What to Write in a Leaving Card: 40+ Messages for Colleagues

A leaving card is the one piece of writing most of us do for a colleague that they might actually keep. It is also, somehow, the hardest. The card lands on your desk (or the link lands in your inbox), the leaving do is on Friday, and every sentence you draft sounds like the inside of a petrol-station card.

A quick definition, since the term travels: a leaving card is a group card signed by a whole team for a colleague who is moving on — the same thing American teams call a farewell card. Online versions collect everyone's messages through a single shared link instead of a paper card passed desk to desk.

Here is the fix: stop trying to write something impressive and write something specific. One real memory beats five lines of boilerplate. Below are 40+ messages you can use as they are or bend to fit — grouped by how well you knew the person.

The one rule: specific beats grand

"Good luck in the future!" says you couldn't think of anything. "I still use your trick for shutting down meetings that have gone feral" says you'll remember them. Before you write, ask yourself one question: what is the first thing I'll think of when someone mentions their name next year? Write that down. That's your message — everything else is formatting.

Keep it in the second person ("you", not "she was"), keep it under four sentences, and sign your name even if the card is digital. If the team is using an online card where messages are written in private, even better — you won't be tempted to copy the tone of whoever went first.

For a colleague you worked closely with

1. Three years of sitting next to you and I still don't know how you stayed calm through the Q3 launch. The next lot are lucky — and they don't even know it yet.
2. You made the hard weeks feel survivable and the good weeks feel earned. That's rarer than any job title.
3. I'll miss the debrief coffees most. Half therapy, half planning, all necessary. Thank you for those.
4. You taught me more in code reviews than any course ever did — mostly by being kind about things you had every right to be blunt about.
5. The office runs on about six people who actually know how everything works. We both know you were two of them.
6. Whatever the new place is paying you, it isn't enough for what they're getting. It never was here, either.
7. I knew nothing about this job when I started. You noticed, said nothing, and quietly fixed it. I've never forgotten that.
8. We survived three reorgs, two office moves, and one haunted printer together. You were the best part of all of it.

For your manager or boss

9. Thank you for being the kind of manager who took the blame downstairs and sent the credit upstairs. I noticed. We all did.
10. You gave me room to get things wrong and the cover to get things right. That's the whole job, and almost nobody does it.
11. I've worked for managers who read the report and managers who read the room. You did both. Good luck — they'll be lucky to have you.
12. The bar for my next manager is now unreasonably high, and that is entirely your fault.
13. Thank you for every "go home, it'll keep" — and for meaning it.
14. You're the reason I stayed the extra year, and the reason the extra year was worth it.

For someone you didn't know well

15. We didn't cross paths as often as I'd have liked, but every time we did, you made the day better. Good luck out there.
16. Your calm in the Tuesday meetings was quietly heroic. Wishing you a brilliant next chapter.
17. All the best for the new role — the smile in the kitchen every morning did not go unnoticed.
18. We only shared a few projects, but you were a pleasure on every one of them. Go well.
19. I mostly knew you as the person who fixed things before anyone noticed they were broken. Now everyone will notice. Good luck!
20. Short version: you were one of the good ones. Long version wouldn't fit on this card.

Funny leaving card messages

Use with judgement — funny works when it's warm underneath.

21. Sorry to hear you're leaving. Sorrier to hear you're taking your snack drawer.
22. Your leaving card is the first deadline this team has ever hit early. Make of that what you will.
23. I've deleted your Slack messages to protect us both. Go, and speak of this to no one.
24. I have eaten roughly four hundred of your snacks over the years. Consider this card my formal apology and thank-you in one.
25. You can't leave — you're the only one who knows why the Wi-Fi does that. (Fine. Go. Be brilliant.)
26. You're not losing colleagues, you're gaining people who will absolutely still message you asking where the shared drive thing is.
27. You're off to be someone else's "quick question". Godspeed, and may their questions be quicker than ours were.
28. On your first day here you broke the build. On your last day, you're breaking our hearts. Full circle.

Short and safe (when in doubt)

29. It won't be the same without you. Good luck — you deserve every bit of it.
30. Thank you for everything, and congratulations on the new adventure.
31. Wishing you every success in the next chapter. You'll be missed.
32. It was a genuine pleasure working with you. Go and be brilliant.
33. Good luck, keep in touch, and thank you — for all of it.
34. The best of luck in the new role. They're getting a good one.
35. So pleased for you, so sad for us. That's the highest compliment there is.
36. Onwards and upwards — you've more than earned it.

If they're off to something big

37. Watching you land this role has been the best thing to happen to this office all year. Go show them.
38. Some people talk about the leap for years. You actually jumped. Enormously proud of you.
39. This place was a chapter. You're clearly writing a whole book. Can't wait to read it.
40. They didn't just hire someone good, they hired someone we'll be bragging about knowing. Good luck!
41. Ten years from now I'll be telling people "I worked with them before they were famous." Don't make a liar of me.

Putting the card together

If you're the organiser rather than a signer, the modern answer to "who has the card?" is: nobody — it's a link. A group leaving card lets everyone add their message (or a 60-second video) privately from any device, and the colleague receives one flip-book keepsake instead of a wall of near-identical "good luck!"s. If you're weighing up the options, our guide to the best group leaving cards compares the tools honestly — including where ours isn't the right fit.

And if the person leaving is American, or your team is, the same card goes by a different name over there: see what to write in a farewell card and our 50 farewell message examples for another 50+ ideas that work on either side of the Atlantic.

Frequently asked questions

What do you write in a leaving card for a colleague?

Write one specific memory or genuine thank-you rather than a generic wish. A single sentence about a real moment — a project you survived together, something they taught you — lands better than three lines of 'good luck for the future'.

What do you write in a leaving card for someone you don't know well?

Keep it short, warm, and honest: wish them well for the next role and, if you can, name one small genuine observation — 'your calm in the Tuesday meetings was appreciated' beats a hollow superlative.

How do you sign a leaving card as a group?

Online group leaving cards replace the passed-around paper card: the organiser shares one link, each colleague adds their message privately from any device, and the recipient gets every message in one card.