There is a particular kind of panic that arrives about ten days before someone leaves. Someone has started a collection. Someone else has suggested a card. And everyone privately knows that a card and a voucher is not what this person deserves after four years, or nine, or nineteen.
The problem with most leaving gifts is not that they are cheap. It is that they are generic. A bottle of something nice says thank you. It does not say anything about the person leaving, or about what they meant to the people staying.
Here are the ideas that actually get kept — and what to do when the whole team wants to contribute.
What makes a leaving gift work
Three things separate a gift that ends up on a wall from a gift that ends up in a cupboard.
It has to be about them, not about the occasion
A generic desk ornament marks a departure. A gift that references the specific person — the running joke, the thing they always said, the trip everyone still talks about — marks a relationship. That is the difference between polite and moving.
It has to carry more than one voice
Leaving gifts are usually collective. Twelve people chipped in, so twelve people should be in it somewhere. Most gifts cannot do this, which is why the card gets passed around separately and then lost in a drawer within a year.
It has to survive the next job
The best leaving gifts get taken to the next desk, or hung at home. Anything branded with the old company logo will not. Anything too office-specific will not either.
Twelve leaving gift ideas, honestly assessed
1. A collage of photographs and everyone's words
This is the one that does all three things at once. Photographs of the person across their time with you, with the words the team would use about them woven around the images. Everyone contributes a word or a phrase. It is personal, it is collective, and it is a piece of art rather than a memento — so it goes on a wall rather than in a drawer. More on how to make one below.
2. A commissioned illustration of the office or building
Lovely if your workplace is a beautiful building. Less lovely if it is a business park. It also fails the "survives the next job" test for some people.
3. A good bottle, properly chosen
Not a bad gift, but a consumable. It is gone in an evening. Works best alongside something lasting, not as the main event.
4. A framed photograph of the team
Warm, and a genuine classic. The limitation is that one photograph captures one moment. If someone has been with you nine years, one photograph is a thin summary.
5. Tickets or an experience
Generous and memorable, but it needs to match the person's actual taste, and you need to know their diary. High risk if you are guessing.
6. A book with everyone's messages written inside
The messages are the good part. The book is incidental. Consider whether the messages could be the gift itself.
7. Something for the new role
A good pen, a bag, something they will use on day one somewhere else. Thoughtful, but it says more about the future than about what they meant here.
8. A plant
Charming until it has to be transported home on a train.
9. A donation to a cause they care about
Genuinely meaningful for the right person. Pair it with something they can keep, because a certificate is not a keepsake.
10. A personalised print of an in-joke
Very high risk, very high reward. If the joke lands it is the best gift in the room. If it does not, it is awkward forever.
11. A voucher
Honest about what it is: money, with an extra step. Fine as a top-up. Poor as the headline.
12. A video message compilation
Moving, and free to make. But it lives on a phone, and phones get replaced. Consider it alongside something physical rather than instead of one.
How to make a leaving gift from the whole team
If you have decided the gift should carry everyone's voice, the practical question is how to collect it without a fortnight of chasing.
Collect the words first, quietly
Start a private message thread without the person leaving in it. Ask for one word or one short phrase each — not a paragraph. People freeze when asked to write something meaningful and reply instantly when asked for one word. You will get "unflappable", "always had the answer", "kettle", "Tuesday meetings", "genuinely kind". Those specific, slightly odd words are the ones that will make them laugh and then go a bit quiet.
Then collect the photographs
Ask everyone to send the ones already on their phones. Nights out, the awful team-building day, the birthday cake in the kitchen, the conference badge photo. Do not curate for quality — the blurry ones are often the best ones, because they are the real ones.
Then put both in one piece
This is where a word art collage does something no other format can. The photographs form the picture, and the words the team wrote sit around and between them, filling the space. You are not choosing between the messages and the memories. Both are in the same frame.
We are the original Word Art Collage Company, and this is the exact job the format was built for. You design it yourself in the browser — choose the photographs, type in the words, arrange it how you want, and see the finished piece before you order anything. You can fit up to 100 photographs on the largest size, and 60 on the size most people choose for an office wall.
It comes as a poster hanger, a framed print, a canvas, or a framed canvas. Nothing is made until you have approved exactly what you can see on screen.
What to write on a leaving gift
The most common mistake is writing what you think you should write. "Good luck in your new role" is what a card says. It is not what people actually feel.
Better prompts to give the team:
- One word you would use to describe them
- Something they always said
- A moment you will remember
- What you learned from them
- What the place will be like without them
Mix the sincere with the ridiculous. A piece that contains "endlessly patient" and "stole my stapler" in the same breath is a truer portrait than one that contains only the first.
Frequently asked questions
How much should you spend on a leaving gift?
For a colleague you worked alongside, a whip-round of a few pounds each is normal. For someone leaving after many years, or a manager the team was genuinely fond of, the collection tends to be larger. The amount matters far less than whether the gift is specific to them.
How long before they leave should you start?
Start collecting words and photographs two to three weeks out. The collecting is the slow part, not the making. Allow time for delivery on top.
What if not everyone gets on with the person leaving?
Ask for contributions rather than requiring them. A piece with fifteen genuine words is better than one with thirty dutiful ones.
Can you make a leaving gift with only a few photographs?
Yes. Fewer photographs simply means each one appears larger, and the words fill more of the piece. Some of the best ones use six or seven photographs and a hundred words.
What about someone retiring rather than moving jobs?
The same approach works, and often lands harder — a retirement covers decades rather than years, so there is far more to say. Photographs from across a whole career, with the words of everyone who worked with them, is about as good as a retirement gift gets.
Where to start
If you want to see what one looks like with your own photographs in it, you can design one now. It is free to use and free to change your mind — you only pay if you decide to print it.