Leaving Gifts for Colleagues: 30 Thoughtful Ideas for Every Budget

Leaving gifts for colleagues are one of those things that seem straightforward until you're the one organising them. Someone's last day is Friday. The team Slack is full of "should we do something?" messages. And suddenly you're trying to find a thoughtful leaving gift for a colleague you've worked with for three years - with two days' notice and a WhatsApp collection that's raised £37.50.

Sound familiar?

Whether someone's moving to a new role, going on maternity leave, retiring, or just ready for a change - the way you mark that moment matters more than most people realise. Research on the peak-end rule suggests we remember experiences based on how they felt at their most intense point and at the end. A rushed or forgotten goodbye can quietly undo years of positive experience. A thoughtful one sticks.

This guide covers 30 leaving gift ideas for colleagues across every budget, plus practical advice on what to write, how much to spend, and how to get it right without the stress.

Quick answers: leaving gifts for colleagues

What are good leaving gifts for colleagues?

Good leaving gifts for colleagues feel personal without being presumptuous. Consistently popular options include food and drink gifts, experience vouchers, wellbeing gifts, and gifts with choice - where the recipient picks what they actually want. The best leaving gifts are paired with a genuine message rather than a generic card.

How much should you spend on a leaving gift for a colleague?

There's no fixed rule. For group collections, £5-10 per person is common, giving a total of £30-100 depending on team size. For individual gifts, £15-30 is a comfortable range for most workplace relationships. The message matters more than the price tag.

What do you write in a leaving card for a colleague?

The best leaving messages mention something specific - a project you worked on together, something you'll miss about them, or a quality you admire. Avoid generic lines like "good luck in your new role." A few honest, personal sentences always beat a lengthy generic message.

Are gift cards good leaving gifts?

Gift cards can work, but generic multi-store vouchers often feel transactional. A more thoughtful approach is giving a gift with choice - where the recipient picks from a curated range - or choosing a gift card for somewhere you know they love.

Why leaving gifts for colleagues matter more than you think

It's easy to underestimate the impact of a leaving gift. The person is leaving anyway - does it really matter?

Yes. More than you'd expect.

Leaving gifts for colleagues aren't really about the gift itself. They're about the signal it sends. A thoughtful leaving present tells the departing person their contribution mattered. But it also tells everyone still in the room that this is a place where people are valued - not just while they're useful, but right up to the end.

Research from organisational psychology shows that how people leave an organisation directly shapes how they talk about it afterwards. Former employees are your most credible employer brand ambassadors - or your most damaging critics. A £25 gift with a genuine message is a remarkably cheap investment in reputation.

The other thing worth remembering: how we end things shapes how we remember them. A leaving gift isn't a formality. It's the full stop on someone's experience with your team.

30 leaving gift ideas for colleagues

Here are 30 leaving gift ideas across every budget and relationship, from close teammates to people you knew mainly through shared kitchen frustrations.

Food and drink gifts

These work brilliantly for leaving gifts because they suit almost everyone, avoid the awkwardness of guessing personal taste in homewares, and can be enjoyed or shared.

1. Artisan chocolate box - A box from a quality chocolatier feels a cut above the Celebrations tub from the corner shop. Hotel Chocolat, or smaller independent makers all work well.
    
2. Wine or fizz bundle - A couple of bottles of good wine or a mini prosecco set works for celebrations. Pairs well with a "cheers to what's next" message.
    
3. Letterbox brownies or cookies - Easy to send, easy to enjoy. Particularly good for remote colleagues who you can't hand a gift to in person.
    
4. Coffee subscription or premium beans - For the colleague who was never seen without a flat white. A month's subscription or a bag of specialty beans feels considered.
    
5. Artisan pasta kit - A pasta-making kit with quality pasta, sauce, and a recipe card. A bit different, surprisingly popular.
    
6. Hamper - The classic leaving present. A well-curated hamper with a mix of treats avoids the "one item that might not land" problem. Works for every budget depending on what you fill it with.

Wellbeing and self-care gifts

Leaving a job - even for something exciting - is a transition. Wellbeing-focused leaving gifts acknowledge that and feel supportive rather than corporate.

1. Luxury candle - A quality candle from a brand like The White Company, or a smaller independent maker. Hard to get wrong.
    
2. Bath or shower set - A curated set of bath products feels like a treat without being too personal. Stick with unisex or lightly fragranced options.
    
3. Skincare set - A small set from a quality skincare brand. This works best for colleagues you know fairly well.
    
4. Spa or massage voucher - An experience gift that says "go relax." Works beautifully for someone who's been through a particularly demanding period. Experience gifts tend to create more lasting happiness than physical items.
    
5. Mindfulness or wellness book - Something like "The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse" or a guided journal. Simple, thoughtful, and inexpensive.

Experience gifts

If you want a leaving gift that feels like a genuine send-off rather than a transaction, experience gifts are hard to beat.

1. Afternoon tea for two - A classic. Works for retirements, maternity leave send-offs, and close colleagues. A gift card for afternoon tea lets them choose when and where.
    
2. Cooking class - A pasta-making class, sushi workshop, or baking experience. These work particularly well for someone starting a new chapter.
    
3. Wine or cocktail tasting - A fun one for someone who appreciates a good drink. Especially good as a group experience if the whole team wants to go.
    
4. Theatre or cinema vouchers - Simple, flexible, and lets them choose what to see. Works for every relationship level.
    
5. Activity day voucher - An experience voucher that lets the recipient choose from hundreds of options - from spa days to driving experiences to hot air balloon rides. Good for when you genuinely don't know what they'd enjoy.

Home and lifestyle gifts

Practical but thoughtful. These leaving gifts for colleagues work well when you want something they'll actually use rather than display.

1. Quality notebook or planner - A beautiful notebook from a brand like Martha Brook. Useful, personal, and avoids the "another thing to dust" problem.
    
2. Indoor plant - A low-maintenance plant in a nice pot. Symbolically rather lovely for someone starting something new. Avoid anything that requires expert care unless you know they're a keen gardener.
    
3. Quality tea or coffee set with a nice mug - A premium mug paired with quality tea or coffee. Simple, affordable, and universally appreciated.
    
4. Book - If you know what they're into, a well-chosen book with a personal inscription is one of the most meaningful leaving gifts you can give. If you don't know their taste, a bookshop gift card lets them choose.

Gift cards and gifts with choice

Sometimes the most thoughtful thing you can do is let someone choose for themselves - especially when preferences vary.

1. Gift with choice - Rather than guessing, you set a budget and send a curated selection. The recipient picks what they actually want. This solves the "I hope they like it" problem completely - and you don't even need their address.
    
2. Coffee shop gift card - A Costa, Starbucks, or independent coffee shop card. Small, universally useful, and works perfectly for colleagues you didn't know well enough to buy something specific.
    
3. Restaurant gift card - A gift card for their favourite restaurant chain, or a more flexible dining gift card. Particularly good for close colleagues or managers.
    
4. Bookshop gift card - For the reader in the team. More personal than a generic voucher because it shows you've paid attention.
    
5. Charity shop gift card - For the colleague who'd rather their gift supported a good cause. Yes, these exist - and they're a surprisingly lovely option.

Personalised and sentimental gifts

For close colleagues and long-standing relationships, a personalised leaving gift can carry real emotional weight.

1. Photo book or framed team photo - A collection of team moments, printed into a small photo book. Takes some effort but the impact is significant, especially for long-serving colleagues.
    
2. Engraved or personalised item - A personalised pen, keyring, or piece of jewellery. The personalisation is what makes these work - without it, they're just objects.
    
3. Team message book - A notebook or card where every team member writes a personal message. Low cost, high impact. This is often the thing people keep for years.

The wildcard

1. A combination: gift with choice + team message - Honestly, this is the option that works in almost every situation. You set a budget, send a gift with choice through Huggg, and pair it with a handwritten card or team message book. The recipient gets something they actually want. The message gives it meaning. No guesswork, no awkward collections, no wasted budget. With Huggg, it's free to use and you don't need anyone's address - the recipient adds their own details and chooses their gift.

Leaving gift ideas by relationship

Not every leaving gift should look the same. What you buy depends on how well you know the person.

Leaving gifts for close colleagues

For teammates you've worked with closely, the gift can lean more personal. References to shared experiences - the project that nearly broke you both, the inside joke from the team away day - matter more than the item itself.

Good options: experience gifts, personalised items, gift with choice at a slightly higher budget, a well-chosen book with a personal note.

Leaving gifts for colleagues you don't know well

For people you shared a floor with but not much else, keep it simple and pressure-free. A coffee shop gift card, a box of nice biscuits, or a contribution to a group gift all work perfectly.

Don't overthink it. A genuine "all the best" message with a small gesture beats an expensive gift from someone they barely spoke to.

Boss leaving gift ideas

Buying a leaving gift for a boss can feel awkward. The power dynamic makes it tricky - you don't want it to look like flattery, and you don't want to spend more than feels comfortable.

The most effective boss leaving gifts are:

• organised as a group (spreads the cost and the awkwardness)
• focused on appreciation rather than lavishness
• professional but warm

A group gift card, a quality hamper, or a team message book all work well. The message from the team is usually what matters most for long-serving managers.

Maternity leave gifts

Maternity leave gifts aren't really goodbye gifts - they're "see you on the other side" gifts. The tone should be supportive and personal, not corporate.

Good maternity leave gift ideas:

• a wellbeing or self-care gift (for them, not the baby)
• a gift with choice so they can pick what they actually need
• a book or journal
• a voucher for a nice restaurant (for those rare evenings out in the first few months)

Avoid anything that makes assumptions about their plans, parenting style, or whether they're coming back. Keep the focus on them as a person.

Leaving gifts for her, for him, and for everyone

Search data splits leaving gifts into "leaving gifts for her" and "leaving gifts for him" - but in practice, the best leaving gifts aren't about gender. They're about the person.

That said, here's what tends to work across the board:

Universally popular leaving gifts:

• Food and drink gifts (chocolates, wine, coffee)
• Experience vouchers
• Gift with choice
• Quality candles
• Books and stationery

If you know them well enough to go specific:

• Their favourite brand of gin, wine, or coffee
• A voucher for a restaurant or shop they've mentioned
• Something related to a hobby or interest

If you don't know them well:

• Gift with choice (they pick, you don't guess)
• Coffee shop or bookshop gift card
• A nice hamper

The safest approach: let the message do the personal work and keep the gift itself flexible. A genuinely personal three-line message with a flexible gift beats an expensive guess every time.

Funny leaving gifts: when they work (and when they don't)

Funny leaving gifts can be brilliant - but they're also where leaving gifts most often go wrong.

When funny leaving gifts work:

• Humour is already central to your working relationship
• The joke references a shared experience you both find funny
• It's paired with something genuinely thoughtful (not instead of)

When funny leaving gifts don't work:

• The humour is at their expense
• The joke only makes sense to you
• It's a novelty item that'll end up in a drawer within a week
• You're substituting humour for effort

The best funny leaving gifts reference something specific and shared. "World's okayest analyst" works when it's an ongoing joke between you. It doesn't work when it's the first time you've spoken to them in six months.

If in doubt, choose something sincere. You can always make the card funny instead.

How much should you spend on a leaving gift?

There's no etiquette book for this, but here's what tends to feel right:

Group collection (most common):

• £5-10 per person is standard
• Total typically lands between £30-100 depending on team size
• Don't pressure anyone to contribute - keep it genuinely optional

Individual gift:

• £15-30 for a colleague
• £20-40 for a close colleague or manager
• Under £15 for someone you didn't work with closely

The honest truth: nobody remembers what you spent. They remember what you wrote and whether the gesture felt genuine. A £5 coffee card with a heartfelt message beats a £50 hamper with a generic "best of luck" every single time.

Common mistakes with leaving gifts for colleagues

Even with good intentions, these are the things that make leaving gifts fall flat:

Leaving it until the last day. The WhatsApp message goes out at 3pm on their penultimate day. The collection raises £12. Someone panic-buys a card from the Tesco Express across the road. This is how most leaving gifts happen. A few days' planning changes everything.

Sending a gift without a message. A gift without a card or message is just a transaction. The message is what turns it into recognition. Always include one.

Going too personal for the relationship. A perfume set for someone you've spoken to three times is awkward for everyone. Match the gift to the relationship.

Choosing something generic because it's "safe." A Love2Shop voucher might be safe, but it rarely feels thoughtful. If you want safe and thoughtful, let them choose - a gift with choice gives flexibility without feeling impersonal.

Forgetting remote colleagues. If someone worked remotely, their leaving moment matters just as much. Digital delivery means remote colleagues don't have to be an afterthought.

Writing a leaving message that actually means something

A leaving gift without a message feels incomplete. Here's what works:

Include these three things:

1. Something specific you'll miss or appreciate about them
2. A reference to a shared moment, project, or contribution
3. A genuine wish for what's next

Examples that work:

• "You made every Monday morning meeting bearable - and that's not a small thing. Good luck at [company], they're lucky to have you."
• "Three years of sitting next to you and I still don't understand what you actually do. But I know the team won't be the same without you. All the best."
• "Thank you for always being the person who asked 'but what does the customer actually think?' We needed that more than you know."

What to avoid:

• "Best of luck in your future endeavours" (too corporate)
• "Sorry to see you go" on its own (says nothing specific)
• Anything copy-pasted from Google

Keep it short. Three to five personal sentences beats a full page of generic warmth.

Leaving gifts in remote and hybrid teams

Remote work hasn't removed the need for leaving gifts - it's changed how they need to work.

For distributed teams:

• Digital delivery matters. Platforms like Huggg let you send gifts without needing anyone's home address. The recipient adds their own delivery details.
• Messages matter even more. When someone leaves a remote team, there's no corridor goodbye or last-day drinks. A thoughtful message with a gift is sometimes the only leaving moment they get.
• Timing needs to be deliberate. In an office, someone's last day has natural ceremony. Remotely, it can pass without anyone noticing. Schedule the gift to arrive on or before their last day.

A gift with choice works particularly well for remote teams - the recipient picks what they want, it's delivered to wherever they are, and you manage the whole thing from one platform.

How leaving gifts shape your company culture

This is the bit most people don't think about.

Leaving gifts aren't just for the person leaving. They're for everyone who stays.

When the team sees a colleague leave with a thoughtful gift and genuine words, it sends a message: people matter here, all the way through. When someone leaves with a hurried handshake and a card nobody signed, the message is equally clear.

Organisations invest heavily in onboarding - welcome packs, induction days, first-week experiences. But exits are just as important as entrances. Consistently thoughtful leaving gifts become part of your culture, not just a one-off task.

The bottom line on leaving gifts for colleagues

Leaving gifts aren't about the price tag. They're about closing a chapter well.

The most memorable leaving gifts:

• include a genuine, specific message
• feel considered rather than rushed
• match the relationship
• focus on the person, not a generic gesture

You don't need a big budget. You don't need to know their exact taste. You just need to care enough to plan a few days ahead and write something real.

With Huggg, you can send leaving gifts that people actually want to receive. The platform's free to use, you don't need anyone's address, and recipients choose from an ever-growing range of quality gifts. Whether it's a single gift for a close colleague or a team send-off for someone special, it takes minutes - not a week of WhatsApp negotiations.

Send a leaving gift with Huggg | See plans and pricing

FAQs: leaving gifts for colleagues

What are good leaving gifts for colleagues?

Good leaving gifts for colleagues include food and drink gifts, experience vouchers, wellbeing items, and gifts with choice. The best leaving gifts feel personal, match the relationship, and are paired with a genuine message. For group collections, a curated gift with choice lets the recipient pick something they'll actually enjoy.

How much should you spend on a leaving gift for a colleague?

For group collections, £5-10 per person is standard, giving a total of £30-100 depending on team size. For individual gifts, £15-30 is typical for most workplace relationships. The message matters more than the amount - a thoughtful £10 gift with a personal note outperforms a £50 generic voucher.

What do you write in a leaving card for a colleague?

Mention something specific - a project you worked on, a quality you admire, or something you'll genuinely miss. Include a real wish for what's next. Avoid generic phrases like "good luck in your future endeavours." Three honest, personal sentences beat a full page of filler.

Are gift cards good leaving gifts?

Gift cards can work, but generic multi-store vouchers often feel impersonal. A better approach is a gift with choice - where the recipient selects from a curated range - or a gift card for somewhere you know they love. The key is making it feel considered rather than like a cash equivalent.

What's a good leaving gift for a female colleague?

The best leaving gifts for colleagues aren't really about gender - they're about the person. Universally popular options include artisan food and drink, experience vouchers, quality candles, books, and gifts with choice. If you know her well, choose something related to a specific interest. If not, let her choose.

What's a good leaving gift for a male colleague?

The same principles apply regardless of gender. Popular leaving gifts for him include premium coffee or spirits, experience vouchers, quality stationery, and gifts with choice. Match the gift to what you know about the person, not to generic "gifts for men" lists.

Are funny leaving gifts appropriate?

Funny leaving gifts work when humour is already part of your relationship and the joke references a shared experience. They don't work when the humour is at the person's expense or when a novelty item replaces a genuinely thoughtful gesture. If in doubt, keep the gift sincere and make the card funny.

What's a good leaving gift for a boss?

Boss leaving gifts work best when organised as a group. A quality hamper, restaurant voucher, or gift with choice at a slightly higher budget all work well. The most impactful element is usually the team message - a card with personal notes from each team member often means more than the gift itself.

What should you buy for someone going on maternity leave?

Maternity leave gifts should focus on the person, not the baby. Self-care and wellbeing gifts, a gift with choice, a restaurant voucher, or a good book all work well. Avoid anything that makes assumptions about their plans or parenting style.

How do you send a leaving gift to a remote colleague?

Use a digital gifting platform like Huggg - you don't need the recipient's address. Send a gift with choice alongside a personal message, timed to arrive on or before their last day. For remote colleagues, the message often matters even more than the gift itself, since there's no office send-off.