Farewell gift ideas for a coworker who’s leaving.

Before anyone in the group chat suggests a mug, find out where your coworker is going. A new job, a move across the country, six months of travel and an early retirement all call for different gifts, and that one fact will rule out half the options before you’ve spent anything.

The 28 ideas below are grouped by the kind of exit they suit. Each one has a note on who it works for and when it tends to fall flat. Most are fine for one person buying on their own. A few make more sense as a team gift where everyone puts in a bit.

Where they’re headed decides the gift

Good leaving gifts usually do one of two jobs. They help with whatever comes next, or they remind the person of the team they’re leaving. A gift that does neither, like a candle grabbed on the way into work, reads as an afterthought even when it wasn’t cheap.

Say your teammate Priya is leaving after six years to join a startup. Everyone knows her for the Friday snack run and the color-coded notebook she brings to every meeting. That gives you two good options already. You could get her something for the new job, like a nicer version of that notebook. Or you could get something that holds on to the six years, like a photo frame full of team pictures. Both beat whatever you’d panic-buy at the gift shop by the station.

If you don’t know them well enough to guess, ask the person who sits next to them. That one conversation can save you from buying wine for someone who doesn’t drink.

Small gifts from one person

These suit someone buying on their own for a person they worked closely with, or a small team that doesn’t want to make a big fuss. A modest gift with a good note beats a big one with nothing written in it.

• A good notebook. Most people start a new job with a fresh notebook, so give them one that’s nicer than the supply cupboard kind. A Leuchtturm1917 notebook is a safe bet for the person who takes notes in every meeting. Write something on the first page so it isn’t blank when they open it.
• A pen they’ll enjoy using. Every office has someone with strong opinions about pens. For them, a Lamy Safari fountain pen is a fun upgrade that isn’t too precious to carry around. If two of you want to split a gift, pair it with the notebook.
• A desk plant that’s hard to kill. A golden pothos copes with low light, missed waterings and the chaos of someone’s first few weeks at a new job. Give it to the person who kept the office plants alive, or the one who very much didn’t.
• Their coffee, done properly. If they had a coffee routine, lean into it. A bag of beans from a local roaster or a gift card for the café they hit every morning shows you were paying attention.
• A book with a note inside. Pick something you think they’d enjoy, and please skip the business book about leadership. Then write a line inside the cover saying why you chose it. Without that line it’s just a book you bought.
• A box of their go-to snacks. Everyone on a team knows what a person reaches for at three in the afternoon. Fill a box with it and label it their survival kit for week one.
• A printed team photo in a plain frame. Find the best picture from an offsite or a holiday party and get it printed. It’s cheap and personal, and these tend to sit on a desk for years.

Gifts for the next job

If they’re leaving for a new role, practical gifts are hard to get wrong. They’ll use them from day one, and every time they do they’ll think of the people who sent them off.

• A tumbler that keeps coffee hot through meetings. A Yeti Rambler tumbler tends to go everywhere with people once they own one. It’s a good pick for someone with a new commute.
• A laptop stand. Sounds dull, gets used every day. It’s a smart choice for anyone moving to a hybrid or fully remote role, where the kitchen table is about to become the office. The Rain Design mStand laptop stand is a plain piece of aluminum with nothing to adjust or break, and it looks fine on any desk.
• Noise-canceling headphones. This one makes sense for someone heading to an open-plan office or a long commute. It’s worth pooling for, since most people won’t buy themselves a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones.
• A work bag they’ll be proud of. If they’ve carried the same tired backpack for years, a nicer bag makes the fresh start feel like one. A Herschel Little America backpack fits a laptop and doesn’t look like it came free with one. Check their style with a close teammate before you buy.
• Lunch for their first week. Food delivery credit, or a gift card for somewhere near the new office. First weeks are exhausting, and one less decision a day helps more than you’d think.

Gifts for someone moving or traveling

When the farewell comes with a move to a new city or a long break before the next thing, keep it light. They probably have plenty of boxes already and not much room for more.

• Packing cubes. Not exciting, but anyone moving or traveling will use them constantly. A set of packing cubes makes a stressful week that bit easier.
• A carry-on suitcase. Maybe they’re leaving to travel for a few months, or they always talked about trips they never had time for. Either way, the team could pool for a Travelpro carry-on. It’s basically a nudge to go and book the trip.
• A map print of their new city. Or of the city they’re leaving, if they’re moving far from the team. Either one ends up on a wall and gets people asking about it.
• A restaurant gift card in the new city. It gives them a reason to get out and explore in the first few weeks, when staying in and unpacking is the easier option.
• A passport holder or luggage tag. An easy gift from one person to someone heading abroad. A Polare leather passport holder or a set of leather luggage tags, set of 4 both fit inside a card.

Gifts that hold on to this team

These are for someone leaving a team they loved. They won’t help much at the new job. What they do is keep the good years within reach.

• A digital photo frame loaded with team pictures. A Frameo digital photo frame takes photos sent from people’s phones, so the whole team can fill it with years of offsites, lunches and badly lit birthday cakes. People can keep sending new ones after they’ve gone.
• An instant camera at the farewell party. Bring an Instax Mini 12 camera to the leaving drinks and get people to take photos with them. They go home with the camera and a stack of prints, and you’ve sorted out the party entertainment at the same time.
• A custom illustration of the team. Plenty of artists will draw a group from photos. Include the office dog if there is one. It lasts a lot longer than flowers.
• A homemade book of team recipes or recommendations. Ask everyone for one favorite recipe, book or place to eat, and get them bound together. It costs very little and takes some organizing, and people hang on to these.

Experiences for someone who’s packing up

Some people don’t want more things, especially when they’re about to pack up a whole home. For them, an experience or a gesture usually goes down better.

• A class or workshop. Pottery, cooking, an intro climbing session. Pick something they’ve said they want to try, and they’ll know you were listening.
• Tickets to something they love. If you know their favorite band or team, this is the gift they’ll still be talking about months later. Ask around first, because fans can be picky about this stuff.
• Money toward a trip. For someone taking a break between jobs, a group contribution to a weekend away beats another object. Put it in the card with a note about where you hope they go.
• A donation in their name. If they really don’t want a present, give to a cause they care about and tell them about it in the card.

Remote-friendly farewell gifts

If the person works remotely, or the team is spread across cities, pick something that ships easily or doesn’t ship at all. A few ideas above already work, like the photo frame, the notebook and lunch credit. These ones are made for distance.

• A care package of local treats. Snacks from the city where the office is, or one item from each teammate’s hometown with a short note on it. This is great for a team spread across countries.
• A few months of a subscription. Coffee, books, snacks, whatever fits them. It keeps turning up after they’ve left, which reminds them the team hasn’t forgotten.
• An online course. Good for someone leaving to change careers or learn something new. Choose one tied to where they’re going, so it comes across as encouragement and not homework.

If you’re planning the whole send-off for someone remote, there are more ideas in our list of virtual farewell ideas.

Leaving gifts that send the wrong message

Some gifts go wrong more often than you’d expect. Anything with the company logo is an odd thing to hand someone on their way out the door. Joke gifts that need a long backstory fall flat once they get home and nobody there gets it. Alcohol is great if you know they drink and awkward if you don’t. And if the person leaving is a manager, one person buying them something expensive can look off, so go with a team gift.

Also watch out for gifts that hint at why they’re leaving. If someone is quitting because they’re burned out, a stress ball won’t come across the way you meant it.

Collecting from the team for a leaving present

Group gifts usually get stuck on the money, so keep that part simple. One person collects. Everyone else pays and signs. Suggest a modest amount, about what people would spend on a coffee or a sandwich, and say plainly that chipping in is optional and signing the card is enough. Some people are saving for a house or paying for childcare, and they shouldn’t have to explain that to anyone.

Use whatever payment method your team already uses. Post the details once with a deadline, in a private chat the person leaving can’t see, and don’t chase people in public. Wait until you know the total before you buy, instead of picking the gift first and hoping the money catches up. Our guide on how to organize a group gift has more on reminders, budgets and what to do if you come up short.

Put the gift and the farewell card together

Mugs chip and snacks get eaten. Gift cards get spent in a week. The card is what people keep, and plenty of them reread it on a bad day at the new job. A gift that comes with a card full of real messages feels much bigger than either would alone.

Mention the gift in the card so the two go together. Hand them over at the same time, ideally on the last day. For a remote coworker, send the card on the day the package arrives so they can open everything at once.

Jordan, the plant is from the whole team. It’s a pothos, which we’re told is almost impossible to kill, and we figured you’d appreciate that after what happened to the last one. Thank you for three great years of patience, bad puns and the best spreadsheet formulas anyone here has ever seen. We’ll miss you.

You can start a farewell card on LittleSurprise and share one link in the same chat where you’re collecting money. Coworkers add a message, photo or voice note without an account, and the person leaving opens them one by one. If people are stuck on what to write, point them to our farewell messages for coworkers, and if the one leaving is your manager, the farewell messages for a boss are a better fit.