For a leaving gift
A leaving gift with everyone in it
A card goes round the office in a brown envelope and comes back with thirty variations on "good luck". This asks the same people for something they will actually enjoy writing.
Free to make and free to collect. You pay only if you print it.
How it works
One link, posted in the group chat. Each person adds a recipe and a line for the person leaving. We design and print it as an A4 hardback, and you see the whole book before it goes anywhere.
No accounts, no app, nothing to install. It takes about two minutes per person on a phone.
Why this one works at work
Everybody in an office has eaten together, so everybody has something to write about, including the people who barely worked with them directly.
It also sidesteps the problem of buying a personal gift for someone you know professionally. Nobody has to guess at taste in jewellery or whisky.
When to start
Three weeks before their last day. Two if you have to. Announce it once, then let the reminders chase, because the first ask is always followed by silence and the second one is what actually collects the recipes.
Close it ten days out so the book can be printed and in the office before they go.
Who to ask
The team, the wider department, and anyone they used to sit next to. The unexpected page from another floor is usually the one they read out.
People who have already left are worth tracking down for this one.
What contributors are asked
Every contributor gets a prompt with their recipe, so nobody faces an empty box:
- What will lunch be without them?
- Who taught you this one?
- When do you make it?
- What does it remind you of?
What arrives
An A4 hardback book on 170gsm uncoated paper, printed and bound in the UK, with one recipe per page and space under each for a handwritten note. You read the whole thing as a PDF before anything is printed.
Questions
- What is a good leaving gift for a colleague?
- Something with the team in it. A cookbook where each person contributes a recipe and a note costs everyone two minutes, and it is specific to the people they worked with rather than a generic present.
- Can the team pay for it between them?
- Contributors can chip in towards printing as they add their recipe. It comes off the organiser’s bill, and no contributor sees what anyone else gave.
- What if some people miss the deadline?
- You can extend it, and anything that arrives after you have closed the book still reaches you. The blank space under each recipe means latecomers can write in the printed book instead.
Post the link in the group chat.
Three questions and you have a link to send. Free until you print it.