Custom Coworker Gifts For Desks, Leaving Dos And Secret Santa

Buying for a colleague comes with constraints nobody faces at home. You may not know them that well. It has to be safe for a workplace. There is usually a budget. And it is often opened in front of everybody, at a desk or a leaving do, with no chance to explain.

So the default becomes a candle, a mug with a slogan, or novelty socks. Nobody is offended, and nobody remembers who gave what.

Offices do have something better to work with: shared photos. The team picture from the away day, the dog everybody met on bring your dog to work day, the slightly unfortunate headshot on the company website. A gift built from those is instantly personal, because it could only have come from the people in that room.

If the person is retiring rather than moving on, organising a retirement collection covers how to gather decades of photos from people who have since left.

Secret Santa: their pet

Every office knows whose dog is whose, because the photos come out at every coffee break. A cushion of the dog from their lock screen is the Secret Santa gift that gets the loudest reaction, and it is safe for any workplace.

Leaving for a new job: the team

Nine photos from away days, project launches and Christmas parties, laid out as a grid, with the whole team's signatures on the back. It goes with them to the new job and usually ends up on a chair in their home office.

A work anniversary: then and now

Their ID badge photo from the first week on one side, a recent photo on the other. Five or ten years of difference between the two is usually funnier than any card.

Back from parental leave: the baby

A small cushion with the new baby on it, waiting on their desk on the first day back. It acknowledges the biggest thing in their life without anybody having to make a speech about it.

The desk upgrade

For a colleague who works long hours, a 20 cm cushion of their own children or pet on the desk is a small, practical way to bring home into the office.

The office mascot

Some teams have an unofficial mascot: a rubber duck, a cardboard cutout, a plant that refuses to die. Photograph it and print it, and the in joke finally gets the recognition it deserves.

Most workplaces have more photos than people realise. They are just scattered across different people and platforms.

• Away days, team socials and Christmas parties. Somebody always takes photos, and they are usually happy to share the originals.
• The company website or intranet. Professional headshots print well at any size and are perfect for the joke version.
• Bring your dog to work days and office pet threads, where colleagues post their animals.
• Their partner, for pet or family photos. One discreet message is often all it takes.

Avoid profile pictures from chat and video call tools. They are tiny files that look fine as a thumbnail and very soft on a cushion. If that is all you have, choose the 20 cm size and check the free preview carefully before approving.

• Secret Santa and end of year gift exchanges.
• Leaving dos, when somebody moves to a new job or a new city.
• Birthdays in the office, especially round numbers.
• Work anniversaries, from five years upwards.
• Bosses' Day, on 16 October in the United States.
• Promotions, when the team wants to mark it with something better than cake.
• Parental leave, either before they go or on their first day back.
• The end of a long project, as a thank you from a manager to the team.

For leaving gifts in particular, order a little earlier than feels necessary. Collecting photos and signatures from a busy team always takes longer than the printing.

The leaving card is usually passed round in a hurry, and most people write the same three lines: good luck, you will be missed, keep in touch. A few habits make the messages worth keeping.

• Mention one specific thing. The day they fixed the presentation ten minutes before the client arrived says more than any general compliment.
• Keep in jokes understandable to the person reading. Their new partner or their children will read the card too.
• Write legibly if it is going on the cushion. A signed sheet printed on the back shows every word exactly as it was written, so leave enough space and use a dark pen.
• Sign with your full name. Five years from now, they may not remember which Sam you were.

For the organiser, one large sheet works far better than a dozen cards. Leave it somewhere visible with a pen for a few days, then photograph it flat in daylight from directly above. It becomes the back of the cushion, and unlike a card it will not end up in a box in the loft.

• 20 cm for a desk, a shelf or a monitor stand. The office size.
• 40 cm for an office chair, a break room sofa or their home.
• 60 cm for a team grid or the boss's face, where size is half the effect.
• The back is printed at no extra cost, which makes it the natural place for team signatures.

For a collection, one person orders and everybody chips in. There is no minimum order, so a small team can buy one cushion together, or a manager can order one for each team member at the same price per piece. It can ship to the office or straight to their home, which is the better choice for remote colleagues and for anybody whose last day has already passed.

Office gifts are opened in front of an audience that includes managers, new starters and people the recipient barely knows. A few rules keep the joke on the right side of the line.

• Ask everybody in a team photo. Some people genuinely do not want their face on an object in somebody else's house, and the request takes seconds.
• Joke upwards, not downwards. The boss's face is a classic. A junior colleague's unflattering photo, chosen by their seniors, is not funny to the person on the receiving end.
• Nothing from after work drinks. If you would not show the photo in a meeting, it does not belong on an office gift.
• Do not leave people out. A team photo missing the part time colleague or the person on leave the day it was taken gets noticed. Add them in a grid instead.
• Check the spelling of names on anything printed. A misspelt name on the back is the detail everybody sees first.
• Know the recipient. The face cushion is perfect for a colleague who loves attention and painful for one who hates it. When in doubt, choose their pet.

The best office gifts make the person feel noticed rather than exposed, and that line is usually obvious once you think about who will be standing in the room.

Other guides for workplaces and the occasions that come up in them.

• gifts for a nursing team, where hospital rules change the approach
• photo gifts for an office birthday, when the team wants more than cake
• Christmas presents from photos, for the end of year exchange
• thank you gifts for a teacher, organised the same way across a class