A work best friend is a real friendship with an unusual property: it happens almost entirely inside one building, on weekdays, and the two of you have an archive nobody else in your life has any part of.
That is what makes the gift easy and what makes it specific.
The material only you have
Nobody else has any of this, including their family:
- The desk arrangement, and the four times it changed
- The people you both had opinions about
- The project that went badly and the week it went badly in
- The canteen, the smoking corner, the meeting room with the broken blind
- The running joke that started in a status call in 2022
None of it exists outside the two of you, and none of it survives either of you leaving. That is the whole argument for printing it, and it is why this gift has a deadline the friendship does not.
Where the photographs are
⚠️ Fewer than you think, and they are in unexpected places.
Work friendships are photographed badly — nobody takes pictures at a desk. What exists is:
- Offsites and team dinners. The only occasions anybody photographed.
- The team group chat, which has more than the camera roll does.
- Somebody else’s phone. Whoever the group’s photographer is.
- Screenshots. Genuinely — a message thread is the truest record of a work friendship, and screenshots of four or five messages print fine at a quarter page.
Printing screenshots and chat threads →
| Where the material is | What is there |
|---|---|
| Offsites and team dinners | The only occasions anybody photographed |
| The team group chat | More than the camera roll has |
| Somebody else’s phone | Whoever the group’s photographer is |
| Screenshots | The truest record of a work friendship |
What to give
A card deck. 27 cards at ₹999 — one per joke, per person you both had opinions about, per event. This format suits a work friendship better than a book because the memories have no order and no arc; they are a pile of unrelated Tuesdays. Card decks for a long friendship →
A short magazine. ₹499 for 8 pages, ₹699 for 24 — the years, with the projects as chapters.
Prints for the new desk, from ₹270, if one of you is moving.
Sideways is the easy direction
Worth saying explicitly, because everything else in this section is about being careful: a gift between peers has no structural problem at all.
No reporting line, no favouritism, no compliance threshold to worry about. Ordinary rules apply, and you can give what you would give any friend. Office gifting etiquette in India →
The one caution: give it away from the floor. A visible personal gift between two people on a team invites comment from everybody else.
When one of you leaves
This is when the gift usually happens, and there is a reason to do it earlier.
Once somebody has left, the shared material stops accumulating and starts getting harder to gather — the group chat goes quiet, the photographs stay on a phone that has been replaced, and the jokes need explaining within about a year.
Made while you both still work there, it is better. Given at the leaving do or a week after, it is the only gift on that table that could not have come from anybody else. Gifts for a new job →
The version for a group of four
Work friendships are often not a pair. A group of four or five who joined together, sat together, and left at different times is one of the most common shapes in an office.
That group has a harder deadline than a pair does, because it dissolves one person at a time and the material stops being gatherable after the second departure.
A card deck at ₹999 split four ways is ₹250 each — one card per person, per joke, per project. Made while three of you are still there, it is a record of something that will not exist in eighteen months. Card decks as a group gift →
Frequently asked
What do you give a close colleague? Something made from the shared material — the projects, the jokes, the people — which nobody outside the two of you has.
Where do I find photos of a work friendship? Offsites, the team group chat, and somebody else’s phone. Screenshots of message threads work well too.
Is it awkward to give a colleague a personal gift? Not between peers. There is no reporting line, so ordinary rules apply — just give it away from the floor.
Should I wait until one of us leaves? No. The material is easier to gather while you both still work there, and it gets harder within a year.
Book or card deck? A deck. A work friendship is a pile of unrelated moments with no arc, which is what a deck is for.
Part of our guide to office gifting etiquette. See also: gifts for a colleague you have never met and card decks for a long friendship.
For a work friendship: Photo Card Deck from ₹999 · Gifts for a best friend · Photo magazines from ₹499