Woman complained to HR after receiving Secret Santa gift off anonymous colleague at work

A woman decided to complain to HR after getting a truly baffling Secret Santa gift off a mystery person at work.

And once you see what she unwrapped, you might understand why.

Secret Santa - unless yours is Bill Gates - is often a last-minute box of chocolates or a pair socks because working with a £5 to £10 budget seems to get more and more difficult every year.

It's all meant to be light-hearted and fun, but there will always be one gift which is a bit of a gamble - like a custom-made t-shirt or an X-rated mug.

For this particular woman, however, the whole thing took quite a turn.

Secret Santa in the office is supposed to be a bit of harmless fun (Getty Stock Image)

In a now-deleted post on Mumsnet, she asked other parents if they thought she was being ungrateful or if her reaction was justified.

The worker admitted that she felt 'disgusted' after finding chocolates that expired in 2020, 'manky old nail varnish' covered in dust and a pair of socks that looked worn, smelling of 'stale perfume'.

"I'm really disappointed by it and tbh extremely confused," she added.

The woman was not pleased with her co-worker (Mumsnet)

"[The] socks that look like they've been worn and some Tassimo pods. It all smells vaguely like charity shop and tbh it's all going to go in the bin.

"The nail varnish doesn't look bad in packs, but the lids were covered in dust and felt dirty. There's also nail varnish all over the outer bottles."

People in the comments pretty much agreed how out-of-order it was to give out-of-date items to a colleague, with some saying it looked like they panic-searched their back cupboard just before work.

She complained to HR after receiving out-of-date items (Mumsnet)

"Blimey! What did other lucky employees get... or do you think someone's trying to tell you something," one person wrote.

While a second added: "I think it’s crap they’ve found in their cupboard. Perhaps they forgot to buy anything and had to scramble around for something at the last minute. Pretty poor effort."

Some questioned if it was a prank, as others suggested that the gifter may have been struggling for money.

Others were also baffled by the gifts (Mumsnet)

"I highly doubt someone opted to do this rather than spending a fiver in the shops," another thought.

Whatever the reason, the woman ended up getting a response from HR, who were equally as distraught by the Christmas present.

"Management know and are just as disgusted. I would genuinely rather have had a cheap bar or chocolate than this," she said.

So, there you have it. Make sure to put at least a bit of thought into your work Secret Santa this year, folks...