Farewell, Resignation and Retirement Gifts for a Colleague
Match the gift to the kind of departure. A retirement, a resignation and a redundancy are three different events wearing the same cake. Retirements can be marked properly. Resignations want warmth without ceremony. And when the leaving was not their idea, the gift is for the person and never for the occasion.
What follows is how to tell the three apart, how to run the whip-round without cornering anybody, and what to write in the card that goes round the office. Our gifts for employees cover all three, and most of the difference is in how you hand it over.
Retirement
This is the one departure you are allowed to make a fuss of. Somebody has finished a working life, and understating it is a bigger risk than overstating it. Mark the length of the service rather than the job title, and get the timing right: the gift belongs at the farewell, not posted a week afterwards when everybody has moved on.
Retirement gifts can sit above the office norm, because the whole team is usually contributing and because it is a genuine milestone rather than a courtesy. Something shareable at home works well, since the first thing most people do is see more of their family. Our celebration hampers are built for the occasion and the mid-range band is where most group gifts land.
Resignation
Somebody leaving for another job wants to be sent off warmly and briefly. They are already half in the new role, they are conscious of not making it awkward for the people staying, and a heavy send-off can start to feel like a guilt trip.
Keep it warm and light. One good gift, one card, one short speech from whoever knows them best. If they are going somewhere they are excited about, say so plainly instead of pretending you are sorry, because everyone in the room can tell. Congratulations gifts for a new job covers the version where the departure is a promotion elsewhere, and how to make your mark at a new workplace is the piece they will want in a fortnight.
When the leaving was not their idea
Redundancy is the hardest one, and most workplaces get it wrong by doing nothing, on the theory that anything they do will be awkward. Doing nothing is worse. It tells somebody that four years disappeared the moment a decision was made in a meeting they were not in.
Three rules. Keep it personal rather than official, so it comes from the team and not from the company that just made the decision. Keep it modest, because a large gift in that situation starts to read as compensation. And do not stage a celebration: hand it over quietly, or send it to their home a few days later with a note, which gives them the choice about whether to be in the room at all. Our gift hampers work here precisely because they are ordinary and kind rather than commemorative.
The whip-round, and how to run one without cornering people
Group gifts go wrong at the collection, not at the choosing. An open envelope on a desk, or a message to a channel where everybody can see who has paid, quietly publishes the expected amount and makes anyone who cannot manage it feel it.
Run it so that no contribution is visible and nobody is asked twice. Name one organiser. Give a genuine floor and mean it, including nothing at all. Set a closing date so it does not drag on past the last day. And say plainly that the card is the gift and the money is optional, because in any office somebody is having a tighter month than they are telling you. Making a work anniversary count covers the same mechanics for the people who are staying.
What to write in the card everyone signs
The card that goes round the office is usually a page of "all the best" in fourteen different pens, and the person keeps it anyway, in a drawer, for years. You can do better in one line by writing something only you would know.
Name a specific thing they did, or a specific week they got you through. That is the line they will read twice. If you are the organiser, write yours last and leave the middle of the card empty for the people who need room, because the ones with the most to say are rarely the ones who sign first.
Where to start
Work out which of the three departures you are in, choose at that level, and hand it over at the right moment rather than the convenient one. Our gifts for employees are grouped so you can decide quickly, and the Australian workplace gifting handbook covers the wider set of rules this sits inside. Everything is hand-packed in Australia and sent Australia-wide, so order it and we will have it on its way while you sort out who is doing the speech.
Frequently asked questions
What is an appropriate farewell gift for a colleague?
It depends which farewell it is. For a retirement, something that marks the length of the service and is generous enough to be shared at home, because the whole team is usually contributing. For a resignation, one good gift and a short send-off, warm rather than heavy, since they are already half into the next job. For a redundancy, something modest and personal from the team rather than the company, handed over quietly or sent to their home a few days later. The same gift can be right for one and wrong for the other two.
How much should each person contribute to a group gift?
Set a low floor and mean it. The organiser's job is to make the amount invisible and optional, so nobody is doing arithmetic about what their colleagues can see. Suggest a small figure, say clearly that signing the card counts as taking part, and collect it privately rather than in an open envelope. Then shop inside whichever band the total lands in, which is what our band pages are for. A group gift that quietly pressured three people is a worse gift than a smaller one nobody minded paying for.
Do you give a gift to someone who was made redundant?
Yes, and the reason most teams hesitate is the reason they should. It feels awkward because the situation is awkward, and saying nothing does not remove the awkwardness, it just leaves the person with silence on their last day. Keep it small, keep it from the team rather than from the organisation, skip the speech, and put the acknowledgement in the note rather than in the size of the parcel. Sending it to their home a few days later is often kinder than handing it over in front of everyone.