Celebrate American Business Women Day with swag and gifts

When you work closely with people, you get to know them pretty well. Once we heard that our co-worker, Susan, planned on retiring, we were somewhat suspicious. Not only did Susan love her job and working with all of us, but she wasn't quite at retirement age. 

As we gathered around the water cooler and in team chats to discuss her departure, we decided that she might be faking retirement to get the cake and presents, and then she would choose to continue working from home moving forward. This trick is also known as the ultimate work-from-home hack!

Regardless of our true feelings concerning Susan and her retirement, we played along with her while secretly planning a fun prank. We decided to bring together our traditional office American Business Women Day celebration and give Susan a bunch of swag with the name of our business splashed across the front, so she wouldn't be able to resell it later on! 

We would tell her that we wanted to be creative with her going away gifts, giving her something to truly remember us by, and maybe she would finally admit that she wasn't retiring! To obtain high-quality gear, our first stop was SwagMagic. We decided to give Susan as many branded items as possible, ranging from water bottles and travel mugs to sweatshirts, coats, and bags. What a stellar going-away gift!

Of course, these gifts weren't only for Susan and her possibly fake retirement. We were also celebrating all of the other women in the office simultaneously. It was important to us to provide them with the best swag possible while showing them how much we appreciate their hard work and dedication. 

So, we placed an order with SwagMagic, throwing a party to celebrate women while keeping in mind that we were saying goodbye to Susan.

1. Panel Discussions: Organize a panel discussion or a webinar featuring successful business women in your community or industry.
2. Mentorship Program: Launch a mentorship program where successful women in your organization guide and support aspiring women professionals.
3. Recognition Awards: Recognize and celebrate the achievements of women in your business by giving them awards or recognition certificates.
4. Networking Event: Host a networking event, either in-person or virtual, to connect women professionals and provide opportunities for collaboration.
5. Workshops: Conduct workshops on skills that could help women professionals grow in their roles, like leadership, negotiation, entrepreneurship, etc.

As time passed and our American Business Women Day celebration grew closer, it became apparent to many that we were right about Susan and her plan to retire. As mentioned before, she wasn't of advanced age, her husband wasn't rich, and as far as we knew, she didn't win any lottery or come into a financial windfall. 

As we were discussing the 2023 ABWA Woman of the Year, the topic of Susan came up. We convinced ourselves she was faking retiring and planning to work entirely from home. She genuinely believed that she wanted gifts, not only from the company but from her co-workers as well, and planned to resell them online. 

Of course, our suspicions didn't really have any concrete proof, but it made for excellent office gossip during party planning sessions and break room lunches. A few of us, we won't mention any names, became wholly consumed with trying to determine if Susan was a fraud. 

We knew that after her retirement and our office party to celebrate women, and we went our separate ways, it would be fairly easy to discover if she was reselling her gifts. Time would surely tell!

1. Inspirational Books: Business or self-help books written by successful women entrepreneurs.
2. Professional Stationery: High-quality stationery like leather-bound planners, elegant pens, or personalized notepads.
3. Business Card Holder: A stylish business card holder for the modern business woman.
4. Desk Accessories: Elegant desk accessories like a desk organizer, stylish mouse pad, or desktop calendar.
5. Coffee Mug: A motivational coffee mug with an empowering quote.
6. Personalized Tote Bag: A branded, high-quality tote bag that can be used to carry work essentials.
7. Premium Water Bottle: A reusable, insulated water bottle with a company logo.
8. Subscription to Online Courses: Subscriptions to platforms offering professional development courses.
9. Wireless Charging Pad: A convenient tech gift for charging smartphones.
10. Gift Cards: A gift card to a favorite restaurant, clothing store, or online retailer for a shopping spree.

After having a brainstorming session to pull business woman quotes, Goodreads style, to turn into posters to hang up in our party room, and picking out beautiful, branded America business Women Day gifts, we were ready for our event. We still suspected that Susan would list them on Craigslist, eBay, Poshmark, and other buy-and-sell sites. 

We did think about bringing it up to her, but we were all too nervous about kicking off the discussion. A few of us met outside of work to discuss whether or not we should purchase gifts for Susan outside of what management planned to give her. Molly swore she had proof that Susan would sell anything we gave her, as she was already on plenty of local selling sites. 

We argued for a bit that didn't prove anything and painstakingly discussed whether or not we would continue with our plan to prank Susan. The team was torn down the middle regarding the issue, but in the end, we came to a somewhat unanimous decision when it came to Susan and her retirement gifts. 

1. "To all the women making strides in the business world, you are the embodiment of strength, courage, and resilience. Happy American Business Women's Day!"
2. Quote by Sheryl Sandberg: "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."
3. "On American Business Women's Day, we honor your ambition, determination, and the significant contributions you make every day. Keep shining and leading the way!"
4. Quote by Oprah Winfrey: "The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work."
5. "Your hard work, leadership, and vision inspire us all. Here's celebrating your impact on American Business Women's Day. Keep reaching for the stars!"

Ultimately, we chose to go ahead with our prank on Susan. We planned to give her a box of completely unsellable gifts decorated with boss business woman quotes and successful woman quotes so she wouldn't see through our intentionally bad gifting. Of course, not all of Susan's gifts were horrible. 

We could employ SnackMagic to give her a few great snack boxes, knowing that she would not be able to resell the food and that she probably wouldn't want to. While we were at it, we ordered snacks for the entire women's day celebration. 

Everyone was getting incredibly excited for the party, and we were sending out daily emails that featured a woman with a plan quotes and business woman quotes tagalong featured. As the hype spread throughout the office, so did the gossip concerning Susan.

At this point, everyone was convinced that there was no way she was actually retiring, and we were taking bets (outside of work) as to how soon her gifts would show up for sale online and which sites she would use the most. It became unclear what people were more excited about; the parties or winning money on bets about Susan. 

As the big day grew closer, the excitement was palpable. Somehow, Susan and management never caught on. 

Susan had always been a hardworking prime example of women in business. We were sad to see her go, but we were fully taken with the idea that she wasn't really leaving. 

We figured she would sell every item we gave her, from business and professional women-themed sweatshirts to candles. We ordered mugs, t-shirts, and work bags to celebrate the women in the office, and we were convinced that Susan would probably sell those too. 

Looking back on it, we can see how things got out of hand regarding this rumor, which didn't end well. 

As we all gathered at the party to celebrate small business week, the women's small business association, international business day, and women in general, we watched Susan out of the corner of our eye. She was carefully choosing the free swag she wanted, so we presented her with her gifts. 

To our surprise, Susan asked us if we were giving her gifts because we thought she was faking retirement. As our mouths fell open, she walked away sadly, muttering something about why we would ever think she'd do such a thing. 

We all felt terrible, and management wasn't pleased. 

The company felt so bad about what we did to Susan that they sent her a massive box of SwagMagic items. We believe she earned it until one day, several weeks later, Molly stated that she found out Susan was working from home for a company in her hometown of Nashville. 

She got all the unique gifts from our company, but we don't have any solid proof that she sold them. Still, knowing that Susan didn't really retire made us feel a whole lot better about our prank, as we turned out to be spot on.