I quit. Here is a gift.

October 21, 2016 1:03 PM

Leaving my job. Love my boss. She is taking my leaving like a champ despite it putting her in a tough spot. Looking for help for a thank you/good bye gift.

I'm leaving the clinic I've worked for the last four years for a completely new adventure. The clinic owner/my boss is an MD who I have tremendous admiration and respect for. Prior to her purchasing the practice we were friends. I still consider her to be a friend despite her being my boss. My leaving has put them in a tight spot, created more work for her, and still she shows me nothing but kindness and excitement for my future.

I want to get her a thank you gift of some sort but I don't know what. She's very busy with the practice, has a family, and has "other" time consuming things to deal with in her life right now. My go to, which would be a spa gift certificate, she literally may never have time to use in the next year. She likes wine (Washington Red variatals in particular), baking (but no time to do it), Gone With The Wind. She's a liberal, feminist, democrat with a heart for social justice. My budget is around $100.

What would you give? What would you like to get? I'm open to any suggestions.

posted by teamnap to Human Relations (9 answers total)

Best answer: Two $50 gift cards to convenient restaurants that would have good takeout for bringing home for dinner.
posted by metasarah at 1:07 PM on October 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

One bottle of a $50 wine, and one $50 gift certificate to the area's best bakery. You might consider arranging for an in-chair masseuse to visit her practice to relieve tension from time to time -- don't know rates but whatever you can handle (if rate is $50, she gets two massages, maybe for the first two weeks you're gone).
posted by MovableBookLady at 1:13 PM on October 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

Best answer: This is an article about female wine-makers in Washington, I'd suggest getting her wine from one of those mentioned with a little note about it.
posted by FirstMateKate at 1:20 PM on October 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

Something really beautiful, but practical for her office (assuming she has one), like a fancy pen. If you give her a gift certificate, she will use it and enjoy it but forget in short order. Something like the pen she can presumably keep for a long time, remember you by, and maybe make her feel a little special when she uses it.
posted by slipthought at 1:37 PM on October 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You could get her three bottles of WA reds at different price points, like $15, $25, $60 and call them Good, Better, Best.
posted by vunder at 1:39 PM on October 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: It would probably be awesome, and a true gift, if you could write something genuinely helpful for your successor. Whether it's a list of helpful contacts with notes about working with each one, a couple of stories that illustrate how your boss gets things done and how to make things go swimmingly, or a set of lunch menus with notes about how to get something healthy and delicious delivered that's slightly off-menu, information that can only come from you because of your particular position and which would be uniquely useful in helping the next person in your role transition smoothly and shine could be really wonderful.
posted by amtho at 1:46 PM on October 21, 2016 [8 favorites]

Speaking as a boss who has externs and other people who are, due to the way the job is structured, only with me for a few years at a time, and so am periodically a recipient of gifts like these, I am always most delighted with gifts like books of poetry or plants or flowers in pretty vases. (One particularly wonderful parting gift I got was some beautiful wooden book ends.). It is just so nice to have something on your desk or in your office that brings to mind your former employee.
posted by bearwife at 1:46 PM on October 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

It's a good time of year to pre-order a potted Amaryllis (or other long blooming plant) online. They generally ship in early December. I've had good results from White Flower Farm (I'm just a customer, not related), but there are lots of places to order them. They bloom in the spring, after you're gone, require little care, and stay bloomed for several weeks.
posted by bluesky78987 at 8:02 AM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Seconding the gift card to a place that has a good convenient online interface for takeaway food... I would check and make sure it's easy to use a gift card for the online payment before deciding on the place.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:29 AM on October 22, 2016