Place I worked at had leaving do's for the permanent staff, where the leavee was usually given something from the employee store -- a CD player or similar -- bought with a whipround from his colleagues and bosses. Contractors like myself, all overpaid cowboys in the eyes of the permanent staff, never had similar do's until one day we decided to have a leaving do for one of our own. We went out back and got a giant box for a 42" plasma TV from the store wastebins, filled it with some junk to make it weigh properly and then we made a big thing about having a whipround to buy our departing colleague this "present" (he was in on the joke) worth about two thousand quid.