The classic leaving card has one problem: it has to travel round the whole company without the person it's for noticing. In the age of working from home, that hardly works any more. A digital farewell book solves this elegantly – everyone writes via a link, whether they're in the office, working from home or at another site.
A farewell book in four steps
1. Create the book. In Pagefully, choose the Farewell Book template. It comes with suitable fields: a favourite memory, "What I'll miss about you", a prediction for the future and a photo together.
2. Hide the entries. In the book settings, turn off "Entries visible to friends". That way nobody – not even the person who is leaving – can read along in advance if the link does get passed around.
3. Share the link secretly. By email, Teams, Slack or WhatsApp to everyone except the person it's for. Anyone writing an entry needs neither an app nor an account. A photo from the last team event makes an entry even more personal.
4. Set a closing date and present it. Set the book to close automatically on their last working day. Then download the Print PDF – one page per entry, with photos – and hand it over printed or digitally.
What to write in a farewell book
Many people struggle with the first sentence. Good fields help:
- Our best memory together
- What I learned from you
- What I'll miss
- My tip for retirement / the new job
- A photo of us
"What I learned from you" in particular tends to bring out the warmest entries – and those are exactly the ones you'll still enjoy reading years later.
Advantages over a card
| | Card | Digital farewell book | |---|---|---| | Space | one double page | unlimited entries | | Photos | stuck in, at best | directly in the entry | | Distributed teams | hardly feasible | one link for everyone | | Secrecy | difficult | hide entries | | Keeping it | a drawer | PDF, print and online |
For other goodbyes, too
The same works for saying goodbye to a teacher or a sports club coach, for colleagues going on parental leave, or for friends moving abroad. If your team speaks several languages, simply set the book's language to English.