Farewell Letter to Coworkers – A Great Example

It’s never easy to say farewell to a company and a team.   However, this will happen many times in your career, as most of us have at least 7 different jobs until we retire.  While many farewell letters to coworkers are fairly standard and boring, it may serve you to take some time to craft a memorable one instead.

I would like to share an farewell letter to coworkers example from one of our Executive Authors.  Once you read it, you will realize why it’s so memorable and effective.  He sent this via email to the start-up company on his last day of work.   He was only there for 7 months.   Note: I changed the name of the company and coworkers names to make this anonymous.

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… the party’s over. But wait, is the party ever really over with CompanyX?

Team,

I’m now at the end of my journey here at ### Kearny, but not at the end of our journey together. I say this because I bring great memories of CompanyX with me and know that we’ll see each other again (at the top)!

It amazes me how much I’ve been able to bond with everyone here so quickly. I’ve never felt so part of something in such a short amount of time and I truly believe this is a testament to the culture.

Some of my favorite memories (among many):

• Getting our eat on. I always look forward to sitting down and chatting with everyone over lunch. I feel like you can truly get to know diversified groups of people during this time by simply sharing stories over a meal. It doesn’t hurt that the food is pretty awesome 9 out of 10 times either.

• Retreating from the world. The company retreat completely took me by surprise at how memorable this was whether going through team building exercises in the evening or having discussions (and Ryan’s scotch) back at the “older” house with Ryan, Sadir, Christine, Linda, Kara, and Sasha (ok ok, she’s not one of the old folks, but she has an old soul ;). The ice bucket challenge video was epic too!

• Stumbling home. What can I say? Bonding over drinks is an effective way to get to know people even if I can’t remember everything from all of those nights. I’ve had great discussions whether it be a bunch of us at Local Edition, Brad buying dinner at Chubby Noodle, or me over cocktails 1-on-1 with Brian, Ryan, Sam, Linda, or Kara.

• Everyone lying to me. Demo day is one of those special times where we get to share as a company and get to know each other better. “5 Truths & a Lie” is a phenomenal tool in getting to know each other’s backgrounds in such a short amount of time. I’m fascinated with how many people remember details of the various “5 Truths” presentations. The cocktails going into Friday night give it a little boost too 😉

• Leading me on.  Generating quality leads is what I’m passionate about. Geeking out and talking with Alan about new ways of doing this is always interesting to me.

Thanks for the opportunity to work together and for the memories I’ll be taking with me. I’d say good luck, but I don’t believe it’s appropriate here since luck doesn’t play a role in CompanyX success. Good people + good vision + good execution will decide your bright future ahead.

So before I ride out on the Segway, I leave you all with this quote:

“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason … by bringing something we must learn. We are led to those who help us grow and, in return, we help them grow.”

This has never been more true for me.

See you all at the top!

xxxxxx

PS – If you’d like to stay in touch, please have your people contact my people to get something on the calendar …  or just hit me up directly on (insert Linkedin link) or at (insert personal email) 🙂

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Here are six aspects that made this farewell letter example very effective.

1. It’s very positive: He never mentioned any of the negative reasons why he is leaving.  Instead he focused on what he admired most about the company and the various people.   He managed to boost the company and his own brand, leaving anyone who reads the letter feeling good.
2. Personal and specific:  He obviously loved the culture and used specific examples to show what great memories he is taking away.  People will appreciate him recounting the good memories.
3. Funny and light-hearted:  He used a conversational, casual tone that shows off his personality and makes you want to read it all the way through.  His catchy bullet headings also makes everyone want to read more.
4. Subtly self-promotes:  He reinforced in everyone’s mind what he is passionate about – generating quality leads – without being boastful.
5. Says thank you:  Every good farewell letter must have a thank you.  The more specific it can be the better people reading it will appreciate it.   His thank you was genuine and well phrased.
6. Offer to stay connected: A farewell letter is only a good bye for now.  It’s always good to offer to stay connected.  Not everyone will stay connected with you.  That’s to be expected.  However many other people will and stay in your network.

At the end of the day, this is the last communication you will send out to your coworkers.  Writing one that reflects all the positive memories you took away is a great way to end the chapter on this job and build your brand at the same time.

Your comments:  What else did you like about this farewell letter example?  Let me know if you have any follow up questions.   I look forward to your comments below.

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Best wishes to your success and happiness

Lei