The Long Service Index — Personalised Retirement Gifts
The Retirement Gift Co.

Stage 1 of 4

Deciding what to give

What people spend, who gives what, and how a workplace collection is usually run.

Wrapped parcels, a blank card, a leather journal and a small brass clock on a wooden table by a window.

Someone is retiring, a collection is going round, and nobody wants to be the one who gets it wrong. There isn't a fixed rule for any of it, but UK workplaces are consistent enough that the convention can be written down. That is what this stage does: what a collection usually asks for, who gives something separately, when the gift is handed over, and where the customs came from in the first place. None of it obliges you to buy anything.

The reading, in order

And after that

The stage that follows this one is who is retiring: A colleague, a boss, a parent, a nurse of thirty years. Who it is changes what lands.

Written by Craig Fearn, The Retirement Gift Co.

From the journal