Millennials call for ban on office Secret Santa because it causes anxiety

Secret Santa causes 'anxiety' for millennials who fear being viewed as 'stingy' by their colleagues. Photo / Getty

Secret Santa causes "anxiety" for millennials who fear being viewed as "stingy" by their colleagues, a new report has found.

Psychology lecturer Dr Ashley Weinberg claims workplace Secret Santa is causing high levels of stress and proposes offices should enforce a strict spending limit.

A study commissioned by Jobsite said younger workers usually spend more than they can afford on presents for their colleagues, and many feel judged for their level of expenditure.

The report found 26 per cent of young workers dip into their own savings or overdraft to contribute to presents.

Just under a quarter of employees aged 23 to 38 say they felt angry at the person organising the whip-round for not considering their financial situation, while 17 per cent said they faced allegations of being called stingy.

Weinberg said, according to The Telegraph: "If you've grown up in a world where social media is at your fingertips and those kinds of social judgments are being made fairly constantly, suddenly you're even more aware of what others might be thinking.

"Naturally that's going to spill over into all kinds of areas, particularly something that can be a social taboo when you think about maybe not giving, or maybe questioning why people are giving.

"I think there can be a bit of that and naturally it does lead to anxiety for a lot of people."

He also claims exchanging gifts has added major anxiety to younger people who fear their presents won't be well received.

Weinberg hopes offices will prioritise wellbeing over presents.

One in five workers believe birthday and Secret Santa presents should not be celebrated in the workplace and 35 per cent of millennials surveryed would like to see them banned.