What to write to your boss

A card to a manager needs to sound sincere without sounding like a performance review or a job application. Specific and short does both.

Forty-five below, grouped by occasion, plus the lines to avoid.

Thank you to a boss

• Thank you for backing me on this. It made the difference.
• I have learned more this year than in the three before it. Thank you.
• Thank you for the trust - I know it was a risk to give me that project.
• You made space for me to get it wrong and get better. I appreciate it.
• Thank you for being straight with me. It is rarer than it should be.
• Genuinely grateful for your support this year.
• Thank you for noticing the work nobody else saw.
• You have been a good manager and a better person to work for.

Boss's birthday

• Happy birthday from all of us - enjoy the day off from us.
• Happy birthday! The inbox can wait until tomorrow.
• Wishing you a great birthday and a meeting-free afternoon.
• Happy birthday from the team. We promise not to email.
• Have a brilliant birthday - you have earned the cake.

Boss leaving or moving on

• Thank you for everything - the new team have no idea how lucky they are.
• Good luck in the new role. You will be missed here more than you think.
• Thank you for making this a place people wanted to come to.
• You set the standard. We will do our best to keep it.
• All the best for what comes next. Keep in touch.
• Sorry to see you go, glad for you all the same.

Promotion or new role

• Congratulations - completely deserved and long overdue.
• Well done on the promotion. Nobody who has worked with you is surprised.
• Congratulations on the new role. They chose well.
• Delighted for you. Enjoy it properly before the work starts.

Boss retiring

• Thank you for a career's worth of good sense. Enjoy every minute of the retirement.
• Happy retirement - the emails stop today, and that is the point.
• Thank you for everything you taught us, most of it not in the job description.
• Enjoy the time back. You have more than earned it.

Christmas and end of year

• Merry Christmas and thank you for a good year.
• Wishing you a proper break over Christmas - the actual kind, with your phone off.
• Happy Christmas from the team. Thank you for everything this year.
• Season's greetings, and thank you for steering us through it.

Lines to avoid

• Anything about pay, promotion or workload - a card is not the place.
• Inside jokes that half the signers will not understand.
• Over-the-top praise. It reads as angling, not thanking.
• 'Best boss ever' if it is a group card - someone always disagrees.

Browse all greetings cards

How to write it so it lands

• Name one specific thing. Generic praise in a work card reads as filler.
• Never raise anything you want from them. Keep the card and the ask separate.

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Frequently asked questions

How formal should a card to a boss be?

Slightly warmer than an email, cooler than a card to a friend. One specific thing they did, one sentence of thanks, your name.

What do I write in a group card for a manager?

Two lines, not a paragraph. Everyone else has to fit on the same page, and short entries read better next to each other.