A note on market research

I left one company after several years of faithful service. The CEO himself was elected to get me a going-away present on behalf of everyone. He got me... cuff links. (I include the wikipedia link to help out those of you who know as much about cuff links as I do.)

By comparison, where I work now, an office manager was elected to buy me a wedding present. She didn't know what I would want, so she went through my emergency contact information (the privileges of being an office manager!), called my parents, and asked them what I would want. My parents didn't know, so they sneakily called me under false pretenses, got the information out of me, and reported back. What I got, among other things, was a shower squeegee. (I include the patent office link so you can truly understand what an amazing gift that is.)

So what's the moral of this story?

Well, sometimes your office manager knows a lot more about pleasing customers than your CEO does.