What to write in a farewell message for your boss.

Managers almost never hear what they did well. Their own boss judges them on numbers, and their team mostly brings them problems. A leaving card might be the one time someone puts it in writing.

That’s worth doing, and it doesn’t take flattery. Below is what tends to work and how to adjust your message for the kind of manager they were, with 48 examples sorted by situation that you can use as they are or bend to fit. It’s written for a manager who’s moving to another job or another team. If your boss is retiring, our retirement card messages are a better fit.

Why this card is harder than a coworker’s

With a coworker you’re writing to a peer. With a boss there’s a power gap, even with the most relaxed manager in the world, and it makes people nervous. Some freeze and write “Good luck!” and nothing else. Others overcorrect and produce a paragraph of praise that reads like a LinkedIn recommendation.

Both reactions come from the same worry about sounding like you want something. What gets around it is one true detail about something they did. It’s easy to believe, and nobody reads it as sucking up. You’re also signing next to the rest of the team, so assume their next boss might glance at it over their shoulder at the leaving drinks.

Built around one thing they did

Two or three sentences is plenty. Thank them for one thing they did, mention something you’ll take with you and wish them well. “Thanks for being a great boss” is fine, but “Thanks for letting me lead the client pitch when I was three months in” is the line they’ll remember.

Here’s how that shape looks in practice. Imagine your manager Maria held a short check-in every Friday and once nudged you to apply for a role you didn’t think you were ready for. You don’t have to say she was the best boss you’ve ever had. You just say what she did.

Maria, thank you for the Friday check-ins that never felt like check-ins, and for pushing me to apply for the lead role when I wouldn’t have on my own. I’ll be borrowing your way of running a meeting for the rest of my career. Good luck at the new place.

There’s no “amazing” or “inspiring” anywhere in it. The details make the praise believable, which big words usually don’t.

Where goodbyes to a boss go wrong

Skip complaints about the company, even jokey ones, and anything that hints at why they’re leaving. You don’t know who else will read the card, and the person leaving may still be on good terms with everyone involved. Avoid anything that reads like a performance review of them, since “You were very organized” somehow manages to sound like a mark out of ten. Leave out jokes that only work if you know about their personal life, and go easy on superlatives. Over-the-top praise reads as fake even when you mean every word.

Another trap is making the message about you. “I don’t know how I’ll cope without you” sounds sweet, but it puts the person leaving in the position of reassuring you on their way out. “I’ll miss working with you” says the same thing more lightly.

Thank you messages for a boss

These are for a good manager you want to thank without making it a speech. Each one names a habit or a trait rather than a generic quality, so pick the one that matches what they were actually like.

• Thank you for always having my back, especially the times I didn’t know you did.
• You never made anyone feel silly for asking a question. Thank you for that. It mattered more than you know.
• Thank you for the honest feedback, even the parts I didn’t want to hear at the time. You were right, annoyingly.
• Thanks for taking the blame when things went wrong and sharing the credit when they went right.
• Thank you for treating us like adults and trusting us to do the work our own way.
• Thanks for remembering the small stuff, like my kid’s name and that I’m useless before nine. It made a difference.
• Thank you for staying calm when everything was on fire. It helped more than any plan.

Messages about how they helped your career

If your boss really changed the direction of your work, say so. Most managers never find out which conversations stuck with people, and this is your chance to tell them.

• You saw something in me before I did. Thank you for the push.
• I came in knowing almost nothing about this job and you never once made me feel it. I owe you a lot.
• Thank you for every stretch project. They were scary and they were the best thing for me.
• Your one-on-ones taught me more than any course I’ve taken. I’ll keep using what you showed me.
• Thanks for going to bat for my promotion. I know it took more effort than you let on.
• Thank you for letting me make mistakes and helping me learn from them instead of fixing them yourself.

When your boss is leaving for a new company

This is the most common kind of goodbye, and it’s a happy one for them even if it’s sad for you. Lead with congratulations. A small, friendly nod to their new team is a nice touch.

• Congratulations on the new role! Your new team is about to find out what a good manager looks like.
• So happy for you, and a bit sad for us. Go do great things over there.
• They’re getting a great leader. Please don’t poach all of us at once.
• This is a big move and you’ve earned it. I can’t wait to hear how it goes.
• Good luck at the new place. If they ever need someone, you know where to find me.

When they’re moving to another team

Internal moves are a slightly odd goodbye, because you’ll still see them around. Keep it light and acknowledge that you’ll be crossing paths. Heavy, emotional farewells feel a bit much when they’re only moving two floors up.

• Congratulations on the new team. They’re lucky, and we’re only a little bitter about it.
• Thank you for everything you built here. I’ll still be stopping by your desk with questions, fair warning.
• It won’t be the same without you leading this group, but I’m glad you’ll still be just down the hall.
• Good luck with the new role. Please still come to our team lunches.

If you didn’t work closely with them

Maybe they were your boss’s boss, or you joined last month. Don’t invent a relationship you didn’t have. Short and sincere is the right call, and nobody will think less of you for it.

• It was a pleasure working under your leadership, even briefly. Best of luck with what’s next.
• Thanks for the warm welcome when I joined. I wish we’d had more time working together.
• Your town halls were the only ones I actually looked forward to. Wishing you all the best.

Short farewell messages for a boss

Short is completely fine, especially on a busy card. If you only have room for one line, add their name at the start so it reads like a note rather than a slogan.

• Thank you for everything. You’ll be missed.
• Best boss I’ve had. Good luck out there.
• Thanks for believing in me before I did.
• Your next team is in for a treat.
• You made this a great place to work.
• Grateful for all of it. Keep in touch.
• I learned so much from you. Thank you.

Funny but safe farewell messages for a boss

Funny is fine for a boss, as long as it’s the kind of joke you’d be happy for their boss to read too. Stick to the shared comedy of work, like meetings, spreadsheets and the coffee machine. Steer clear of anything about their age, their salary or why they’re really going.

• Who’s going to say “quick question” and then talk for forty minutes now?
• Thanks for all the meetings. Some of them could have been emails, but you made them good meetings.
• Good luck at the new job. We promise to only break a few things while you’re gone.
• I’ll miss your feedback. I won’t miss the red comments in the margin.
• Your new team doesn’t know your coffee order yet. Train them well.
• Congrats on leaving. Please take the office plant with you. It only ever liked you.

Farewell messages from the whole team

If the card or speech comes from the group, a “we” line works well at the top, with everyone adding their own note underneath. It sets the tone and gives quieter people something to build on.

• From all of us, thank you for building a team we’re proud to be part of. We’ll miss you.
• You made each of us better at our jobs, and you made the job a lot more fun. Thank you from the whole team.
• We couldn’t agree on a gift, but we all agreed on this. You were a great boss.
• The team won’t be the same without you, but we promise to keep the standards you set.
• From the whole crew, good luck, stay in touch, and come back to visit whenever you like.

And here’s what a longer team message might look like for a manager who got everyone through a rough stretch. Picture a boss named Theo who led the team through a reorganization and somehow kept everyone sane.

Theo, from all of us, thank you. You took over in the middle of a reorg, learned all our names in a week, and spent the next two years making sure the changes upstairs didn’t land on our heads. We had our best year because of you, and the most fun. Your new team has no idea how lucky they are. Please keep in touch.

For a boss you didn’t get along with

Not every manager is someone you’ll miss. You still have to sign the card, and you shouldn’t say anything you don’t mean. The answer is to keep it short and polite, and to only write what’s true. You can wish someone well without pretending they were wonderful.

• Thanks for the opportunity to work on your team. Best of luck in your new role.
• Wishing you all the best with whatever comes next.
• Thank you for the chance to learn from this role. Good luck with the move.

That’s it. Nobody reads a card closely enough to notice it’s brief, and being gracious costs you nothing. It also keeps the door open, in case your paths cross again in a few years.

Adding a gift from the team

A boss shouldn’t get an expensive gift from any one person, since it can look like currying favor and puts pressure on everyone else. A small gift from the whole team, with the card, is the usual way to go. Think about what they’ll use in the new role.

For a manager who walks into every meeting with a stack of loose paper, a leather padfolio is a smart, practical send-off for the new job. Add a Parker Jotter pen if you want to round it out, since everyone needs a pen they don’t mind being seen with in a first meeting.

A leather desk mat is another good pick for a new office. It’s the kind of thing people don’t buy for themselves but use every single day, and it makes a bare new desk feel like theirs.

If you know they enjoy a drink at the end of the week, a set of whiskey glasses and stones is a nice way to say “have one on us.” Only go this route if you’re sure it fits them. A wrong guess here is more awkward than no gift at all.

For more ideas that work for managers and peers alike, see our list of farewell gift ideas for coworkers.

Getting everyone on one card

A manager usually has a wider circle than you’d think. Direct reports, people who used to report to them, peers on other teams, and people in other offices who only knew them from calls. A paper card sitting on one desk misses most of them, and the people it does reach tend to copy whatever the first person wrote.

An online card avoids both problems. You can make a farewell card on LittleSurprise, share one link in the team channel, and people sign from their phone without an account. Nobody can read anyone else’s message, so nobody copies the first person’s line, and your boss opens the messages one at a time. If you’re after more general goodbyes, here are some farewell messages for coworkers.