Retirement Speech

Whether you are retiring yourself or paying tribute to a retiring colleague, your retirement speech should combine sincere sentiment with light-hearted touches of inoffensive humour. The content of your retirement speech will owe quite a lot to the nature of the organisation itself, and the retiree’s professional contribution to the bigger picture. But that is only part of the story. Your listeners will want to hear, too, about more personal, human reasons to regret the departure.

If you yourself are leaving, a ruefully comic anecdote, recalling your first day, or early teething problems generally, should go down well, and you can then go on to mention briefly what has changed since then and what has stayed the same. Recognise the contributions and support of colleagues, and let them know (if you can do so sincerely) how you’re going to miss them. Don’t forget to say a little, on a personal note, about what’s still in store. After all that looking back, it’s only right to take a peek ahead, however hypothetical your plans for the future are as yet.

If you are giving the retirement speech about someone else, then ask yourself: what is it about this colleague that you’ll miss the most? In your retirement speech you may want to mention, with affection, their characteristic quirks in a spirit of fun. But remember you are there, primarily, not to tease them for their faults, but to mark their years of service and laud their achievements.

Lorraine Evenden
Retirement Speech Writer

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