What makes a song a good retirement gift?
Most retirement gift ideas are a category rather than a person — a clock, a decanter, something engraved with a date and a job title. Personalized retirement gifts usually mean that same object with a name added to it. The retirement gifts people actually keep are the ones only the office could have come up with: the thing they said in every Monday meeting, the desk nobody else was allowed to touch, the three restructures they quietly survived. That's a career, not a date.
Three steps, one sitting
The retirement gifts people remember start with ten minutes of detail from people who were there.
Tell us what they actually did
Not the job title. The thing they were known for, the crisis they fixed, the joke that outlived three managers.
Choose the feeling and the voice
Warm, funny enough for a room of colleagues, or straight-down-the-line heartfelt — plus the vocal, including voice gender.
Play it on the day
Send the private page, or put it on at the leaving do and let the room hear it together.
What's inside the gift
Most retirement gifts end up on a shelf being dusted. This one arrives as four things they keep.
The song
An original song about their career, with real vocals.
Cover artwork
Album art with their name on it — print it, frame it for home.
A music video
For the leaving do, or the team group chat afterwards.
A private gift page
One link, everyone's message, sent or scheduled for their last day.