Gratitude, Practiced — Not Performed
At Workshop, we try to clarify intention before logistics.
Especially at the end of the year.
This year, the end-of-year gift we sent to some of our clients at Workshop wasn’t about obligation, scale, or checking a box before the calendar flipped. It was about something simpler, and harder to do well: gratitude as a practice, not a performance.
A way to say thank you.
To honor trust and partnership.
To acknowledge the shared work we’ve done together over the past year.
What we wanted to reflect on and appreciate from 2025 wasn’t output or outcomes, but what makes meaningful work possible in the first place: the time, thought, and care clients bring into our relationships.
So we chose a gift that reflected that.
Why Books?
We build real relationships with our clients. Over time, we get to know how people think, what they’re wrestling with, and what they’re building toward. A thrifted book, chosen with intention for each person, felt like a fitting expression of that relationship.
Each book was paired with a short note about why we chose it and who we thought it might be a good fit for. Anna, our President and CEO, also wrote handwritten cards for each recipient. We included letterpress bookmarks printed by Laughing Owl, a fellow East Coast company whose care for craft mirrors our own.
The process itself mattered. Each person on our team made a list of books they’ve read and loved, or books they thought might be meaningful for someone else’s journey or career. We then came together to pair individual books with individual people.
It was thoughtful, collaborative, and genuinely fun.
In the process, we learned more about each other. The books people recommended revealed what ideas have shaped their thinking, what they value, and what they’re paying attention to right now. It was one of those moments where the work quietly reinforces why I love building things with this team.
A Shared Reading List
We’ve shared the full list of books we recommended, in case something resonates with you. If it does, I encourage you to do what we did and buy it second-hand through ThriftBooks.
It’s a small environmental choice, but a meaningful one. Keeping books in circulation, giving them a second life, and keeping them out of landfills felt aligned with how we want to show up.
Ending the Year This Way
As the year wraps up, this felt like an honest reflection of how we work at Workshop. We value care, thoughtfulness, and real relationships, and we try to bring those qualities into everything we do.
It felt like a meaningful way to close out the year.
