Leaving Book

Instead of a leaving card, a book from the whole team

Room to say it properly

A leaving card goes round the office and everyone finds a corner for a line. Here, each colleague chooses a quick message or a longer one, adds their photographs, and puts their name to it. Quick messages are gathered onto pages together, each with its name; a longer one is given the room it needs.

One link, for everyone they’ve worked with

You set the book up in a few minutes and share a single link. Nobody needs an account or an app. It opens in any browser, on a phone or a laptop, so colleagues in other offices, working from home, or long since moved on can add to it the same way. They can write their message, or say it out loud and have it typed up.

Everyone with the link can read what’s been written, like a card that has already been round the office, and every photograph is on the board, so people can see which photos are already there.

Kept a surprise until it’s in their hands

The invitation asks people to keep it from them, and the link is the secret: send it straight to the people they won’t hear it from, rather than posting it anywhere they might see it. There’s no poster or QR code to pin up where they’d walk past it.

If a work network blocks the link

Some work networks block links they don’t recognise. The same link opens on a phone, away from the office network. And if someone still can’t get in, you can add what they want to say for them.

What’s in the book

The book starts with six chapters. For a colleague called Ruth, say, they would be: About Ruth, Best moments, Funny stories, Team memories, What we’ll miss, and Where they’re going next. So the stories that get told at the leaving do end up written down too. You can rename any chapter, remove it, or add your own.

The book lays itself out as a first draft. You move anything between chapters and take things out; you see every page, and nothing is printed until you approve the book.

The front carries their name, the company and their years there, for example: Ruth Adeyemi’s Harcourt & Lowe Life 2014–2026. If you choose, the title page also says why they’re leaving: Retiring, Off to a new job, On to a promotion, or your own words.

Before the farewell

The board is open for 60days from the day you set it up. That’s time to gather messages and order the book. After that, the board and everything on it is deleted.

You can stop new messages whenever you like, then approve the book and order it. You see the delivery estimate for the address before you confirm, so leave time for printing and posting before their last day.

And the collection

Colleagues never pay to take part, and there’s no charge per person. Nothing to pay today. You pay for the printed book when you order it, so if there’s a collection, the book can be what it goes towards, or sit beside the going-away present.

You arrange it. We print it.

You shape the book, approve it, and order it when you’re happy. It’s printed as a hardcover and posted to the address you give.