Anonymous wrote:My dad was retired military. He had a large office full of plaques and certificates on the wall (over 30 of them) from his years in the navy and government contracting. We “donated” all of them through an estate company. No one wanted them even the one from his retirement ceremony. I have no idea what relatives are supposed to do with these things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, colleagues usually sign a giant version of the agency's seal, which is then framed.

What is odd is that we haven't celebrated anyone who retired since DRP. So senior people are just disappearing. Some do invite us to a last-minute after-work happy hour.

I was a fairly senior person who took the first DRP (I was planning to retire this year anyway.) On my last day in the office I ordered up a massive trash can and basically dumped my office. This included numerous awards/plaques/citations etc. As I was doing this, my director (who was a big reason why I was planning to retire) stopped by and asked if I wanted a party "so I could get my retirement plaque". It took all I had not to laugh out loud and told him no thanks I'm good.

I went to lunch with a couple of my favorite coworkers and called it a career. I don't didn't want or need any more stuff at this point in my life.

What did you do with the trash can?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody knows what to do anymore.

People miss significant gifts like watches.

Most retirement presents aren't useful - except for gift cards.

My team did give an Apple Watch to a guy that was retiring after 35-40 years. They had collected a lot of cash.

Sometimes the party is the best present. A lot of people get no recognition.

I just retire from the govt. and got a plaque. I appreciate the sentiment but what the heck? Am I supposed to hang it in my home? Nope. It is hiding in my
Closet along with the other plaques I received. Just give me a card with some thoughtful notes and a nice coffee gathering in the morning.

That's the thing, there is no thought/ sentiment behind it because everyone receives a plaque. At this point, it screams box checking.

So, as somebody who has had to organize dozens of farewell parties/gifts for employees over the years - sorry, but the exercise is not for you, it's for the office. People want to "do something" and feel that something will be done for them when they leave. That's why you get a plaque.

I realize you'd probably like a gift card, but your colleagues and my boss think that's too impersonal (too easy) so we don't do that.

You're not getting a thoughtful personal gift even if we have a lot of money collected because (a) I am organizing this on top of my real job and I'm busy, and (b) I have to think about the expectations being set / already set in past years, in the sense that one employee can't be seen to get a significantly nicer or more thoughtful gift than another employee. If we collect more than the plaque costs, you get nicer food at the party. If we collect less, I make up the difference out of my own pocket.

So stop organizing if you can’t be bothered to buy people anything other than a hunk of crap. Better to give nothing.

The goal is not to give the person a gift. The point is the demonstration for other people that milestones are recognized. Bluntly, the preferences of the person leaving are not as important as those of the people staying.

Boss organizes and subsidizes it because it looks like low morale if the office does nothing, and because one of the supervisor performance categories is recognizing and rewarding people. If they thought they could get away with a gift card, they would.

That doesn't mean we didn't like you! We probably did. But you would get the plaque and party whether we did or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody knows what to do anymore.

People miss significant gifts like watches.

Most retirement presents aren't useful - except for gift cards.

My team did give an Apple Watch to a guy that was retiring after 35-40 years. They had collected a lot of cash.

Sometimes the party is the best present. A lot of people get no recognition.

I just retire from the govt. and got a plaque. I appreciate the sentiment but what the heck? Am I supposed to hang it in my home? Nope. It is hiding in my
Closet along with the other plaques I received. Just give me a card with some thoughtful notes and a nice coffee gathering in the morning.

That's the thing, there is no thought/ sentiment behind it because everyone receives a plaque. At this point, it screams box checking.

So, as somebody who has had to organize dozens of farewell parties/gifts for employees over the years - sorry, but the exercise is not for you, it's for the office. People want to "do something" and feel that something will be done for them when they leave. That's why you get a plaque.

I realize you'd probably like a gift card, but your colleagues and my boss think that's too impersonal (too easy) so we don't do that.

You're not getting a thoughtful personal gift even if we have a lot of money collected because (a) I am organizing this on top of my real job and I'm busy, and (b) I have to think about the expectations being set / already set in past years, in the sense that one employee can't be seen to get a significantly nicer or more thoughtful gift than another employee. If we collect more than the plaque costs, you get nicer food at the party. If we collect less, I make up the difference out of my own pocket.

You and your boss suck. You think you are fooling anyone with this attitude? I’m too busy to spend five minutes to think about a more meaningful gift than a plaque that goes straight into a dumpster after I worked for your company for decades? Also pretty weird that you make up the difference out of your pocket. Your boss told you to do that?

I'm government, and I assume OP is too since they mentioned challenge coins. All gifts are out of pocket since no government funds may be spent on stuff like that. We pass the hat for voluntary donations and supervisors usually give a little more to make up for people who didn't give.

Anonymous wrote:My dad was retired military. He had a large office full of plaques and certificates on the wall (over 30 of them) from his years in the navy and government contracting. We “donated” all of them through an estate company. No one wanted them even the one from his retirement ceremony. I have no idea what relatives are supposed to do with these things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, colleagues usually sign a giant version of the agency's seal, which is then framed.

What is odd is that we haven't celebrated anyone who retired since DRP. So senior people are just disappearing. Some do invite us to a last-minute after-work happy hour.

I was a fairly senior person who took the first DRP (I was planning to retire this year anyway.) On my last day in the office I ordered up a massive trash can and basically dumped my office. This included numerous awards/plaques/citations etc. As I was doing this, my director (who was a big reason why I was planning to retire) stopped by and asked if I wanted a party "so I could get my retirement plaque". It took all I had not to laugh out loud and told him no thanks I'm good.

I went to lunch with a couple of my favorite coworkers and called it a career. I don't didn't want or need any more stuff at this point in my life.

What did you do with the trash can?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've found that people are really resistant to forgoing a gift altogether, for example to have a nice party instead.
I agree that nobody knows what to do with plaques, but better gifts are significantly more expensive - e.g., a nice little clock is $200 while the plaque was $65 and since we are paying for it out of pocket ...

Just donate a bit more and get a gift card for $100.at least. It's not worth spending $60 for a plaque.

Plaques are not $65. At least not the ones with wording. They run about $200 if they are custom made.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody knows what to do anymore.

People miss significant gifts like watches.

Most retirement presents aren't useful - except for gift cards.

My team did give an Apple Watch to a guy that was retiring after 35-40 years. They had collected a lot of cash.

Sometimes the party is the best present. A lot of people get no recognition.

I just retire from the govt. and got a plaque. I appreciate the sentiment but what the heck? Am I supposed to hang it in my home? Nope. It is hiding in my
Closet along with the other plaques I received. Just give me a card with some thoughtful notes and a nice coffee gathering in the morning.

That's the thing, there is no thought/ sentiment behind it because everyone receives a plaque. At this point, it screams box checking.

So, as somebody who has had to organize dozens of farewell parties/gifts for employees over the years - sorry, but the exercise is not for you, it's for the office. People want to "do something" and feel that something will be done for them when they leave. That's why you get a plaque.

I realize you'd probably like a gift card, but your colleagues and my boss think that's too impersonal (too easy) so we don't do that.

You're not getting a thoughtful personal gift even if we have a lot of money collected because (a) I am organizing this on top of my real job and I'm busy, and (b) I have to think about the expectations being set / already set in past years, in the sense that one employee can't be seen to get a significantly nicer or more thoughtful gift than another employee. If we collect more than the plaque costs, you get nicer food at the party. If we collect less, I make up the difference out of my own pocket.

So stop organizing if you can’t be bothered to buy people anything other than a hunk of crap. Better to give nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, colleagues usually sign a giant version of the agency's seal, which is then framed.

What is odd is that we haven't celebrated anyone who retired since DRP. So senior people are just disappearing. Some do invite us to a last-minute after-work happy hour.

I was a fairly senior person who took the first DRP (I was planning to retire this year anyway.) On my last day in the office I ordered up a massive trash can and basically dumped my office. This included numerous awards/plaques/citations etc. As I was doing this, my director (who was a big reason why I was planning to retire) stopped by and asked if I wanted a party "so I could get my retirement plaque". It took all I had not to laugh out loud and told him no thanks I'm good.

I went to lunch with a couple of my favorite coworkers and called it a career. I don't didn't want or need any more stuff at this point in my life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody knows what to do anymore.

People miss significant gifts like watches.

Most retirement presents aren't useful - except for gift cards.

My team did give an Apple Watch to a guy that was retiring after 35-40 years. They had collected a lot of cash.

Sometimes the party is the best present. A lot of people get no recognition.

I just retire from the govt. and got a plaque. I appreciate the sentiment but what the heck? Am I supposed to hang it in my home? Nope. It is hiding in my
Closet along with the other plaques I received. Just give me a card with some thoughtful notes and a nice coffee gathering in the morning.

That's the thing, there is no thought/ sentiment behind it because everyone receives a plaque. At this point, it screams box checking.

So, as somebody who has had to organize dozens of farewell parties/gifts for employees over the years - sorry, but the exercise is not for you, it's for the office. People want to "do something" and feel that something will be done for them when they leave. That's why you get a plaque.

I realize you'd probably like a gift card, but your colleagues and my boss think that's too impersonal (too easy) so we don't do that.

You're not getting a thoughtful personal gift even if we have a lot of money collected because (a) I am organizing this on top of my real job and I'm busy, and (b) I have to think about the expectations being set / already set in past years, in the sense that one employee can't be seen to get a significantly nicer or more thoughtful gift than another employee. If we collect more than the plaque costs, you get nicer food at the party. If we collect less, I make up the difference out of my own pocket.

You and your boss suck. You think you are fooling anyone with this attitude? I’m too busy to spend five minutes to think about a more meaningful gift than a plaque that goes straight into a dumpster after I worked for your company for decades? Also pretty weird that you make up the difference out of your pocket. Your boss told you to do that?