What to Write in a New Job Card for a Colleague
Lines for a colleague you knew well and one you barely worked with, how to handle a group card so it does not become thirty signatures, and what to write for someone's first job.
- Write about the work rather than the leaving. A new job card that dwells on the gap they leave puts a weight on somebody in their first week somewhere new.
- Name one specific thing they did. In a group card, thirty specific lines are worth more than thirty signatures and cost the same effort.
- Do not make a leaving card about how much worse things will be. It puts a weight on somebody who may already be uneasy about going.
- For a first job, say something about them rather than about the role. They have no work history yet, so the encouragement has to come from somewhere else.
A new job card is doing two jobs at once. It congratulates somebody on the thing that happened, and it tells them what they were like to work with.
The second one is the message they keep. People reread leaving cards years later, and what they look for is not the good luck.
The structure
- Congratulate the job, briefly.
- Say one specific thing about working with them.
- A line about the future.
- Sign it so they know who you are.
Step two is the card. Everything else is packaging.
Say something specific
The difference between a card that gets kept and one that gets recycled is one sentence.
- You were the only person who answered emails on a Friday afternoon and I noticed every time.
- Thank you for the Preston job. That would not have happened without you and everybody here knows it.
- You made my first month here far less frightening than it should have been.
- I have learned more from watching you handle difficult clients than from any training we have ever been sent on.
Generic praise is invisible. A named project or a named kindness is not.
For a colleague leaving
- Congratulations, and they are extremely lucky. Do not forget us.
- Well deserved. It has been a genuine pleasure and I mean that in a non-card way.
- Good luck. Thanks for four years of covering for me on Fridays.
- Gutted for us, delighted for you.
That last construction is the most useful phrase in leaving cards. It gives the person permission to be pleased, which somebody leaving a job they liked often needs.
For a friend starting a new job
More direct, and you can acknowledge the nerves.
- You will be great, and you are allowed to be terrified for the first fortnight.
- Congratulations. Ring me after day one and tell me everything.
- They have no idea what they have just hired. Good luck.
For someone's first job
There is no work history to draw on, so say something about the person instead.
- You are going to be very good at this. Ask a lot of questions and do not apologize for any of them.
- Congratulations on the first one. Keep the payslip.
- Nobody knows what they are doing in the first year, including the people who look like they do.
For a boss or a manager
Specific and slightly more formal, and this is the moment to say the thing you would not say day to day.
- Thank you for backing me on the restructure when it would have been easier not to.
- You are the best manager I have had and I have had a lot of them.
- Thanks for making this a place worth turning up to.
People keep these permanently. A manager rarely hears any of it while they are still in the job.
For a group card
The failure mode is thirty signatures under a printed message.
Write one specific line rather than adding to a chorus of good lucks. If everybody does that, the card becomes the most valuable thing they take with them, because it is thirty separate pieces of evidence about who they were at work.
If you are organizing it, ask people for one specific memory rather than passing it round silently. It changes the whole card.
What to avoid
- Making it about how much worse things will be. A little is affectionate; a lot puts a weight on somebody who may already be uneasy about going.
- In-jokes in a card the whole office will see.
- Anything about the old employer that they would not want a new colleague reading.
- A signature with no context. Add where you sat or what you worked on together.
- Advice. They did not ask.
Sign offs
- Good luck, really
- All the best
- Keep in touch, and mean it
- Go well
- From all of us in Accounts
When the card is part of a leaving gift
For somebody who has been there a long time, the card is usually attached to something from everybody. The specifics people wrote in the card are exactly the material for [a song about them](/create?occasion=new job): the years, the running joke, the thing they always said in meetings.
Our guides to new job gift ideas, a leaving gift for a colleague and a custom song for a new job cover the options, and what to write in a going away card covers the version where somebody is leaving the area rather than the job.
For every other occasion, our what to write hub has the wording.
Frequently asked questions
What do you write in a new job card?
Congratulate the job briefly, then say one specific thing about what they were like to work with. The second part is what people keep and reread years later, and generic praise is invisible.
What do you write in a leaving card for a colleague?
Name a specific project or a specific kindness. Gutted for us, delighted for you is the single most useful phrase, because it gives someone permission to be pleased about leaving a job they liked.
What do you write in a group leaving card?
One specific line of your own rather than a signature under a printed message. Thirty specific lines make the card the most valuable thing the person takes with them, and they cost the same effort as thirty signatures.
What do you write to someone starting their first job?
Say something about them rather than about the role, since there is no work history yet. Telling them nobody knows what they are doing in the first year, including the people who look like they do, is genuinely reassuring.
What should you not write in a work leaving card?
Anything about how much worse things will be without them beyond a light line, in-jokes the whole office will read, anything about the employer they would not want a new colleague seeing, and advice they did not ask for.