How to Write a Farewell Message to a Colleague — 35 Messages and Templates
Say the thing you would regret not saying.
35 Ready-to-Use MessagesCard, Email, Slack & LinkedInUpdated August 20269 min read
Farewell messages get written in a rush, usually on someone’s last afternoon, usually by people who meant to write something better. The result is a card full of “all the best!” and a colleague who leaves without knowing what they actually meant to anyone.
It takes about four minutes to write something they will keep. The difference is almost entirely whether you name one specific thing instead of reaching for a general sentiment.
Quick answer: A farewell message should name one specific thing about working with the person, say plainly that you will miss them or that they made a difference, and offer to stay in touch only if you mean it. Two to four sentences is right for a card, a short paragraph for an email. Send it before their last day, not after — messages that arrive once someone’s access is switched off often never reach them.
People keep farewell messages far longer than the sender imagines — screenshots of Slack messages, cards kept in a drawer for years. What gets kept has three qualities.
1
One specific thing, not a summary
“You always caught the errors nobody else did” beats “you were great to work with” every time. Specificity is proof of attention, and attention is what people are actually looking for when they read these.
2
Something true rather than something nice
The most valued farewell messages are often slightly awkward — they say something the person did not know, or admit something the writer would not normally say out loud. “You made this job bearable during a bad year” is not a card sentiment. It is the kind of thing people remember a decade later.
3
An honest offer, or none at all
“Let’s stay in touch” is said constantly and meant occasionally. If you mean it, be concrete — connect on LinkedIn, name a month, suggest lunch. If you do not mean it, leave it out. Nobody is offended by its absence, and everyone notices when it turns out to be nothing.
💡 Send it before their last day. Access is often cut on the final afternoon, and messages sent to a work address after that vanish entirely. If you only realise afterwards, LinkedIn or a personal email still works — and a message arriving a week later, when the goodbyes have stopped, often means more.
2. Short Messages for a Card
For group cards where you have two lines and everyone is writing something similar. Add one detail of your own to any of these.
It has been a pleasure working with you. Good luck with what comes next.
This team will be noticeably worse at [thing they did] without you.
Thank you for the patience and the good humour. Both will be missed.
You made hard weeks easier. That is not a small thing.
Good luck — they are lucky to have you.
Thanks for everything, especially the parts of your job nobody else saw.
The office is going to be much quieter. All the best.
Wishing you every success. Please do not become a stranger.
You leave this place better than you found it. Genuinely.
Thanks for always answering the questions I should have known the answer to.
It will not be the same. Good luck with the new role.
Onwards. You have earned it.
3. For a Close Colleague or Friend
When you have actually worked alongside someone for years, a card line will feel like a slight. These leave room for something real.
I do not think you know how much easier you made this job for me. Thank you for that.
You were the person I could say the honest thing to, and there are not many of those in any workplace.
I have learned more from watching how you handle difficult people than from any training I have been sent on.
Working with you was the best part of being here, and I am not going to pretend otherwise in a card.
Thank you for covering for me during [period]. I never properly said so at the time.
I am glad for you and slightly annoyed at you simultaneously. Both are sincere.
You backed me when it would have been easier not to. I have not forgotten it and I will not.
I will miss the work slightly and the conversations enormously.
Let’s actually stay in touch — I will message you in a few weeks, not just say this and disappear.
4. For a Manager or Mentor
Farewell messages upward are trickier: they can tip into flattery, and the power difference makes praise awkward. The fix is the same as everywhere else — thank them for a specific action rather than for being a good person.
Thank you for giving me responsibility before I had proved I could handle it. That decision shaped my whole time here.
You were direct with me when it would have been easier to be vague, and I am better at this job because of it.
I learned how to manage people by watching how you did it. That is going with me.
Thank you for the space you gave me during [difficult period]. I have not forgotten it.
You made it safe to admit mistakes here. Not every manager does, and it changes everything.
Whoever comes next has a lot to live up to. Best of luck with the new role.
5. When the Departure Was Not Their Choice
Redundancies, restructures and dismissals are the situations where colleagues most often say nothing at all — out of awkwardness, or fear of saying the wrong thing. Saying nothing is worse than an imperfect message, and it is the thing people tend to remember.
I am sorry it ended this way. It says nothing about the quality of your work, and everyone here knows that.
This is a bad decision by this company, not a reflection on you. Please treat it as such.
If a reference or an introduction would help at any point, ask me. I mean that as a standing offer, not a card line.
I am sorry. You deserved better than this, and I wanted to say so directly rather than let you leave without hearing it.
Whatever you need — a reference, a name, someone to look over an application — I am at [personal email].
⚠️ Avoid silver linings here. “Everything happens for a reason” and “this might be the push you needed” ask someone to feel positive about losing their income. Acknowledge that it is bad, offer something concrete, and leave it there.
6. Email, Slack and LinkedIn Templates
Template 1📧 Personal Farewell Email
Subject: Before you go
Hi [Name],
I did not want you to leave without saying this properly rather than in passing on Friday.
[One specific thing — a project, a habit, a moment where they helped you.][What working with them was actually like, in one honest sentence.]
I am at [personal email] if you ever want to catch up — I would genuinely like to.
Good luck with [new role or next thing].
[Your Name]
Template 2💬 Slack or Teams Message
👋 Today is [Name]‘s last day with us.
[Name] has spent [time period] here working on [area] — including [one thing worth naming].
[Name], thanks for all of it. Do keep in touch.
Everyone else — say something before [he/she/they] goes, not after. 🙏
Template 3🔗 LinkedIn Farewell Post
[@Name] is leaving [Company] this week after [time period].
[One or two sentences on what they built or changed here.][One sentence on what they were actually like to work with — the part that does not appear on a CV.][New employer] have made a good decision. Best of luck, [Name].
Template 4📢 Team Announcement of a Departure
Subject: [Name] is moving on
Hi everyone,
[Name] will be leaving us on [date] to take up a role at [new company] as [new title].
Over [time period] here, [Name][key contributions]. [One thing they will be remembered for.]
Handover: [who is picking up what]. [Name] is documenting [key areas] before [he/she/they] leaves.
We are marking it on [date/time/place].
Please do say goodbye personally — it means more than a name on a card.
[Your Name]
7. If You Are the One Leaving
Your own farewell message is a different task. It is read by everyone, including people you barely spoke to and people you will want a reference from in five years. Three rules cover almost all of it.
Say nothing negative. Nothing at all.
Even a mild dig at the company, a process, or a person will outlive your memory of writing it. Farewell emails get forwarded, screenshotted, and remembered far longer than they deserve to be. Whatever your reasons for leaving, the goodbye email is not the venue.
Give people a way to reach you
A personal email address or LinkedIn profile. Without it, every professional relationship you built ends at the door — and rebuilding contact years later, when you need a reference or a referral, is much harder than including one line now.
Thank specific people, or thank everyone generally
Naming three people and omitting a fourth who expected it causes more hurt than a general thank you. Either write individual messages to the people who mattered, or keep the group email warm and non-specific. Do not half-do it.
Template 5✉️ Your Own Goodbye Email
Subject: Thank you, and goodbye
Hi everyone,
Friday is my last day at [Company]. After [time period] I am moving on to [new role or “a new challenge”].
I have genuinely valued my time here — [one specific thing you are glad you worked on or learned].
Thank you to everyone who made the last [time period] what it was. I have learned a lot from a lot of you.
[Name] is picking up [your responsibilities], and everything is documented in [location].
Do stay in touch — I am at [personal email] and on LinkedIn at [profile].
All the best,
[Your Name]
Writing nothing because you left it too late. The most common failure by far. A message sent a week after they have gone is still worth sending — and often lands better, because the rush of goodbyes has passed.
❌
“Let’s stay in touch” when you will not. Harmless in isolation, hollow in aggregate — most people receive this from twenty colleagues and hear from none. Either be specific or leave it out.
❌
Asking about their new salary. Curiosity is natural. It is also intrusive, and a farewell card is a strange place for it.
❌
Making it about the gap they leave. “I have no idea how we will manage without you” sounds like a compliment and reads like guilt, handed over on their way out.
❌
Complaining about the company in your own goodbye email. It will be forwarded. It will be remembered. It will reach the person you need a reference from.
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Naming some people and not others. Selective thanks in a group email creates more bad feeling than it creates goodwill. Individual messages or a general thank you — not a mix.
❌
Treating a redundancy like a resignation. “Congratulations on the next chapter” is the wrong register entirely when someone did not choose to leave.
9. Frequently Asked Questions
Two to four sentences: one specific thing about working with them, an honest line about what you will miss, and a forward-looking wish. The specific detail matters most — it is the difference between a message they keep and one more signature they scan past. If you only have space for one line, make it the specific one.
Yes, and keep it short and honest. “We did not work together much, but I always appreciated how you handled the client calls — good luck with the new role” is entirely appropriate. Brevity is fine; manufactured closeness is not, and it is easier to spot than people think.
Not at all. Send it to their personal email or via LinkedIn. Messages arriving a week or two later often mean more than the ones sent during the final-day rush, because by then the attention has stopped and the new job has started. A brief acknowledgement of the delay is enough — no lengthy apology needed.
Acknowledge it plainly, avoid silver linings, and offer something concrete. A reference, an introduction, or a look over their CV is worth more than sympathy. Skip “congratulations” and anything suggesting this might be a blessing — those phrases ask someone to feel positive about losing their income, days after it happened.
Your last day, a brief and positive note on your time there, who is taking over your work, and contact details people can reach you on afterwards. Keep it under 200 words, say nothing negative about anyone, and either thank people individually in separate messages or thank everyone generally — a partial list causes more problems than it solves.
If you are the one leaving, a short post is normal and useful for keeping your network aware of the move. If you are writing about someone else’s departure, check they are comfortable with it first — not everyone wants their exit publicised, particularly if it was not their decision.
DM
DMessages Editorial Team
DMessages produces practical guides to workplace and personal correspondence. Every template here is written to be used as-is and edited freely — the guidance around each one explains why the wording is built the way it is, so you can adapt it to your own situation rather than copying it blindly.
Four Minutes Now Beats a Regret Later.
Pick a message, replace one line with something only you would know, and send it before their last day. That single specific detail is what turns a signature into something they keep.
