Stuck on the leaving card? Borrow a message
Choose the occasion, who they are to you, and the tone you're after. Every message was written for that exact situation — take one, make it yours.
Thank you for making this job worth doing well.
I remember my first week, certain I was out of my depth. You didn't tell me I was doing fine — you sat down, went through it properly, and showed me I could figure it out. I've carried that with me ever since.
There's a moment in most careers when someone more senior takes a chance on you. You were that person for me, and I haven't forgotten it.
Not every boss champions the people under them. You did, consistently, and it made a genuine difference to what I thought I could achieve. Thank you for that.
You had a talent for knowing when someone needed pushing and when they needed leaving alone. Not many managers get that balance right. You did.
You never took credit you didn't earn and never let someone else take the blame they didn't deserve. In my experience, that puts you in a very small category.
Writing it for a real leaver? Put it in a Gratillo send-off — everyone's messages, videos and the collection in one link.
How do I make a borrowed message feel personal?
Swap one general phrase for one specific memory — a project you shared, a habit of theirs everyone knew, the thing they taught you. A single concrete detail does more than three adjectives. Then read it aloud once: if it doesn't sound like you, soften a word until it does.
What should I avoid writing in a farewell card?
Avoid anything that reads as a verdict on their leaving — no "finally escaping!" unless you're certain it lands, nothing about their pay, their manager, or the role they're going to. When in doubt, warmth plus one specific memory is never wrong and never ages badly.
How long should a leaving message be?
A sentence or two is genuinely enough — most of the best messages in any leaving card are short. Length adds nothing on its own; specificity does. If you have a story worth telling, three or four sentences is fine. Past that, save it for the pub.