What to write in a work anniversary card

Work anniversary cards are the easiest to make feel automatic, because very often they are. The cure is one line that only someone who works with them could write — a habit, a thing they fixed, the way they are in a meeting. Everything else can be short. A card that proves a person wrote it is worth ten that mention the number of years.

Warm

Friendly, unfussy, safe with almost anybody.

• Another year, well spent. Thank you for all of it.
• Happy work anniversary — this place is better with you in it.
• Congratulations on the milestone. Glad you’re here.
• Here’s to another year of you making this look easy.
• Happy work anniversary. Genuinely, thanks for everything you do.

Funny

A joke with affection behind it. Read the room first.

• Congratulations on surviving another year of us.
• Happy work anniversary. Your reward is more work.
• Another year! At this point you are part of the furniture, in the good way.
• Congratulations. You have now attended approximately four hundred meetings.
• Happy work anniversary. Nobody has worked out how to replace you, so well done.

Heartfelt

For the people you would actually say this to out loud.

• Thank you for the years. You have made a real difference here and it is noticed.
• Happy work anniversary. You set the standard the rest of us work to.
• You have been steady, generous and good at this for a long time. Thank you.
• Congratulations — and thank you for the quiet things nobody puts in a review.
• Happy work anniversary. This team wouldn’t be what it is without you.

Simple

When short is the right answer, and it often is.

• Happy work anniversary!
• Congratulations on the milestone.
• Thank you for another great year.
• Happy anniversary — glad you’re here.
• Congratulations, and thank you.

What to avoid

• Don’t get the number of years wrong. It is the one fact the card contains.
• Don’t make it about the company’s achievement instead of theirs.
• Don’t joke about them looking for another job.
• Don’t send the same words you sent last year. People keep these.