Written by the Puzzlify team. Puzzlify is our product, so read this with that in mind; a good part of this post is ideas that have nothing to do with us.
Retirement send-offs at work tend to follow a script: a card that goes round the office in an envelope, a collection for a gift voucher, a cake in the meeting room at 4 p.m. and a short speech from someone's manager. All of that is fine, but what people remember is rarely the voucher. It's the faces and the in-jokes.
One small thing that works well alongside the card is a photo jigsaw sent as a link: a team photo, or a collage of moments from their years at the company, that they open on their last day or the morning after, and solve piece by piece. When the last piece clicks in, a short note from the team appears. It costs less than a round of coffees, and it's something people from other offices or home-based colleagues can be part of too.
Here's how to do it well, plus some other send-off ideas if a puzzle isn't the right fit.
Pick the photo (and ask first)
The best photo is one with lots of people and lots of detail:
- A recent team photo, ideally one where the person retiring is in the middle and everyone looks like themselves.
- A collage of their years there. Make it in any free collage tool and save it as a JPG: their first ID badge photo (if they'll laugh about it), the old office, a team away day, the leaving do of someone who left before them.
Two quick rules. Ask colleagues before using photos of them; most people will say yes, but some won't, and that's fine. And keep anything work-confidential out of shot: whiteboards, screens, client names.
Use the original photo file rather than a screenshot from the group chat. A full-resolution JPG makes much sharper pieces.
How many pieces
Think about who is solving it and on what device:
| Pieces | Roughly | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | 2-4 minutes | A quick moment at the leaving drinks |
| 48 | 5-10 minutes | Most people, on a phone or tablet |
| 80 | 10-20 minutes | A relaxed evening at home |
| 130-252 | 30 minutes and up | Someone who loves puzzles and now has time for them |
If the person retiring isn't very comfortable with phones, 24 or 48 on a tablet is kinder than 252 pieces on a small screen.
The note at the end
When the puzzle is finished, a short dedication appears. It works best short and from everyone:
- "Thirty-one years, four office moves, one legendary fire drill. Thank you for all of it. From everyone on the second floor."
- "The kettle will never be the same. Enjoy every slow Monday. Love, the team."
- "You trained half of us. We'll try not to ruin it. Happy retirement!"
Keep the long personal messages for the card or a shared message book; the jigsaw note is the full stop at the end, not the whole story.
A few ways to give it
- At the leaving do. Put the link on screen or hand them a tablet, and let the room watch the photo come together.
- The morning after. Send the link on their first free weekday, so the first message of retirement is from the team.
- With a QR code in the card. Print the link as a QR code inside the card everyone signed.
- With a leaderboard. Share the same puzzle with the whole team and let people race; the retiree gets to see who was fastest (and who gave up).
What it is and what it costs (honestly)
Puzzlify turns a JPG into a private digital jigsaw (24, 48, 80, 130 or 252 pieces) that you send as a link. The person solving it doesn't need an account or an app; it runs in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer.
You can build and preview the puzzle for free. You only pay when you publish the link: EUR 3.99 for one puzzle, EUR 8.99 for three (for example one from each team or site), or Plus at EUR 14.99 a year for ten.
It's digital only. Nothing is printed or posted; if you'd rather give a boxed cardboard jigsaw of the team photo, a printed photo-puzzle service is the right tool for that, and it can sit nicely next to a card on the last day. And it's not puzzlify.io (a chess site), Puzzlit, Puzzly or Puzzify, which are different products.
You can try it at puzzlify.app/en/puzzle-maker.
Other send-off ideas that have nothing to do with us
A jigsaw is one idea among many. Others that people genuinely remember:
- A message book. One page per colleague, with a photo and a memory, collected over a couple of weeks.
- A "what you taught us" list. Ask everyone for one thing they learned from the person retiring. Read three out loud at the send-off.
- A gift for the next chapter. If they're planning to garden, walk, travel or paint, a collection towards that beats another bottle of wine.
- A video round-up from former colleagues who've moved on or work elsewhere. A 20-second clip each is easy to collect.
- An invitation back. A standing invite to the team's summer lunch tells them they're still part of things.
Whatever you choose, the aim is the same: after years of turning up, they should leave knowing they were noticed. A photo, a few words and the people in it go a long way.
If you want to make the jigsaw version, build and preview it for free at puzzlify.app/en/puzzle-maker and decide afterwards whether to publish it.