Sending Good Wishes: Personalizing Group Greeting Cards

When a work colleague has a birthday, gets promoted, or retires, someone generally circulates a group greeting card. In the past it wasn't a big deal. Office colleagues just signed their names and passed the store-bought card along to others. But the current trend is toward personalization with witty, oh-so-clever quips. And that presents a problem. What should you say-or not say?

You know that people value special handwritten quips, but you realize that you are not particularly original and you don't have a store of bon mots (clever sayings, witticisms). You are tired of the old stand- bys, such as This place won't be the same without you and You are only as old as you feel.

Your Task. To be prepared for the next greeting card that lands on your desk at work, you decide to work with some friends to make a list of remarks appropriate for business occasions. Use the Web to research witty sayings appropriate for promotions, birthdays, births, weddings, illnesses, or personal losses. Use a search term such as birthday sayings, retirement quotes, or cool sayings. You may decide to assign each category (birthday, retirement, promotion, and so forth) to a separate team. Submit the best sayings in a memo to your instructor.