If you're buying for a team that's had a heavy year, you're already doing the part that matters most, which is noticing. The question is what to actually send.
Quick answer
For a team running on empty, the gift that lands best is small, personal, and sits on a desk without asking anything of them. The Affirmation Cards For Work (£13.95) are twenty work-specific cards built on self-compassion rather than forced positivity — which matters here more than anywhere, because people who are exhausted tend to bristle at being told to think positive.
No minimum order, a free handwritten note with every order, and your logo or a bespoke card design available on larger orders. And the honest part: a gift is a signal that someone noticed. It works alongside changing what's causing the pressure, not instead of it.
Affirmation Cards For Work, from £13.95 each. Twenty cards, 85mm x 100mm, printed in the UK on 270gsm sustainably sourced pistachio card from FSC-certified forests. Plastic-free packaging. Written for the working day: “I remind myself that there is always a new way to the same outcome.”
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Buying for more than a handful? Bulk pricing, branding and multiple delivery addresses →
Or jump to what you need
- Why self-compassion, not motivationTwo clinical psychologists, in their own words→
- What one manager foundA team that doesn't talk about feelings→
- Compare the optionsWhat each kind of gift actually does→
- I have a specific situationBudget per head, one person, a sceptical team→
- Bulk, branding and deliveryMinimums, logos, multiple addresses→
- Questions I get asked mostFrom HR, founders and team leads→
About this guide. I'm Rachel Smith, a qualified meditation teacher, and the gifts recommended here are ones I make. I started Give Yourself Kindness after coming through years of anxiety and harsh self-talk with Compassion-Focused Therapy. I commission clinical psychologists and therapists to write for this site, and I've drawn on their work throughout rather than on my own opinion. Where a gift isn't the right answer, I've said so. More about me →
Why self-compassion works better than motivation for burnout
Most employee burnout gifts are built on encouragement: push through, stay positive, you've got this. That's the instinct, and it's a kind one. It's also the thing people who are already depleted find hardest to receive.
Three of the clinicians who write for this site explain why, and between them they make the case far better than I could.
Dr Annabelle Kyle Dortch, PsyD
Clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, specialising in life transitions, relationships, stress, anxiety and trauma
“When we engage in self-criticism, we create a nervous system and brain state that is not conducive to learning or facilitating a growth-oriented mindset.”
That is the argument for kindness at work stated in the terms a business already cares about. She also describes what happens under sustained pressure: “When our stress response is activated, the amygdala (the emotion and crisis center of the brain) is very active and the frontal lobe (where we reflect and make decisions intentionally) is offline.”
Which tells you something useful about what to buy. A gift that needs planning, energy or a good day is asking for the part of the brain that's least available. Something that takes thirty seconds at a desk is asking for what's actually there.
Read her full article →
Kristin Neff, PhD and Chris Germer, PhD
Co-developers of the Mindful Self-Compassion programme. Germer is a clinical psychologist and lecturer on psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School
“The mindfulness aspect of self-compassion helps to break the cycle of rumination” and “research shows that self-compassionate people ruminate less often”.
Rumination is the mechanism most people mean when they describe burnout from the inside: the eleven o'clock replay of a meeting, the email answered in your head six times before morning. It's also the part of the working day that follows people home, and the part a manager can't schedule away.
Read the full article →
Julie Dwyer, MSc, PhD (c)
Health psychology PhD candidate and chronic pain scientist, writing on emotional agility and stress
“The first step towards emotional agility is developing emotional awareness. Identifying and labeling our emotions allows us to understand the root causes of our feelings, paving the way for effective stress management.”
Naming the thing is the first move, and it's a small one. That's genuinely encouraging if you're a manager with a limited budget and no authority over headcount: the useful first step is small by design, and it is one you can actually put on someone's desk.
Read her full article →What a gift does, and what it doesn't. I'd rather be straightforward with you than sell you something on a promise it can't keep. A pack of cards on a desk won't change a workload, a rota or a headcount, and if those are what's wearing your team down, they're the things that will move the needle.
What a gift does do is real, though, and worth more than it's usually given credit for: it tells someone that a person in charge noticed, and thought about them specifically. For a lot of people that is the thing that has been missing, and it costs you £13.95 to say it. Send it alongside the harder work rather than in place of it, and it lands exactly as you meant it.
What one manager found, on a team that doesn't talk about feelings
If you're weighing this up for a workplace where it might not land, this is the review I'd point you at. It's from Krista, who bought the cards for her own team.
“I work in a masculine, blue collar industry where we don't talk about feelings, etc. For Mental Health Awareness month I wanted to remind everyone that it is okay to be kind to themselves in a world that they are constantly working for others. It was so nice to see genuine smiles from some of the team when they read the affirmation cards they were given.— Krista, on buying the affirmation cards for her team
Thank you, Rachel, for helping me make this possible!”
That's the objection answered by someone who had it first. The worry most managers raise with me is that a wellbeing gift will be met with an eye-roll in a workplace that doesn't do this sort of thing. Krista's was exactly that kind of workplace, and what she describes is genuine smiles — not because the cards were clever, but because someone had gone to the trouble.
What tends to land well, and what tends to miss
This is the part I'd most want to give you, and it applies to any gift from anywhere. Nothing here is a rule; it's what I've watched work.
Something small they keep, over something large they consume
Hampers and food are genuinely lovely and vanish by Thursday. An object that stays on a desk keeps saying the thing you sent it to say, every day, for as long as they keep it. That's the whole case for a small gift over an impressive one, and it usually costs less.
A note in your own words, over a printed card
The gift gets the attention; the note is what people keep. If you send twenty of something identical with no message, it reads as procurement. One line in your handwriting turns it into a gesture. Every order here includes a free handwritten note — you write it in the order notes and we write it out by hand.
Nothing that adds a task
App subscriptions, courses, portals, anything with a sign-up. All well intentioned, and all landing as one more thing to get round to for someone whose problem is that they have too many things to get round to. Look for anything that works the second it's opened, with no account to create.
Be thoughtful about where a logo goes
There's a real difference between a logo on the note that comes with a gift, which reads as “this is from us and we meant it”, and a logo on the wellbeing item itself, which can read as company merchandise in someone's own downtime. I can add your branding to the gift note cards or create a bespoke card design — that first version is the one I'd suggest.
Careful with anything that happens outside working hours
Team dinners, evening events and weekend experiences are warmly meant, and they spend the one resource a burnt-out person has least of, which is unclaimed time. If you want to give time, the version people mention most is time back, not time booked.
One thread runs through all five: the gifts that land are the ones that ask for nothing in return. No sign-up, no attendance, no particular mood on the day. If it works on someone's worst Tuesday, it'll work.
Affirmation Cards For Work, from £13.95. Twenty work-specific cards, printed in the UK on 270gsm FSC-certified card, plastic-free packaging. Small enough for a desk, no sign-up, nothing to keep up with, and a free handwritten note in your words with every order.
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Compare the options honestly
Six kinds of thing that get bought for a tired team, and what each one actually does. I've compared formats rather than named brands, because the format is what decides how it lands. Prices are given where I can state them accurately, which means mine.
| Kind of gift | What it actually does | Worth knowing before you buy | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desk affirmation cards for work | Sits where they work. Thirty seconds, built on self-compassion rather than motivation | Works for a whole team at a per-head price. Won't touch a workload problem on its own | £13.95 each |
| A guided journal | Somewhere to put the eleven o'clock replay of the day. Undated, so nothing to keep up with | A bigger ask than cards, and better for one person you know well than for a whole team | £28.95 each |
| Curated wellness or pamper boxes | Feels generous on opening, and looks the part in a photograph | Mostly consumable, so the gesture goes when the contents do. Usually the priciest option per head | Varies widely |
| Wellbeing app subscriptions | Structured content and guided sessions, available on demand | Needs a sign-up and ongoing use. Take-up is the thing to ask a supplier about before committing | Per seat, per month |
| Vouchers and gift cards | Maximum choice, and no risk of picking the wrong thing | Hard to attach a personal note to, and an expiry date becomes one more small deadline | Whatever you set |
| Branded merchandise | Visible, practical, and reinforces the brand internally | Reads as company kit rather than a personal gesture. Better as a logo on the note than on the item | Varies by run size |
Which is right for your situation?
“I have around £15 a head.” The Affirmation Cards For Work at £13.95. That's the price point this page exists for, and it's the one that works at twenty people as well as at two.
“I have around £25 to £30 a head.” The work cards with a You Are Enough Charm (£8.95) makes a pair rather than a single item, and gives them something to keep and something to read. Or the journal at £28.95 for a smaller group you know better.
“It's for Mental Health Awareness Week.” It's run by the Mental Health Foundation and falls in mid-May — in 2026 it ran 11 to 17 May on the theme “Action”, and the Foundation publishes the following year's dates on its own site. Order two to three weeks ahead if you want branding on the notes, or a few days if you don't.
“One person is struggling and I don't want to single them out.” Give the whole team the same thing. It's the reason a £13.95 per-head gift is often better than a generous gift for one person — nobody has to be identified as the one who needed it.
“My team would find anything touchy-feely excruciating.” This is the most common thing managers say to me, and it's exactly the situation Krista described before she bought. Keep your note plain and unsentimental and let the gift be small; the trouble you went to is the part that registers.
“They need to go to twenty different home addresses.” That's arranged by email rather than through the checkout — see how bulk delivery works →
Bulk orders, branding and delivery
Everything a team buyer usually needs to know before they can get a purchase order signed off.
No minimum order
Order one, or one hundred. There's no threshold to reach before we'll take the order, and no account to set up.
Bulk pricing over 20 units
Email the quantity you have in mind and the date you need it by, and you'll get a straight answer and a price rather than a sales sequence.
Your branding over 50 units
Your company logo, or a bespoke design, on the outside of the gift note cards and on the affirmation cards. Allow a little extra time for anything bespoke.
Multiple delivery addresses
For remote teams or home addresses, send the list by email rather than going through the checkout twenty times.
Free handwritten notes
Included with every order at no charge. One message for everyone, or a different one for each person — both are fine.
Dispatch and delivery
Same-day dispatch on orders placed before 1pm. Free 48-hour tracked UK delivery, next-day upgrade £2.00. Free international tracked over £70.00.
Tell me the number and the date and I'll tell you what's possible. Email rachel@giveyourselfkindness.com or use the contact form. You'll get a reply within 24 hours, Monday to Friday, and it'll be from me rather than from an account manager.
If you'd rather just order, the work cards are here at £13.95 and there's nothing you need to arrange first.
Questions I get asked most
What do you give employees who are burnt out?
Something small and personal that lives where they work and asks nothing of them: no sign-up, no schedule, no attendance. Desk affirmation cards at £13.95 a head are the version that works at team scale. Whatever you choose, send it with a note in your own words — the note is the part people keep, and it's what turns twenty identical items into a gesture.
Do wellbeing gifts actually help with burnout?
A gift won't change a workload, a rota or a headcount, and if those are the cause then those are what will move the needle. What a gift does do is tell someone that a person in charge noticed and thought about them specifically, which is often the thing that has been missing. The honest position is that it works alongside the harder changes rather than instead of them, and it's worth doing on those terms.
What should we avoid giving a burnt-out team?
Four things worth thinking twice about: anything with a sign-up, an account or a course attached, because it becomes one more task; consumables as the whole gesture, which are gone by Thursday; anything scheduled outside working hours, which spends the resource they have least of; and a company logo on the wellbeing item itself rather than on the note, which reads as branded kit rather than a personal gesture.
What's a good employee wellbeing gift under £15?
The Affirmation Cards For Work at £13.95 — twenty cards, printed in the UK on 270gsm FSC-certified card with plastic-free packaging, and a free handwritten note with every order. They're written for the working day and built on self-compassion rather than forced positivity, which matters when the people receiving them are tired.
Is there a minimum order quantity?
No. You can order one or you can order in bulk, and there's no threshold to reach before we'll take the order. Bulk pricing is available on orders over 20 units. Email rachel@giveyourselfkindness.com or use the contact form with the quantity you have in mind and the date you need it by, and you'll have a reply within 24 hours, Monday to Friday.
Can you add our company logo or a bespoke design?
Yes. Company branding is available on orders over 50 units. We can add your company logo, or create a bespoke design, on the outside of the gift note cards and on the affirmation cards themselves. Email rachel@giveyourselfkindness.com to talk it through, and allow a little extra time in your timeline for anything bespoke.
Can you send to multiple addresses?
Yes. For a single gift you can add the recipient's address at checkout. For bulk orders going to several different addresses — a remote team, or people's homes — email rachel@giveyourselfkindness.com and we'll arrange it rather than putting you through the checkout twenty times.
How quickly can you deliver?
Orders placed before 1pm are dispatched the same day. UK delivery is free 48-hour tracked, with a next-day upgrade for £2.00. International orders go standard or tracked, with free international tracked delivery on orders over £70.00. If you're working to a date, say so in your email and we'll tell you honestly whether it's achievable.
Will a wellbeing gift seem tone-deaf if we haven't fixed the workload?
It's a fair thing to worry about, and the answer is mostly in how you send it. A gift presented as the solution can land badly. The same gift sent with a note that says you've noticed how hard the year has been, alongside whatever you're actually able to change, lands as what it is. If you can only do one of the two right now, the gift is still better than nothing — being noticed matters more than most people expect.
Will this work for a team that isn't into wellbeing?
Often, yes. The review I'd point you at is from Krista, who bought these for a team in what she describes as “a masculine, blue collar industry where we don't talk about feelings”, and who describes genuine smiles when the cards were handed out. Keep your note plain rather than sentimental, and let the gift be small. The trouble you went to is the part that registers.
When is Mental Health Awareness Week?
It's run by the Mental Health Foundation and falls in mid-May. In 2026 it ran from 11 to 17 May on the theme “Action”, and the Foundation publishes the following year's dates on its own website. In the United States, May is observed as Mental Health Awareness Month. If you're ordering for either, allow two to three weeks if you want branding on the notes, or a few days if you don't.
Can we include our own message?
Yes, and there's no charge. Add your message in the order notes at checkout and it's written out by hand and included with the gift. For bulk orders where each person gets the same message, or where you want different messages for different people, email rachel@giveyourselfkindness.com and we'll sort it out.
Affirmation Cards For Work, from £13.95. Twenty work-specific cards at a per-head price that works for a whole team. Printed in the UK, plastic-free packaging, free handwritten note in your words, no minimum order.
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