Troublesome staff members leaving

[coffeerevelsrule]

I work for a medium-sized organisation (public sector) and manage a team of 12 in a department. We were/are a close-knit and well-established team. Two recent recruits have never settled in and, despite a lot of support being offered over the couple of years they have been with us, one has resigned and the other has failed probation. They both leave next week.

When I say never settled in, I mean they have made spurious complaints and created a split in the team that has never existed before. There have been personal comments and complaints made about me that have been hurtful beyond belief. They barely speak to most of us, but, as I say, have created a split so there are people in the team who will be sorry to see them go.

I have no experience of people leaving in these circumstances in 20 odd years of a career and in our place people do cards/collections/send emails praising those leaving. I can't bring myself to do any of that. Is that awful? As line manager it would be me to take a lead on it but I really don't want to.

Of course you should still do a card and collection. Signing and contributing are completely optional. Some people may wish to sign the card so you need to give them the option. You can sign it with a simple - good luck in your new role. Whether they receive it in a sneery way is irrelevant.

Sounds like a fucking nightmare.

i had a similar clisterfuck which was my bosses doing but i had to sort it out.

Honestly
Do a card with “best of luck in the new job, @coffeerevelsrule“ so bland and so inoffensive.
Buy a £6 bottle of bad Prosecco and stick it in a gift bag so they aren’t empty handed