Farewell

At my work there’s a high employee turnover.  In any given month there will be a couple of people leaving in search of greener pastures.  In the days leading up to the person’s departure there’s often a novelty-sized farewell card passed around the office for everybody to sign.

There are too many people at work to actually know them all well enough to write a heartfelt message.  There are also lots of satellite offices, and people working on site, so there’s a chance you’ve never actually met the person whose card you are supposed to be signing.

Usually the card is stupidly large too, so it’s impossible to fill up all the space (and everyone seems to write in super-small print, and try to tuck their message away discretely into one of the corners).

90% of the messages are along the lines of:

“Hi Prescott,
All the best for the future.
Dianne xoxo”

But I think that’s kind of boring, so I personally like to make an effort and try to create some kind of a meaningful message for the person.  Unfortunately it takes me a while to plan the words out at the best of times, and its especially bad when I don’t know that person at all.  And you can’t just pass the card on with our signing it; that would be letting whole the team down.

But what can you write to a relative stranger?

     “See you bro, I'll remember all those crazy times we had”
     “We’ll always have Paris”
     “Take it easy with Cynthia.  She’s a loose cannon”
     “Sorry mate, but I’ve never actually spoken to you”

I don't know, but I found an idea here.  I'm not sure I can use it at work, but I think it's a nice touch anyway.