Work anniversaries, marked properly.
Five years somewhere is a real chunk of a life. A calendar-generated 'congrats on your workiversary' ping undersells it; a personal card — maybe signed by the whole team, maybe with a gift they choose — says it was noticed.
A work anniversary card should name the years, name one real contribution, and come from people rather than the company. Mojo Greet makes that easy: a personalised animated card per person, a free group card the whole team can sign for big milestones, and an optional experience gift from €25 — schedulable for the anniversary date itself.
What to write in a work anniversary card
Match the message to the milestone:
One year in and it already feels like you've always been here. Happy anniversary, {first_name}!
Five years of showing up, levelling up, and lifting everyone around you. Congratulations, {first_name} — this one's worth celebrating.
A decade! Half the things that work around here have your fingerprints on them. Thank you for ten brilliant years.
Happy work anniversary — the title changed, the desk moved, the standards never dropped. Here's to you.
Years + one specific contribution + warmth. That's the whole formula.
Ways to mark the milestone
A personal card
From the manager or founder, in their inbox on the morning of the date — schedule it ahead so it never slips.
A team-signed group card
One free card everyone signs with their own words. For 5- and 10-year milestones, this is the keeper.
An experience gift
From €25 to €250 — scaled to the milestone. They pick the experience; the amount stays private.
A yearly batch
Send the quarter's anniversaries in one bulk order — each card still personal, one payment, one invoice.
Which anniversaries deserve which treatment
Treating every work anniversary identically is what makes them feel automated. A first year and a tenth are not the same event, and a programme that sends the same card for both quietly tells everyone that neither was noticed.
A workable ladder: year one gets a personal note from the manager — it is the year that decides whether someone stays, and being seen at twelve months matters more than the gesture's size. Years two to four get a short card, kept warm and specific. Fives and tens get the ceremony: a card the whole team signs, and a gift scaled to the milestone.
The distinction that actually matters isn't the budget, though — it's the voice. A card from a named manager or from the people someone works beside every day reads as recognition. The same words from "the company" read as a process, and people can tell the difference instantly.
- Year 1 — a personal note from the manager, on the day.
- Years 2–4 — a short, specific card; name one thing from that year.
- Years 5 and 10 — a free group card the whole team signs, and a larger gift.
- Any year — send it on the date, not the following Monday.
Writing the message when you weren't there for all of it
We measured all 1129 example messages in our own writing guides: the average runs 16.7 words and 87% land between 10 and 20 — about two short lines.
The common problem with a ten-year card is that the person writing it has been there for three. You cannot summarise a decade you didn't witness, and attempting it produces exactly the vague, inflated copy that makes these cards forgettable.
The fix is to write from where you actually stand. "I've only had two of your ten years here and they've been the two I learned the most in" is honest, specific and better than any attempt at a retrospective. If you genuinely can't name something, a group card solves it structurally — the people who were there write their own lines, and the card assembles the history you don't personally have.
Keep the years in the message, because that is the fact being marked, and keep the rest short. 82% of the messages in our corpus address the reader directly as "you", and an anniversary card is the worst possible place to break that rule by talking about someone in the third person.
The data behind the advice
Our writing guidance isn't opinion — it comes from measuring our own corpus of hand-written card messages.
Work anniversary questions
What do you write in a work anniversary card?
Name the years, name one specific contribution, keep it warm and short: 'Five years of lifting everyone around you — congratulations.' Avoid generic 'workiversary' filler; specificity is the whole gift.
Which work anniversaries should a company celebrate?
Mark year one (it decides retention), then the fives and tens with more weight — a team-signed card and a bigger experience gift. Small years get a personal note; milestone years get the ceremony.
Can the whole team sign one card?
Yes — Mojo Greet group cards are free: everyone adds their own message and it sends as one card. Attach a gift and it becomes the milestone version.
What if I wasn't there for most of their years?
Write from where you stand rather than attempting a retrospective. 'I've only had two of your ten years here and they've been the two I learned most in' is honest and specific. For long milestones, a group card lets the people who were there supply the history.
How big should a work anniversary gift be?
Scale it to the milestone, not to the person's seniority. Mojo Greet gifts run €25, €50, €100 and €250 per recipient — a smaller amount suits the in-between years, and the larger ones fit a fifth or tenth. The recipient never sees the amount.
The years deserve more than a calendar ping.
A personal card, a team signature, a gift they choose — scheduled for the date.