Journal

What to write in a leaving card for a colleague

The card reaches you with forty names already in it and someone waiting at your desk to take it on. Most people write “Good luck” and pass it along. You can do better than that in one line, and this page shows how, whether they are a colleague, a manager, a close friend at work or someone retiring after thirty years.

Updated September 2026

Start with one true thing

The messages people keep are specific. Leave out the general praise and name one thing: something they did, something they were known for, or something you will notice once they have gone.

Instead of:Good luck in the new job.Try:Thank you for answering my “quick question” every day of my first month. Not one of them was quick.

If you are stuck, ask yourself one of these:

Is there something they always say?
What are they unusually good at?
Is there a time they helped you out?
What small habit of theirs would you know anywhere?
Is there something they taught you without meaning to?

Short lines for a colleague

When there is only room for a line or two:

The tea round won’t be the same. Four years, and you never once got mine wrong.
You made Monday meetings bearable, which I didn’t think anyone could.
Whoever gets your desk next has a lot to live up to. The plants, for a start.
Thank you for always saying what the rest of us were thinking, and saying it politely.
I learnt more sitting next to you than on any training course.
You never made anyone feel daft for asking. That’s rarer than you’d think.
The spreadsheet you built in 2022 is still holding this place together.
We’ll be quieter without you, and not in a good way.

For a manager

Thank them for what they actually did. Don’t write a performance review, and don’t overdo it. It helps to name the moment they backed you.

Thank you for backing me in that meeting when I was sure I’d got it wrong. I hadn’t, and you knew before I did.
You noticed when someone had gone quiet. We noticed that you noticed.
Thank you for the chance you took on me. I hope I’ve made it look like a good decision.
Your one-to-ones were the only meetings I never tried to move.

For a close work friend

You can say more, and you can be personal. Remember the card goes round the whole office, though. Keep an in-joke to one line, and save the rest for a message only they will read.

Lunch at half twelve sharp, the lift that never came, and the Friday you talked me out of resigning. Text me.
Who am I meant to raise my eyebrows at across the room now?
You were the best part of most days here. That’s not a small thing to say about a job.

For someone retiring

Acknowledge the years and what is different because they were there. Point towards what comes next. Leave out the jokes about slippers and age: a lot of people retire with plenty they still mean to do.

Thirty-one years, and people still come to you first when something breaks. That says it all.
Thank you for teaching half this building how the job is really done.
Enjoy the Tuesdays. You’ve earned every one of them.
The allotment gets the best of you now. Lucky allotment.

When they’re off to a new job

Wish them well without making them feel guilty for going.

Go and be brilliant somewhere else. We’ll be ringing to ask how you’d do it.
They’ve no idea what they’re getting. We do, and we’re a bit jealous.
New desk, new lanyard, same knack for making hard things look easy.

Funny, but kind

A good joke in a leaving card laughs with them, not at them. Joke about something you both went through, like the printer, the car park or the Christmas quiz. Don’t joke about their age, their looks or their private life. It usually works best as one joke and then one line you mean.

I’d say I’ll miss you, but I still have your stapler, so in a way you’re staying. Seriously, thank you for everything.
Your out-of-office replies were better written than most of our reports.
Please leave detailed instructions for the printer. It only ever listened to you.
New job, same inability to end a meeting on time. Never change.

If you didn’t know them well

You don’t have to pretend to be close. Write about what you saw.

We only overlapped on the Tuesday calls, but you always made the agenda make sense.
I didn’t work with you directly, but your name came up every time something got fixed.
You held the door, said good morning, and remembered my name from week one. Good luck.

A longer message, if you have room

If you are writing a page, here is a shape that works: one memory, what it showed about them, what you will take with you, and a wish for what comes next.

Priya,I still think about the week the Leeds launch went wrong, when you ordered pizza for everyone at eight at night, sat on the floor and rewrote the plan with us. Nobody panicked, because you didn’t. That’s what I’m taking from working with you: stay calm, feed people, fix it together.The new team has no idea how lucky they are. I hope they give you a decent chair.With thanks, and see you for that drink,
Tom

What not to write

Guilt. “Traitor” and “How could you leave us” are meant as jokes, but they can land badly on someone who agonised over the decision.
The reason they’re going, if it wasn’t their choice. Keep to what they did here.
Their age, their looks or their relationships. Not even as a joke.
In-jokes that need explaining. Everyone else reads the card too.
Anything you wouldn’t say in front of their manager. The card goes round.
Promises you won’t keep. “We’ll meet up every month” means less than one true line.
Just your name. If you only have a moment, one specific line beats a signature.

If you’re organising it

A card gives each person a line. If you want the team to have room to say more, Theirs & Ours makes a Leaving Book. You send one link to everyone. Each person chooses a quick message or a longer one and can add photographs, and the whole thing is printed as a hardcover book, with every message under the name of the person who wrote it. The invitation asks everyone to keep it a surprise.

About the Leaving Book