‘What’s the worst leaving gift you’ve received?’ – 22 people who ended up sorely disappointed by the office whip round
Leaving a job is usually a cause for celebration, whether you’re retiring, going on maternity leave, or simply moving on to pastures new. You usually get a card, a cake and, if you’re lucky, a present. Or rather, if you’re lucky, a good present, because it turns out that some people end up with a really terrible gift.
They’ve been chatting about this on the CasualUK subreddit after TedLassosMom posted this:
‘What is the worst leaving gift you’ve received?’
And they started with an example of their own.
‘After five years I’ve finally decided it was time for me to sit behind a new desk in a new office doing the same thing.
‘My team of wonderful colleagues, whole 50 of them, decided to do a whip around for a leaving present after all I had been with the company a long time, so read the email they forgot to take me out of.
‘On Friday I was presented with my leaving gift and a good luck card, it was a £13 bottle of Supermarket wine, that may or may not have been a regift.
‘So as I am sipping this bottle of vinegar, it made me wonder, aside of a pat on the back and a mind how you go, what else have people received as their leaving gifts that they of course are very grateful for?’
And this sad story prompted lots of other people to share their own disappointments…
1.
‘I know someone who got a gift card, with nothing on it.’
–r_Coolspot
2.
‘I left a job at a birthday card retailer where I only really got on with the person that worked weekends with me. The rest of the team, including the management, couldn’t have given less of a toss.
‘I was pretty surprised to receive anything from them tbf, but what I did get was all sale stock from the job! I got a box of nearly out of date Lindor and a mug with a letter K on it. I don’t have a K in my name anywhere!’
–PrettyDemented
3.
‘A colleague was accepted for voluntary redundancy recently. Her boss is an absolute wally and gave her a bottle of £10 Prosecco and a card in front of everyone at the leaving lunch. She doesn’t drink alcohol. 35 years service and thats that! Thank God her redundancy payoff was decent.’
–No_Art_1977
4.
‘My best gift was also the worst gift. It was an expensive bottle of sparkling rose and it made me realise how crap the cheap stuff tastes in comparison. I went to buy myself a bottle and nearly had a heart attack.’
–MapOfIllHealth
5.
‘While not technically a gift (because it wasn’t) the worst leaving gift I’ve received is being shouted at by two managers because they didn’t read my notice letter. It was actually a great gift, because it confirmed I’d made the right decision after 9 years working there that I was just done, emotionally and physically drained from the crap.’
–Own-Dragonfly-942
6.
‘Not me, but one I witnessed. Office dickhead was leaving and HR sent the email asking for people to chip in. No one did. A pleading email went around again that basically said ‘Guys! This is ridiculous! Can you please donate something?’. Still no one donated.
‘There was also a card which HR had to go around and force people to sign, but it was just filled with names (No good lucks or best wishes) The manager had to pay for the gift all by himself.
‘It says a lot when you work in a building with 50 people and not one of them likes you enough to throw in £5 for a leaving gift.’
–soverytiiiired
7.
‘I left a job after 9 years. I requested that instead of a gift, they donate to a childhood cancer charity. I was leaving because of my boss. It was a synergistic relationship – he loved to see women cry and I was all too ready to oblige.
‘On my last day…nothing. Not a card, not an email, absolutely zero acknowledgment. I just walked out. Turns out, he told people that I wanted ‘nothing’, and the fucker was so into hurting me that he wouldn’t even help kids with cancer.
‘But fuck him. Word got around, and a colleague from a wealthy family made a £20,000 donation, then a stranger matched it. I may not have had my card and cake, but kids with cancer got 40k and my boss was publicly embarrassed.’
–nabbitnabbitnabbit
8.
‘I got a £9 bottle of ‘British wine’, presumably a £ spent for each year of service.’
–Sweaty_Abalone_8053
9.
‘There’ve been a few, but the worst was probably receiving a bunch of flowers delivered to reception with an envelope, which turned out to contain the receipt for the flowers, followed by an email from my boss asking me to give them the receipt so they could expense it. No card or mark of my leaving from the team at all.’
–katig
10.
‘I left a job six months after my dad died and a week after my 30th birthday after eight years working there and got sweet FA, apart from a card that had gone round where someone had kindly written ‘What a perfect excuse for a pretend midlife crisis’. I have no idea who but it still makes my blood boil.’
–Longjumping-Act9653
11.
‘I got the usual things for leaving my last job: A card, sweets… and a box of condoms. I’m still not sure why.’
–Poggle8472
12.
‘A gift card for the company I was being made redundant from.’
–CalmStomach3