The Leaving Gift They Actually Remembered

An ex-colleague of mine used the same specialist lock every single day for over 25 years — a lock that relied on a precision mechanical mechanism.

He would have changed the combinations, cleaned and reset them more times than almost anyone — for a lot of people, a nerve-racking experience, as a mistake can lead to being locked out.

When it came to leaving, colleagues didn't get him a standard leaving gift. They sourced a replica lock, mounted it on a stand with a small plaque.

It cost the organisation almost nothing. But it meant more than any traditional leaving gift could have. It showed that someone had genuinely thought about him — not about what a leaving gift was supposed to look like.

But the Send-Off Is Punctuation, Not the Story

The send-off isn't what makes someone feel valued. That's built over time — through the work, the relationships, and the sense that their contribution mattered.

But the send-off matters. Not because it creates the feeling, but because it confirms it. It's proof, right at the end, that the care was real and closes a chapter.

Leaving cards can also miss this. "You'll be missed!" and "Good luck!" don't necessarily do the job. Specific, remembered details do — because they tell someone that people were actually paying attention.

Another is often logistics — someone's on leave, someone's on another site, the card gets passed around and never makes it back.

After nearly 20 years in office life, I'm now building a company around making a leaving employee feel valued while also trying to simplify the administration of collating colleagues' messages.

Have you ever seen someone leave an organisation in a way that truly made them feel valued — or an experience that fell short? What made the difference?

This is what WelcomeChapter is trying to help with — making it easy to gather memories from everyone, while smoothing the admin process for the organiser.

I wrote more about arranging a colleague's leaving event here.