The collection has closed. You've got £147.50 in the pot and four days until Sam's last Friday. Now you need to actually spend it.
This is the bit nobody helps with. There are a thousand "20 leaving gift ideas" articles online and they all look the same: a Moleskine, a fountain pen, a hamper, a personalised mug. Half of them are sponsored. None of them ask the two questions that actually matter — how much have you raised, and what kind of person is the leaver.
This guide sorts by both. Skip to your budget, then to the person. Most decisions take about ninety seconds.
Before you spend a penny: the four-question test
Spend ninety seconds on these before you open John Lewis. They'll save you from buying the wrong thing.
What's the budget, after fees? Look at the actual amount you can spend, not the headline number on the pot. If the platform took fees, factor that in.
Are they leaving for a new job, retiring, going on parental leave, or being made redundant? The right gift looks completely different in each case.
What's one thing you've heard them mention wanting in the last six months? Even a half-remembered "I really need to replace my headphones" beats anything on a generic list.
Do you know them well enough to personalise, or should you go for something universal? If you barely know them, lean toward a generous gift card to somewhere good rather than a guess at their taste.
If you can answer those four questions, the rest of this guide narrows itself.
By budget: what to actually buy
Under £50 — the small but considered
Don't try to stretch this into a "wow" gift. You'll end up with something cheap-feeling. Pick one object that does one thing well, or a gift card to somewhere genuinely nice. The key is quality at small scale, not a £30 hamper trying to look like a £100 one.
A John Lewis or M&S gift card with a handwritten group card. Universally well-received, never wrong.
A single very nice candle — Diptyque, Earl of East, Trudon. One good one beats three mid-range ones.
An independent bookshop voucher (Daunt, Hatchards, or their local independent if you know what it is). Reads as more thoughtful than Waterstones.
A proper coffee subscription — one or two months from somewhere like Pact, Workshop, or Square Mile.
A really good notebook (Leuchtturm 1917, Hobonichi, or a Smythson if you're stretching) plus a Kaweco pen.
A cinema gift card — Curzon and Picturehouse memberships make great leaving gifts for film people.
A plant from a real florist, not a supermarket. A nice fiddle leaf or a mature pothos in a proper pot.
A cheese subscription from Neal's Yard Dairy or The Courtyard Dairy. A surprisingly cheap way to feel premium.
£50–£150 — the office-collection sweet spot
This is where most UK office collections land, and it's the most flexible budget. You can buy something genuinely nice without overthinking it. Aim for the category of "thing they'd buy themselves but wouldn't quite get round to."
A Le Creuset signature item — one good casserole, not a set. The kind of thing people receive once in a lifetime.
A really nice dinner for two at a restaurant they've mentioned wanting to try. Hawksmoor, Lyle's, Sessions Arts Club — pick something specific to them.
A National Theatre or Old Vic membership for theatre people.
A Barbour or Fjällräven Kånken in their style — practical, lasts forever, looks better with age.
A nice piece of stationery or desk accessory for their new role — a Tom Pigeon paperweight, a Hightide pen pot, a Stilford desk tray.
A wine club membership (The Wine Society, Berry Bros if you want to feel proper, Vagabond if they're into natural wine).
A spa day — Champneys vouchers, Akasha at the Hotel Café Royal, or a local independent if you know one they've mentioned.
A Bluetooth speaker — Sonos Roam, Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1, or a JBL Flip 6 if they're more outdoorsy.
A cookery class — Borough Kitchen, Leiths short courses, or a local equivalent.
A really good pair of headphones — Bose QuietComfort, or AirPods Pro 2 if they're an Apple person.
£150–£300 — properly memorable territory
Now you can buy something they'll keep for years and genuinely associate with the team. Lean into experiences over objects, or pick one really nice object rather than spreading it thin.
A weekend stay at somewhere boutique — Hotel du Vin, The Pig, Artist Residence, or a properly nice Airbnb.
A piece of art — a print from Counter Editions, Eyestorm, or Partnership Editions. Forever-keeper.
An Apple Watch, AirPods Max, or iPad depending on what they don't already have.
A two-night cookery course at Leiths or Ballymaloe — for the team's serious foodie.
A standing desk or really nice office chair if they're going freelance — Herman Miller refurb, or a Fully Jarvis.
A half-day experience — driving (Caterham, Silverstone), flying (gliding lessons, helicopter tour), or making (pottery wheel day, knife-making workshop).
A proper watch in the £200 range — Casio G-Shock, Timex Marlin, Seiko 5. The kind they'll wear every day.
A multi-store gift card like One4all loaded with the full amount — gives them complete flexibility without feeling like cash.
A first-edition or signed book of an author they love, from Peter Harrington or Jonkers Rare Books.
£300+ — the once-in-a-career send-off
Long-tenured leaver, retirement, or someone the team is genuinely going to miss. You can buy something that changes their week, not just their afternoon.
A weekend abroad — Eurostar to Paris with a hotel, a flight to Lisbon, a trip to Edinburgh.
A really nice piece of furniture — a Hay or Vitra chair, a Tom Dixon light, an Ercol piece.
A Mont Blanc, Lamy 2000, or Pilot Custom 823 for someone who actually writes.
A commissioned piece — a portrait, a custom-framed photograph of the team, an illustrated print of their favourite place.
A mid-range Omega, Tudor, or Christopher Ward watch for a proper retirement.
A Michelin-starred meal for two with the wine pairing. Not "vouchers towards" — book the actual table.
A theatre season ticket or opera membership for someone who genuinely loves it.
A bicycle — Brompton, Pashley, or a Tokyobike if they're city-based.
The most generous M&S, John Lewis, or Selfridges card you can responsibly load, with the message wall as the centrepiece.
By personality: the lens that makes any budget land better
Once you know the budget, this is the variable that actually decides if the gift lands. A £100 wine club membership is perfect for one colleague and slightly insulting to another. Match the gift to the person, not the price tag.
The hobbyist (knows exactly what they like)
The cyclist, the runner, the climber, the cook, the photographer. They've already got opinions. Don't try to guess inside the hobby — buy adjacent to it instead.
For the cyclist: Rapha gift card, not "a cycling jersey".
For the runner: a Garmin gift card or Decathlon voucher, not "running shoes".
For the cook: a knife from a real knife shop (Blenheim Forge, Japanese Knife Company), or a Borough Market voucher.
For the photographer: a print frame voucher, a film subscription, a class — not a camera bag.
For the climber: a Stanfords map voucher, a Patagonia gift card.
The aesthete (cares about how things look)
The person whose desk plant is alive, who wears nice glasses, whose Instagram has a coherent palette. Don't buy them anything that comes in a beige hamper.
Diptyque, Cire Trudon, or Astier de Villatte candles
A piece from Frama, Hay, &Tradition, or Hem
A subscription to Cereal, The Gentlewoman, or Apartamento
A handmade ceramic from someone like Ana Kerin or Katherine Mahoney
The traveller
The person who books their next trip the day they get back from this one. The strongest gifts here are future-trip enabling, not "travel-themed".
A British Airways or easyJet voucher
A Hotels.com or Mr & Mrs Smith credit
A really good travel adapter (Twelve South, Native Union)
A Rough Guides or Wallpaper City Guide gift bundle
A National Trust or English Heritage membership for the UK-based wanderer
The new parent
Going on parental leave isn't really "leaving" — but the gift dynamic is similar. The trick is to buy for the parent, not for the baby. They'll get enough baby gifts.
A meal kit subscription (Cook, Mindful Chef, Gousto) — they will not be cooking
A really nice coffee setup or a Nespresso card
A spa voucher for after the baby is here
A book voucher with a handwritten note saying "for the night feeds"
A cleaning service voucher (Housekeep, MollyMaid) — practical bordering on heroic
The introvert
The colleague who always declined the team night out and was always brilliant at their job anyway. Don't buy them an experience that requires socialising. Buy them solitude.
A great book and a coffee subscription
A solo cinema membership (Curzon)
A really nice candle and a Diptyque hand cream
A Kindle Paperwhite or a Kindle voucher
A subscription to a long-form magazine (The London Review of Books, The Economist, The New Yorker)
A really nice notebook and pen
The extrovert
The opposite. Buy them something that involves other people, or that gives them something to talk about.
Tickets to something — a gig, a comedy night, a Champions League match
A cocktail course or wine tasting
A statement item of clothing or accessory
A restaurant voucher to somewhere with energy (Bao, Gloria, Brat)
A weekend escape that includes friends
The leaver-you-don't-know-well
You're organising the collection but you don't actually know them that well. The honest answer: a generous gift card to somewhere that has decent breadth (John Lewis, M&S, Amazon, or a multi-retailer card like One4all). Don't try to fake closeness. The card and the messages are the gift.
What everyone buys
- A generic hamper from M&S
- A personalised mug or pen
- A bottle of supermarket champagne
- An Amazon voucher with no card
- A 'memory book' the team didn't really fill in
What actually lands
- One really nice thing they'd never buy themselves
- An experience that makes them think of the team a year later
- A specific restaurant booking, not 'vouchers towards' one
- A John Lewis or independent bookshop card with every contributor's message
- A handwritten card with one specific memory each, plus a generous gift card
What to avoid (the things people regret buying)
A short list of leaving gifts that consistently underwhelm in our experience:
Personalised anything for someone you don't know well. Engraving the wrong person's name on a hip flask is the second-worst office gift outcome. The first is engraving it correctly with a misjudged in-joke.
Office-themed gifts for someone leaving the office. They don't want a "World's Best Colleague" mug. They want something for the next chapter, not a souvenir of the last one.
Anything from the airport gift section. People can tell.
A hamper if the budget is over £80. Hampers feel generous at £40 and stingy at £100. Above £80, buy fewer, better things.
"Experience boxes" (Red Letter Days, Virgin Experience). They look generous on the box and frustrating to redeem. If you want to give an experience, book the actual experience.
Anything with the company logo on it. They're leaving. They do not want a branded fleece.
How to actually present it
The gift itself is half of it. The other half is how it lands on their last day.
Get the messages first. A digital pot or group card lets every contributor leave a personal note alongside their contribution. The messages are often what the leaver remembers more than the gift.
Don't open it as a group unless they want to. Many people genuinely hate the spotlight of opening a present in front of fifteen colleagues. Hand it to them privately or at the leaving drinks, and let them open it on their own time.
Include something handwritten from the closest collaborator. Even with a digital message wall, one physical handwritten card from their nearest colleague lifts the whole thing.
Don't make a speech unless you can do it well. A short, specific, sincere two-line speech beats a long generic one every time.
A note on the maths
It's worth checking the numbers before you commit. If you've raised £147 and the gift you want is £180, you have three options: top it up yourself (don't), pick something cheaper (sensible), or split the difference (a £150 gift card and a small extra item like flowers or a card). Most platforms let the organiser see the exact spendable amount upfront, so you're not buying based on a guess.
If you've raised more than you expected — say £280 when you were aiming for £150 — resist the urge to spend it all on one bigger object just because you can. Sometimes the right answer is a £200 main gift and £80 of flowers, a card, or a meal. A leaver remembers a thoughtful £200 gift more fondly than a slightly oversized £280 one that feels excessive.
The best leaving gifts have one thing in common: when the leaver tells the story of leaving the job two years later, the gift comes up. Not because it was expensive, but because it was specific to them. Aim for that.
Organising the collection too? Start a Hey Friday pot — share one link, your team chips in from anywhere, and you can spend the funds as a gift card, send it as cash, or use it to buy something specific. The fee is 1.9% + 20p per contribution. No tip prompts.
