Gifts for Colleagues in Singapore

Gifting upward works best as a team. One pooled gift handed over at the farewell lunch or the year-end makan avoids any look of currying favour, and a boxed gift set reads as considered rather than personal.

Someone collects on PayNow, someone buys, and the card goes round the floor for signatures. 

With a bigger pot, think about what they will actually use: a voucher for the restaurant they keep recommending, a class or experience they have mentioned, or something for home like a towel bundle that gets used every day. One larger gift usually beats five small ones.

Your lunch kaki is the one colleague you can buy for properly, because you know things about them. 

Tickets to the gig they keep mentioning, a book from the author they love, a box from their favourite bakery, or, if they sleep badly before every deadline, a Signature TENCEL™ pillowcase pair. You can even have their name embroidered with our embroidery add-on.

Skip the parcel and go digital. A gift card or cash voucher lands in their inbox on the day, with no home address to ask for and nothing to collect from the lobby. A mall voucher such as a CapitaVoucher, a FairPrice e-voucher for the weekly groceries, or a Grab gift card for lunch on a work-from-home day all spend easily in Singapore. 

If you know they love home things, a Weavve e-gift card arrives by email too.

A welcome gift should be small and from the team, so it feels like a welcome and not a debt. Their first kopi or coffee on the team, a small plant for the desk, or a room mist waiting for them on day one all do it.

After twenty or thirty years, the team usually pools for something lasting. Think about the time they finally have: a course they have always wanted to try, a framed team photo with everyone's messages on the back, or something for slow mornings at home. We recommend going for a weighted blanket for deep sleep or lounging on the sofa.

Ask about their luggage allowance before you buy. Something light that reminds them of Singapore travels well.

It could be a print of their old neighbourhood, a tin of local kaya or tea they cannot buy abroad, or an eye mask for the long-haul flight out of Changi. A gift card from a shop that delivers overseas also works; our e-gift card can be used with worldwide shipping.

Skip anything with alcohol, and for food, look for the MUIS halal certification mark. A halal hamper, a box of good dates near Hari Raya, a café voucher, or home textiles such as a towel set are all simple, safe choices.

Some older colleagues still read meaning into gifts, especially at a farewell, so check the superstitions and what to avoid first. 

Quality tea, a fruit basket or a sleep gift set are safe choices; avoid giving towels on their own.

The reason was the same each time: a gift card lets you pick out what you actually want. If you are not sure of their taste, that is not a cop-out, it is the gift they would have chosen. Our e-gift card covers bedding colours and sizes, so nobody has to guess a bed size.

Half the gifts our team called their best ever were food: a food basket, and a farewell goodie bag stuffed with snacks and gift cards. Yet nobody picked food as what they would want. Food is a lovely shared moment on the last day, so pair it with something they keep, and check for the halal mark if the whole floor is sharing.

One of us still talks about a special edition of a book a colleague gave her on her last day, the same book she had once borrowed from that colleague. It was not about the price. If you know a small thing about them, like the late nights before every deadline, let the gift say so.

Some of us would rather open one proper gift. Others love a bag of small ones, because you see what each person chose for you. You can do both: pool the money for one main gift, then let everyone add a small pick and a note to the same bag.

One of us would happily take something to display on the desk. Another wants only things she can use. When you cannot tell which kind they are, go for something used every day at home, which also survives the move to a new job.

Exchanges usually come with a stated cap, often between S$15 and S$30, so stick to it: overspending puts quiet pressure on everyone else. When pooling for a farewell, S$5 to S$20 a head is common. 

Check your company's gift policy first, since many firms and the public service set rules on gifts and their value.

Hand a farewell gift over before or at the last-day lunch, not after they have returned their laptop. Birthday gifts go with the cake. For a big pooled gift, start the collection a week ahead so the group card has time to go round the floor.

At a farewell, some older Chinese colleagues avoid clocks (送钟, giving a clock, sounds like a phrase tied to funerals), umbrellas (伞 sounds like parting) and handkerchiefs, which suggest tears. 

Towels on their own can recall the towels given out after a funeral wake, so pair ours with something else or pick a sleep set. No alcohol for Muslim colleagues, and skip perfume, skincare and clothing for anyone you do not know well.