A coworker is leaving. Maybe they landed the role they've been quietly interviewing for, maybe they're retiring, maybe they're moving across the country. Either way, someone in the group chat has just asked what everyone wants to do about a gift.
Whether you're buying on your own or pooling with the rest of the team, the list below covers ten farewell gifts for coworkers that hold up: nothing joke-shop, nothing that ends up in a drawer. They're grouped by what your collection adds up to, so you can jump straight to your budget.
Jump to your price range:
- Farewell gifts for coworkers under $50
- Farewell gifts for coworkers under $100
- Farewell gifts for coworkers under $200
Farewell Gifts for Coworkers Under $50
1. A Bottle of Veuve Clicquot
A bottle of champagne is the farewell gift that never needs explaining. Veuve Clicquot is the safe pick: rich, toasty, and recognizable enough that your coworker knows the team spent real money on it. It works for a promotion, a retirement or a career change, and it's one of the few gifts that gets used the same week it's given.
Worth checking first: some workplaces have rules about alcohol as a group gift, and not everyone drinks. If either applies, skip to the mugs or the photo frame.
2. A Pair of Serious Oven Mitts
For the coworker who brings something homemade to every potluck. A good pair of silicone-and-cotton mitts is genuinely better than whatever they're using now, costs less than a round of drinks, and gets pulled out of the drawer every week. Practical gifts get a smaller reaction in the room and a longer life at home.
3. A Digital Photo Frame
A digital frame is the one gift that can carry the team with it. Load it with photos from offsites, the holiday party and the whiteboard nobody ever erased, and it becomes a leaving card that keeps playing. Look for one you can add pictures to remotely, so the group can keep sending them after the last day.
4. A Set of Handmade Stoneware Mugs
A pair of heavy, hand-glazed stoneware mugs is the quiet version of this list. Every mug they own has a company logo on it; these don't. Look for dishwasher- and microwave-safe stoneware from a small pottery rather than a chain, and it reads as chosen rather than ordered.
Farewell Gifts for Coworkers Under $100
5. A Ticketmaster Gift Card
If your coworker fills their weekends with concerts, comedy and theater, a Ticketmaster gift card puts the choice in their hands. It's the right answer when the team knows they like live events but nobody can agree which one. Pair it with a note about a festival worth traveling for and it stops being a plastic card and starts being a plan.
6. A Cordless Heated Cushion
A rechargeable infrared cushion — Stoov is the best-known — is the gift for the coworker heading somewhere colder, going remote, or retiring into a lot more time on the couch. No cord, a few hours of heat per charge, and a cover soft enough that it lives on the sofa instead of in a closet.
7. Therabody SmartGoggles
This is the unusual one. Heat, vibration and a gentle massage around the eyes, aimed at screen fatigue, headaches and getting to sleep. If your coworker has spent the last three years on back-to-back calls, the joke writes itself and the gift still gets used.
Farewell Gifts for Coworkers Under $200
8. A Pop-Up Desk Kit
For the coworker leaving to freelance, start something, or work from anywhere. A folding kit with a wireless keyboard and touchpad turns a kitchen table or a hotel desk into a workspace in about a minute, then packs flat. It's the gift that says the team took their next move seriously.
Going the other way and buying for someone joining you? Our gifts for interns covers the arrival end of the same problem.
9. A Flightgift Card
Send them off, literally. A Flightgift card is redeemable for flights with hundreds of airlines, so your coworker picks the destination, the dates and the seat — you just fund the trip. It's the natural gift when someone is taking time off between jobs, moving abroad, or finally using the vacation they never took.
Load it with whatever the collection came to, add a photo and a message from the team, and send it by email or print it for the last day. If you want it to feel like an object rather than an inbox item, here's how to wrap a gift card.
10. A Traingift Card for a Europe Trip
If their next chapter includes Europe, a Traingift card is the more interesting version of the travel gift. It covers rail across the UK and Europe — Eurostar, and rail passes that let you hop between countries on one ticket — which is exactly how you'd want to see the continent with a few free weeks between roles.
Traingift comes from the same team as Experiencegift, Hotelgift and Flightgift, so it works the same way: choose the amount, add a photo and a message, send it by email or post.
How to Choose a Farewell Gift for a Coworker
Three things decide most of this. How close you actually were — a card and a real conversation is enough for someone two desks over, and nobody is owed a gift. Whether it's a group gift — one person collects, one person buys, and the card goes around before the last day rather than on it. And where they're going — a gift tied to the next thing lands harder than a generic one. Moving abroad points at travel; retiring points at time; a career change points at whatever they'll need on day one.
If the leaving do is doubling as a holiday goodbye, our Secret Santa gift ideas and Flightgift's guide to Christmas gifts for coworkers cover that overlap. For a retirement specifically, there are dedicated lists of retirement gifts for women and retirement gifts for men. And if the whole company does this often enough to need a system, Experiencegift for business handles it in bulk.
Farewell Gift FAQs
What is a good gift for a coworker who is leaving?
Something they'll use in the next chapter rather than a memento of this one. A gift card for flights or rail if they're traveling, a digital photo frame if the team wants to send them off with something personal, a good bottle or a set of mugs if you're buying alone on a smaller budget. Anything branded with the company logo is a gift for you, not for them.
How much should you spend on a farewell gift for a coworker?
On your own, $25 to $50 is normal and nobody counts. As a team collection, $10 to $20 a head is the usual ask, which lands most groups between $100 and $200 — enough for a travel gift card that actually covers a trip. Set the amount before you send the link around, so nobody has to guess.
What are some unique farewell gift ideas for a coworker?
The unusual ones on this list are the smart massage goggles, the cordless heated cushion and the rail gift card — all three get a reaction because nobody expects them. An experience gift card works the same way: it hands over a day out rather than an object, and they choose what it is.
Should you give a gift to coworkers when you're the one leaving?
You don't have to, and most people don't. If you want to, keep it small and shared — pastries on your last morning, or a round after work — rather than individual presents, which puts everyone else in an awkward position. Save anything larger for the two or three people who genuinely made the job better.
Sending Them Off Well
A good farewell gift is mostly a matter of paying attention: to where they're going next and to how well you actually knew them. Get those two right and a $40 bottle lands better than a $200 gift chosen at random. If you'd rather hand over the choice entirely, an Experiencegift card lets them pick the send-off themselves.