Say who is retiring, who is speaking and a story or two from the working years, and Hemmingway writes the retirement speech. It works both ways round: a speech about a colleague who is leaving, or the one you give at your own leaving do.
It sticks to what you tell it. It will not guess at a career, add an award or invent a funny moment from the office.
Your own retirement or someone else's
Say which it is in the first field.
- If you are retiring, the speech is mostly thanks. Name the people who made the work better, tell one story, and keep it shorter than the speech given about you.
- If a colleague is retiring, the speech is about them. Tell stories that show what they were like to work with, and say what will be missed.
What makes it work
- Stories, not a career history. Everyone there knows the job titles. One thing the person did that nobody else would have is worth more than thirty years of dates.
- Look ahead at the end. Say what comes next, if you know: the allotment, the grandchildren, the boat.
- Skip the age jokes. They are easy, and the person retiring has heard every one of them this month.
An example
Asked for a speech by her manager for Maureen, a practice nurse for 26 years, with the story that she keeps a drawer of spare reading glasses for patients who forget theirs, and that her allotment comes next, an opening along these lines is what to expect. It is the start and one story, not the full speech.
Can I have a few minutes, please. It is about Maureen, so it is worth it.
Maureen has been our practice nurse for 26 years.
She keeps a drawer of spare reading glasses.
They are not hers. They are for patients who forget their own.
That drawer tells you more about her than any job description could.
Maureen, the allotment is lucky to get you.
Common questions
Is the retirement speech generator free?
Yes. Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed, and this tool opens it with your answers filled in. You sign up once, and the speech is written in the chat.
How long should a retirement speech be?
Two to four minutes for a colleague, and a little less if it is your own. People are standing, and there is a card and a present to hand over as well.
Can it write a speech for my own retirement?
Yes. Put yourself as the person retiring in the first field, add who you want to thank, and it writes it in your voice. How to write a retirement speech has an outline for each kind.
Will it sound like AI?
It is built not to. Hemmingway-1, the model behind it, came first on sounding like a person in our own blind test, Human-Likeness. It still helps to read it aloud and change any word you would not use.
What if I only need a message for the card?
Use the retirement message generator, which writes a few lines for a card. If they are leaving for another job and not retiring, the farewell message generator fits better.