Somebody is leaving on Friday and you have been volunteered to sort out the gift. The constraints are unusual: a mixed group paying different amounts, a recipient you may know mostly through meetings, and a hand-over moment in front of everyone.

The aim is a gift that makes it clear they were noticed as a person, without anybody being pressured into paying for it.

Run the collection without cornering anyone

Say the amount, make it optional, and take contributions privately. A cash envelope passed around a room makes it obvious who gave nothing and how much, which is unkind to anyone who is broke that month.

Set a low suggested amount and let people quietly add more. Announce the total only as “from all of us” — the card carries the names, not the sums.

1. The card is the actual gift

Best for: Every departure, without exception.

People keep the card long after the object is gone, but only if it says something. A card with fourteen signatures and no sentences is a formality. Ask each person for one specific memory, and give them a prompt — the meeting where they saved us, the thing they always said — because “write something nice” produces “good luck!” fourteen times.

If your team is remote, collect the lines in a document and print it properly rather than sending a link that expires.

2. Something for the new chapter

Best for: Someone moving to a known destination — a new city, study, travel, or their own business.

A guidebook for where they are moving, a good notebook for a course, a lunch at their new neighborhood’s best bakery arranged in advance. It signals that you listened to what they are going to, not just that they are leaving.

For a colleague who already sketches plans by hand and scans them afterward, Rocketbook Core in the Executive size might suit the next chapter. Its reusable pages work with Pilot FriXion ink and can be wiped clean after saving the notes. Check that they actually want this workflow; it is not an upgrade for everyone. Put the team’s permanent goodbye messages in a separate card, where they cannot be accidentally erased.

3. The upgrade of something they use every day

Best for: A person whose desk habits everyone knows.

The nicer version of their terrible mug, their pen, their headphones, their tea. Easy to get right and hard to get wrong, because you are copying a choice they already made.

If you know the tea tin they keep in the office kitchen is Harney & Sons Paris, the 20-sachet version is something familiar to take with them. This is caffeinated flavored black tea, so match their usual blend instead of buying it on the strength of the packaging. Add the biscuit they always share and a note about one ordinary workday you will remember. Keep the gift small if you do not know their plans.

4. A shared meal instead of an object

Best for: Small teams, and anyone who is moving abroad.

Taking them to lunch on their last day, with the collection covering it, beats a wrapped item they must fit into a suitcase. The photo from that lunch is the thing they will still have in five years.

5. A plant from the desk, potted properly

Best for: An office with a long-running joke about the plant.

Small, cheap, specific to your shared history. Inside jokes are the strongest currency in a leaving gift, as long as everyone in the room is in on them.

What to avoid

Anything heavy or fragile if they are relocating. They are packing a life into a car.

Joke gifts about the job they are escaping. Mugs about deadlines and mock trophies age badly in about a week.

Alcohol by default. Common, and wrong often enough to be worth checking first.

Company-branded merchandise. They just handed back the laptop.

A gift card to the coffee shop next to the office they will never visit again.

If they were made redundant

The tone is different. Keep the gift practical and the card warm and free of jokes about “new adventures” — the departure was not their plan. What helps most is specific: an offer to be a reference, an introduction to someone hiring, or a message six weeks later when the calls have stopped.

Getting it right when you barely know them

Ask the two people who sat closest to them. Five minutes of that produces a better gift than an hour of browsing, because what you need is one concrete detail, not a category.

And if your team marks birthdays and departures often, Giftlify keeps the dates and asks people what they actually want through a short form, so the organizer is not guessing every time. It is free, and nobody needs an account to answer.

See also Secret Santa gifts under $25 and how to choose a gift.