Articles

What to write, and how to get everyone to write it.

The practical parts of a group gift that nobody documents: the wording that turns signatures into sentences, the response rates to plan around, and which option is worth your week.

8 min read

What to write in a retirement card.

A method for writing one specific line, then forty examples sorted by how well you knew them — and what to do when thirty people are signing the same card.

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9 min read

Group gift ideas that are not a gift card.

Cash, gift card, hamper, experience, video montage, memory book — compared on money, organizer hours, and what survives a year. Including when a gift card is genuinely right.

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8 min read

How to collect messages from a group without chasing everyone.

A timeline, realistic response rates, the two messages that do the chasing for you, and why a shared document produces the worst results of any method.

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7 min read

What to write when a colleague is leaving.

Farewell examples for close colleagues, people you barely knew, and the harder cases — redundancy, a manager you clashed with, someone who is leaving unhappy.

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6 min read

How many people to invite to a group gift.

Why the number you invite is never the number who write, where extra contributors stop adding anything, and how to widen a circle without it becoming a mailing list.

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7 min read

What to write in a milestone birthday card.

Milestone message examples by decade, why age jokes are the default, and how to write for someone you have known through several eras of their life.

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