Retirement quotes

Retirement cards get passed round an office and read by forty people, so the opening line matters more than usual.

Fifty five quotes below, from the safely funny to the genuinely warm, plus a set built for reading aloud at a leaving do.

Funny retirement quotes

• Retirement: when you stop lying about your age and start lying about the house. Shop this card
• The trouble with retirement is you never get a day off. Shop this card
• Retirement is the only time you can do nothing without someone asking what you are doing. Shop this card
• You are not unemployed, you are financially independent from Mondays. Shop this card
• Congratulations on your last ever alarm clock. Shop this card
• Retirement means twice the husband on half the pay. Shop this card
• Enjoy the part where the emails become somebody else's problem. Shop this card
• You have earned the right to nap with the curtains open. Shop this card
• Retirement: the world's longest coffee break. Shop this card
• No more meetings that could have been an email. Ever again. Shop this card
• You will be busier than ever and love complaining about it. Shop this card
• May your golf be short and your lunches long. Shop this card

Heartfelt retirement quotes

• Careers are measured in years. Yours will be measured in the people you helped.
• The job will be filled. You will not be replaced.
• Thank you for decades of doing the difficult things quietly.
• You leave this place better than you found it, which is all anyone can hope for.
• The best of what you built here will still be running long after your leaving cake.
• Retirement is not the end of a working life. It is the reward for one.
• Somebody has to be the person everyone trusts. For years, that was you.
• Wishing you time, and the good health to enjoy it. Shop this card
• A career well spent deserves a retirement well enjoyed.
• Whatever comes next, you have earned every minute of it.

Retirement quotes from colleagues

• You made this job bearable, and on the good days, genuinely fun.
• Thank you for answering questions you had already answered three times.
• You trained half this team, including the ones who will not admit it.
• The office will be quieter and considerably worse.
• I learned more from watching you work than from any course.
• Who is going to tell us the truth in meetings now?
• You set the standard here. Everyone else is just trying to match it.
• Thanks for the advice, the cover, and the biscuits.
• You never made anyone feel stupid for asking. That is rarer than you think.
• Do not be a stranger, and yes, that means come back for the Christmas do.

Retirement speech quotes

• To a career that leaves a mark on everyone who worked alongside it.
• Raise a glass to the last person here who remembers how it all used to work.
• Here is to the person who fixed things before anyone knew they were broken.
• Retirement is not a goodbye, it is a change of address for the group chat.
• To years of service and a lifetime of unread work emails.
• Let's toast the person who made this place feel like a team.

Short retirement quotes

• Well earned. Well done.
• Off duty, permanently.
• Enjoy every single Monday. Shop this card
• The best kind of last day.
• Time is yours now. Shop this card
• Go and enjoy it. Shop this card
• Thanks for everything.

Browse retirement cards

How to write it so it lands

• Name one specific thing they did well. Generic praise reads like a leaving form.
• Circulate the card two weeks early. Late signatures are why cards get given half empty.

Where to shop next

• Funny quotes
• Birthday quotes
• Friendship quotes
• Retirement quotes
• Get well soon quotes
• Motivational quotes
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• Retirement party decorations
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Frequently asked questions

What do you write in a retirement card from the whole team?

A quote at the top, then leave space. A card with thirty short personal lines beats one long paragraph from the manager.

Should a retirement card be funny or sincere?

Both. Open funny, finish sincere - the last line is the one they remember reading at home.