What to Write in a Retirement Card

The card arrives at your desk with a pen clipped to it and eleven messages already inside. You have about a minute, a space the size of a business card, and someone waiting to take it to the next person. This page is for that minute.

Everything below is one sentence long, because that is what a shared card has room for. The lines are grouped by tone so you can match how you actually knew the person. If you have a whole card to yourself and want to write more, the longer messages are in the guide to retirement wishes.

The shared-card problem

A group card has its own rules, and most awkward card messages come from ignoring them.

• Read what is already there. If four people have written “enjoy your well-earned rest,” write something else.
• Take only your share of the space. Early signers who write a paragraph leave the last ten people a corner.
• Sign legibly, with a surname if the company is large. A message from “Chris” means little when there are three.
• Write small, not short of meaning. One true sentence beats three polite ones.
• Do not write private jokes that need explaining. Their family will read this card too.

Have more to say than fits? Put one line in the card and send the rest separately. Retirement wishes for a coworker has full-length messages sorted by relationship.

Warm lines

• This place will not feel the same without you in it.
• Thank you for making every one of my workdays a little better.
• You are leaving a lot of people here who think the world of you.
• I am so glad our careers overlapped.
• You were the heart of this team, and everybody knew it.
• Wishing you a retirement as kind as you have been to all of us.
• I will think of you every time someone here does the right thing the hard way.
• You made this a good place to work, and that is no small thing.
• Thank you for always having time for me.
• Nobody deserves a happy retirement more than you do.
• It has been a joy to work with you.
• You will be missed far more than you expect.
• I hope the years ahead are full of the people you love.
• Thank you for your kindness on days when I needed it.
• The best colleagues leave a gap, and yours will be a big one.

Simple lines

For when you want to be sincere and brief, or did not know the person well.

• Congratulations, and all the best for what comes next.
• Wishing you a long, healthy and happy retirement.
• Enjoy every minute of it.
• Thank you for everything, and best wishes.
• Congratulations on a fine career.
• Wishing you good days ahead.
• Here is to slow mornings and long weekends.
• It was a pleasure working with you.
• Happy retirement, and thank you.
• Wishing you everything you are hoping for.
• Best wishes from all of us in the warehouse.
• Congratulations on reaching the finish line in style.
• May retirement treat you well.
• Go well, and enjoy it.
• Here is to you, and to what is next.

Grateful lines

• Thank you for teaching me how this job is really done.
• I am better at my work because of you.
• Thank you for answering every question I ever brought you.
• You gave me a chance when I needed one, and I have not forgotten.
• Thank you for the example you set without ever mentioning it.
• So much of what I know started with you.
• Thank you for your patience in my first year.
• You backed me when it counted, and I am grateful.
• Thank you for all the things you fixed before anyone noticed they were broken.
• I owe you more thanks than this card has room for.
• Thank you for never being too busy to help.
• You made the hard days manageable for the rest of us.
• Thank you for trusting me with real work.
• Your advice has followed me through my whole career here.
• Thank you for the standards you held, and for holding me to them.

Light lines

Gentle humor that is safe in a card everyone will read. For bolder jokes, and the rules for telling them, see funny retirement messages.

• Enjoy your new job title: none.
• I hear the commute to the couch is excellent.
• From now on, every day is Saturday.
• Please think of us on Monday morning, briefly, and then go back to sleep.
• Your alarm clock has also earned its retirement.
• Who is going to tell us where everything is kept?
• We will try to keep the place running, but no promises.
• You are officially excused from every meeting, forever.
• Out of office: permanently.
• I expect photographs of whatever you are doing instead of working.
• Congratulations on outlasting four reorganizations and one office move.
• The coffee will be worse without you, and so will the conversation.
• Take the long lunch you have been owed since about the first year.
• Do not come back, unless it is to bring cake.
• You have retired the title of person who knows everything.

Sign-offs

The closing word sets the tone as much as the message does.

• Warm: With much affection · With love and thanks · Fondly · Your friend
• Respectful: With great respect · With gratitude · With sincere thanks
• Simple: All the best · Best wishes · Warm wishes · Take care
• From a group: From all of us in Accounts · Your team on the second shift · Everyone at the front desk

What to leave out

• Age and health. Even a fond joke about either reads differently a year later.
• Money. Do not guess at how comfortable their retirement will be.
• Complaints about work. “Lucky you, getting out” says more about the writer than the retiree.
• Anything about why they are leaving, unless they have said it publicly themselves.
• Advice. Nobody wants instructions for retirement written in their card.

When the card is not enough

A card is read at the party and kept in a drawer. For a long career, most teams give something that stays on display as well, and the message on it is shorter still: a title, a name, the years and one line. Retirement plaque wording has examples, and retirement plaques shows the forms the piece can take. We make them in acrylic, wood and metal, with no minimum order, and you approve a design proof before anything is produced.

Planning the send-off too? Retirement party ideas covers who presents what and when.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do you write in a retirement card for a coworker?

One sentence that is true about them: what you will miss, what they taught you, or a simple wish for what comes next. Then sign clearly.

How do you sign a group retirement card?

Keep to one line, read what others have written so you do not repeat it, and sign with enough of your name that they will know who you are.

What should you not write in a retirement card?

Jokes about age, health or money, complaints about the workplace, guesses about why they are leaving, and advice on how to spend retirement.

What do you write if you barely knew the person?

A short, sincere wish is enough: congratulations and best wishes for the years ahead. Do not invent a closeness you did not have.

Is it fine to be funny in a retirement card?

Yes, if the joke is about retirement and not about the person. In a shared card, keep it gentle, since their family and senior colleagues will read it too.