Gifts for a New Job or Between Jobs in Norway (and Dealing with NAV)

For a friend starting a new job in Norway, a small celebratory gift of NOK 200–500 is right: good coffee, a thermos, flowers or a candle with a joke about the new place. For someone who has lost a job or is between jobs and dealing with NAV, give your time first and keep any gift practical and low-key, NOK 100–400. Joke gifts about NAV work only for people who are already joking about it themselves.

Starting a new job

Landing a job in Norway is harder than many newcomers expect, especially without fluent Norwegian. Our reality check on finding a job in Norway explains why. So when a friend, partner or family member signs a contract, it is worth marking.

At work itself, nothing is expected. Norwegian colleagues will not give the new person a gift, and the new person does not give gifts either. What you may be asked to do is bring cake at some point in your first weeks, when your name comes up on the kakeliste, the cake rota many teams run. It is a nice way to say hello to everyone at once. Our article on the typical Norwegian workday covers the rest of the rhythm you are walking into.

From friends and family, the classic new-job gift is small and useful for the first weeks: something for the desk, the commute, or the evening after a long first day. NOK 200–500 is plenty.

Losing a job, or between jobs

Norway has strong employment protection, and our guide to employee rights in Norway covers notice periods and what a lawful dismissal looks like. That does not make it hurt less. Being let go, or having a contract quietly not renewed, is a blow to anyone, and harder still if your residence permit or your family’s plans depend on the job.

If someone you know is between jobs, the most useful gifts are not things:

• Your network. A lot of hiring in Norway happens through people who know people. Introduce them to someone in their field. It costs you one email.
• Your Norwegian. If you are a native speaker, proofread their application (søknad) and CV. Small language errors cost foreigners interviews.
• Your time. A coffee, a walk in the forest, a dinner where work is not the topic. A day trip with a thermos is free and does more than most gifts.

When they are dealing with NAV

If you lose your job in Norway, you register with NAV, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, as a job seeker and apply for unemployment benefit, dagpenger. Our guide to unemployment benefits in Norway explains who qualifies and how much you get. From then on, life involves submitting a meldekort (a report form) every 14 days, an activity plan, documentation requests and letters that are sometimes hard to read even for Norwegians. For background on how the agency came to be, see our history of NAV.

NAV does important work, and most people who deal with it get paid what they are entitled to. It is also a bureaucracy, and being inside a bureaucracy while worried about money is draining. The kind thing is to treat the paperwork as real stress, not as a punchline, unless the person themselves has made it one.

Many Norwegians do joke about NAV. Meldekort reminders, case-processing times and letters in dense official Norwegian are a shared national comedy. For someone who has found their footing and is laughing about it, a joke gift can be exactly right. For someone who was laid off last Tuesday, it is not.

How much to spend

• New job, from a friend: NOK 200–500.
• New job, from a partner or parent: whatever you like, but the bag or watch can wait for payday.
• Between jobs: NOK 100–400, practical. Large gifts can feel like charity.
• Leaving a team: the team collects NOK 100–200 each. See our farewell gift guide.

Eight gifts that work

1. Coffee for the new desk

Every Norwegian office has a coffee machine, and most of it is mediocre. A bag of good beans from Kaffebrenneriet or Tim Wendelboe, plus a decent travel mug, is a solid new-job gift. NOK 200–400. Also works between jobs: good coffee at home is a small daily lift.

2. A thermos for the commute or the walk

Norwegians commute by bike, train and on foot in all weather. A steel thermos from Fjellsport or XXL is useful for a new commute, and equally for long walks while job hunting. NOK 300–500.

3. Flowers or a plant for the new desk

A small plant gives a new desk some life. Pick something hard to kill from Plantasjen, or send congratulations flowers via Interflora. NOK 200–450.

4. Dinner, or food they do not have to plan

For someone between jobs, a dinner out on you, or a basket from Mathallen Oslo or a bakery like Godt Brød, is practical without being pointed. It says "let’s have a nice evening", not "I hear you’re struggling".

5. A book, chosen for them, not for their situation

A novel or a book about something they love, from Norli or Tronsmo. NOK 200–350. Not a book on resilience, career pivots or the habits of successful people unless they asked. That reads as feedback.

6. A candle for the new job

For a friend who just signed, the Byvoks Eau de New Job candle is a 200 g soy wax candle with the line "New colleagues. New tasks. Same inhuman amount of coffee." on it, for NOK 499. The limitation: it is strictly a post-contract gift. Before the offer is signed it is a jinx, and for someone between jobs it is a twist of the knife. Full disclosure: Working with Norwegians and Byvoks are run by the same person, Sean Percival.

7. The NAV Christmas ornament, for the right person only

For a friend who has been through the NAV system and laughs about it, Byvoks (same owner, as above) also sells a parody Feliz NAV-idad Christmas ornament for NOK 229. "No forms. No attachments. No BankID required." It is not made, approved or sponsored by NAV, and it does not count as activity on the meldekort. Give it to someone who is back in work and tells NAV stories at parties, or who has settled into dagpenger and jokes about it first. Do not give it to someone freshly laid off and upset, someone whose case with NAV is stuck and stressful, or someone on long-term sick leave. If you have to ask yourself whether they will find it funny, they won’t.

8. A gift card they can spend on themselves

Between jobs, people stop buying small things for themselves. A gift card from Norli or Tilbords is a treat without being charity. NOK 200–400. Avoid cash, which feels like a handout between adults in Norway.

What to avoid

• Unasked-for advice disguised as a gift. CV templates, career books, LinkedIn Premium.
• Jokes about laziness or "living on NAV". Dagpenger is insurance people paid for through work, and the joke has a nasty edge.
• Expensive gifts to someone without income. They create a debt they cannot return.
• New-job gifts before the contract is signed. If the offer falls through, the gift becomes a very awkward souvenir.
• Constant check-ins about applications. Ask once, then let them bring it up.

Related guides

When someone leaves a team for a new job, the old team gives the gift. Our guide to farewell gifts for a Norwegian coworker covers the collection and the speech. For humour that lands in Norway, see funny gifts that work with Norwegian humour, and if the NAV ornament is for an office Christmas swap, our guide to Secret Santa and nissevenn covers the budget rules. For your new colleagues later in the year, read gifts for Norwegian colleagues. And if a long sick leave is part of the story, our guide to sick pay in Norway explains how NAV fits in.

For every other occasion, start with our overview ofgift-giving in Norway.