You’ve handed in your letter of resignation, and you’re getting ready to move on from your workplace. All you need to do now is say goodbye to your colleagues, and sending a farewell email is the perfect way to do it. But what should this involve? Follow our top five tips to ensure your farewell email says just the right thing:
Read on to learn more about writing a farewell email to co-workers.
No doubt your colleagues receive more emails each day than they have time to read. Make sure yours doesn’t get ignored by making good use of the subject line.
The exact wording will depend on who you are writing to, but in every case, you should keep it brief and make it obvious what the main body of the email will be about (e.g., something like Goodbye for now or Thanks and farewell).
You probably have a range of different relationships within the workplace, and this should be reflected in the tone of your farewell emails.
We suggest drafting several wordings. You could write a casual message to your closest colleagues, which might include an invitation to join you for a drink on your last day or reminisce about some shared memorable moments at work.
When you write to staff members that you are less familiar with, you will want to adopt a more formal style (and you might not want to invite them to the bar!).
Use your farewell email to express gratitude to your co-workers and acknowledge the experiences you have gained through your employment.
You should say positive things about your time with the company rather than enthusing about what you are going to do next. It’s fine to briefly mention your immediate plans, but make sure that’s not the main focus of your message.
Take the opportunity to mention specific things that you are grateful to individual people for, and remember to wish them well for the future.
It’s worth bearing in mind that you might end up working with some of these people again one day, especially if your new role is within the same industry, so you’ll want to be remembered as a supportive and upbeat teammate.
When you leave, you will no longer have access to your company email, so if you want your former colleagues to keep in touch, you need to tell them how to do so.
By providing your private email address or LinkedIn profile, you will be leaving the door open for both professional relationships and valuable friendships to continue.
Of course, if there are people you’d rather not hear from again, that’s okay! Just send them a polite farewell email that doesn’t include your contact details.
It’s a good idea to read your emails through a few times before you send them. After all, you don’t want your parting messages to be full of typos.
Try reading them to yourself out loud—preferably when nobody else is around—so you can be sure your emails flow well. Spell-check is a useful tool for weeding out typos like goobdye or thnaks, but you can’t rely on it to pick up correctly spelled but wrong words (e.g., I’ll kiss you instead of I’ll miss you).
As such, it pays to proofread carefully. And if you’d like your writing to be checked by an expert, our team is available 24/7. You can even try our service for free.
We will finish this post with two example emails—one for close work buddies and one that’s a bit more formal—that you can use for inspiration.
Farewell Email to Close Colleagues
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To: BenG; JohnnyS; ReedR
Subject: It’s been fun
Guys,
As I’m sure you already know, Friday will be my last day with Fantastic Job Ltd. Next week I’ll be starting a new role at Forcefield Corp. I’ve really enjoyed working with you, and I wish you all continued success at FJL.
Ben, I’ve appreciated your honesty as well as your jokes (most of them anyway). I will always remember you, Reed, as one of the most flexible people I’ve ever worked with. And Johnny, I learned so much from our heated discussions.
I’m sure we’ll stay in touch even though you won’t see me at the office anymore. You can reach me at sue@invisible.com.
Keep on making a difference!
Sue
Formal Farewell Email
To: HarveyA
Subject: Moving on from FJL
Dear Dr. Allen,
As you will have heard, I will soon be moving on from my role here at Fantastic Job Ltd. My final day will be this Friday, October 8th.
I wanted to thank you personally for the support you’ve given me throughout my time at FJL. I am especially grateful for the training I received when I first joined the company and for the way you helped me develop my skills.
If you wish to contact me in the future, you’ll find me at www.linkedup.com/in/susan-storm12aabb
All the best,
Sue Storm
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