My company has had a lot of layoffs over the last couple of years, which has made for a bit of a mixed bag when coming to farewell celebrations. People who quit voluntarily with notice would get a farewell party on the day before their last. We also had a large number of people whose positions were being eliminated, but they were kept for a few months to help wrap things up, and we had a big party to say our farewells to them.
Unfortunately, not all layoffs included notice, which only resulted in sad goodbyes.
If the person was here long enough and is well liked and is not slipping out under cover of darkness we often go out to lunch, self-paid.
Exception: during the AT&T Trivestiture about 1/3 of our center left at once (including me.) Since that was thanks to a very nice voluntary leaving package, there was an official event where 2/3 of people said goodbye to the other third.
I’d take it as a spiritual sign, your work place is a transition period, and the leaving is indeed a good thing, so this is a celebration on a soul or spirit level.
When my last director left, we all celebrated, but we waited until after he was gone. Probably not the answer you were looking for.
We usually don’t have big going-away parties, but it’s the norm to have a celebratory lunch and an occasional following happy hour after work on their second-to-last day. That seems to have faded away a bit in the last year or two, though.
We usually have cake if the person has been around for at least a year.
One time a few coworkers and I went to a bar to celebrate a coworker’s last day. When the barkeep asked why we were celebrating, I told him it was our co-worker’s last day on the job. He then asked which member of my party was the one leaving, and I informed him that she wasn’t there, we were celebrating because we were glad to be rid of her.
We have an afternoon tea farewell (any excuse for cake) for those who leave.
Someone who’s been on the ward for a long time usually gets taken out to dinner and we chip in for a present. One colleague left to do midwifery, so it wasn’t a case of ‘this place sucks; I’m outta here’. Others leave to travel or to gain experience in different fields. We’re not celebrating that we’re seeing the last of them; it’s a goodbye and we’ve enjoyed working with you thing.
We throw unofficial going-away parties for people we like; the department doesn’t do anything. Sometimes someone gets a cake, sometimes we go out to the bars together on a Friday night. Depends on who the person is.
Well, one disabled, senior citizen employee was forced out with the department citing “budget cuts” (and will be hiring an outside service to take over the majority of her job…), and we were all clucking our tongues about how horrible it was they weren’t acknowledging her decades of service to the department. I talked to her today, and she said the administration wanted to throw her a party so the boss could give a big speech about her “retirement.” She told them forget it, she didn’t want a party from them.
My current job people barely notice. But they are all like super-nerds. They occassionally talk about having a happy hour or something, but usually we just get too busy and it never happens.
My company a few years back, they would have lunches and happy hours for any occassion. It was weird because at one point, people were quitting like every week and I’m like “why are we spending all this money on parties for people who don’t want to work here anymore?” They were a weird bunch anyway. Just way too much time hanging out together, drinking, hanging out in strip clubs, etc etc.
My department is spread out across about 12 time zones, so it’s impossible to get everyone together in one room for an important meeting, much less a farewell party, but normally, the people who have been physically with the departing person will fete them somehow. Usually, they’ll take them out for lunch.
We do this with full-time employees and contractors. A couple of years ago, a fellow who’d been with the company for about 45 years finally retired. We circulated a retirement card and collection via interoffice mail for him, and his direct manager was able to finagle a trip from Minnesota to San Francisco to say goodbye and good luck in person.
Over the years, we’ve been abnormally successful at picking good people, which is good considering how geographically scattered we are and most of us can go for a year without being face-to-face with a manager. I can’t think of one time in ten years that we’ve had a bad apple where we wanted to celebrate their departure after they were gone.
Sometimes lunch. More frequently, a happy hour where we get together and wish the person leaving well. It does depend on how well the employee is liked, though - a guy left earlier this year and I don’t think he had a HH. Or maybe he did and I just didn’t go.
We often do at my present company, depending on the circumstances. Usually it’s out for drinks late in the day (on the company dime), though that’s how we celebrate most things here. We don’t have much turnover and are very small, so it’s usually that someone’s leaving to move out of state or for some other major life change. For that reason, it’s usually pretty celebratory.
Most other jobs, though, the usual practice ranged pretty much from a “Good luck, see ya” handshake to a “Give me your badge and get out.”
