new article about the top ten trends of the decade for Human Resources.

They were far from clear cut and I still go back and forth on several and on the way in which I combined various HR trends. Several readers have already commented on my choices, and I am curious about yours?

Are my ten HR trends in the ball park for you? Recognizing that my audience is world-wide, and that every workplace and industry differs, what trends did you see during this past decade?

I'm happy I took the time to write the new article because it afforded me the opportunity to look back and remember what has meant much to me since 2000. It also reminded me about what has annoyed me, challenged me, alarmed me, and made me just plain angry.

So, go ahead, I challenge you to take a look back, too, and share your findings.

_{Image Copyright Lucas Lenci Photo / Getty Images}

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Everyone who works in Human Resources, management, or even as an employee, has memorable first work moments to share.

In Human Resources, I can clearly remember the first time I had to fire a staff member - it's irrevocably etched in my memory. I remember, too, the first disciplinary action I had to take and the first job offer I made. What are your most memorable firsts?

I remember also having a boss who constantly hobbled my ability to accomplish my work by making me seek permission for almost every decision I made. I'd put questions and memos in his mailbox or on his desk and they showed up in my mailbox every day with "see me about this" scrawled on a sticky note. "See me" was the problem. Managers in my then company were in meetings most of the day, playing court to the plant manager. So, I often had to wait for our weekly meeting to get the feedback I needed to proceed.

I finally reached the boiling level of frustration, decided I didn't care if he fired me, found an ounce of professional courage, and responded. I took every "see me" piece of paper I received one week, clipped them all together and scrawled on a sticky note: "see me." I put the stack in his mailbox and held my breath. A few hours later, he was standing by my desk with the pile in his hand - laughing.

Okay, so my story has a happy ending; they don't all end this way, I know. But, our most memorable experiences at work shape a lot about who we are and what we believe. My ideas about employee empowerment, employee involvement, and delegation are a result of this experience with a manager I actually liked a lot. See my new article to find tips about building an effective relationship with your boss.

Today, though, I am hoping you will share some of your most memorable HR moments, the moments that you and others experience that are the moments you most remember.

_{Image Copyright Jacob Wackerhausen}

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