Our office team does cake day. Everyone has to bake for team meeting, whether male or female. I like to think it’s a good exception/compromise to the no-baking rule.

someone thinks you are competition

Thanks for the concrete suggestions. They all seem within my capability and corporate culture (unlike selecting art…yikes). I like your reasoning: office homesteading totally makes sense. I will go shopping for a red stapler today. ;-)

But I have a question: Do professionals really have coffee pots in their offices??? I have never seen that in person, except for the odd IT guy with an Aeropress in his cubicle drawer. Sure, I’ve seen C-Suite offices with private espresso bars…in the movies. (I’m not at that level yet anyway.)

By non-personal, I meant things that don’t scream “I love cats” or other preferences, since you don’t seem to be that type of person. Obviously a cardigan is personal. Unless it features an applique cat.