As the holiday season approaches, gift-giving anxiety mounts. Working in a large firm multiplies the issue: One must decide who gets a present, what to buy, how much to spend and if the gift carries even a hint of impropriety.

According to an unscientific Time Inc. Giftscriptions survey, 31 percent of people are throwing away their co-workers' presents.

Setting up a "Secret Santa" gift exchange between randomly selected officemates doesn't necessarily help: 41 percent of respondents still bought additional presents for co-workers, and more than half report disliking the gifts they received.

Instead, keep gifts small, inexpensive and personalized, said Leah Ingram, an etiquette and gift-giving consultant. Stay away from presents that are overtly sexual or could be misconstrued, such as a male supervisor giving a female employee a spa gift certificate.

And when feeling pressed to churn out treats for a large number of co-workers involved in a project, from assistants to managers, "there is nothing wrong with baking cookies...packaging it up and giving it to everyone," Ingram said. "You can get creative."

The Giftscriptions phone survey, conducted in September, queried 1,000 random Americans by phone.