5 Virtual Retirement Party Ideas for Work

It's important to celebrate retiring workers. When someone decides to move on after dedicating years of their life to a company, you need to do your best to show plenty of appreciation. If your retiring team member works remotely, we have some ideas for you. These retirement ideas can be done from the comfort of your own home. No matter where your team lives, they can take part and celebrate with their colleague. Below are some virtual retirement party ideas that will have your team member feeling the love.

Comedy Roast

Show your retiring team member how much you'll miss them by hosting a roast. A comedy roast is when one person is subjected to jokes (light-hearted ones!) at their own expense. Prior to this meeting, ask the other team members to come up with a two-minute speech roasting the retiring worker. They can highlight work things or personal things. Just remind them to keep the jokes pointed, but not too sharp. You don't want the retiring worker to get offended. Roasts are a great way of showing someone that you appreciate them — it's humorous, but also highlights just how deep your connections are. You can't roast someone you don't really know.

Escape Room

Your retiring colleague is escaping work, so why not celebrate that with an escape room? Offsyte has a collection of fun and creative escape room games to choose from. Take a look at the offerings and find one that your colleague would enjoy the most. Maybe they like ghost stories — Ghosts of Craven Manor has you covered. Maybe they'd like some comedy mixed in — Comedy Murder Mystery is a good choice. Whatever you decide, an escape room is a fun way to celebrate a colleague who will be surely missed.

Retrospective

Another fun way to celebrate a retiring coworker is to put together a retrospective on their time at the company. This will take some leg work, but it will be well worth it. Go back through the person's history at the company and find highlights. Find pictures, notes, anecdotes, anything that will remind the retiring worker — and your team — of the great times they had. Once you have everything collected, you can put together a PowerPoint (yes, one last one for them to endure!) and show it off to your whole team.

Happy Hour

Celebrate your retiring coworker with a virtual happy hour. These are great because it allows everyone to relax and just enjoy each other's company. Offsyte has a wide variety of happy hour activities to choose from. Try a cocktail crafting happy hour or one that combines drinks with trivia and other challenges.  The happy hour doesn't have to include alcohol. Offsyte has a boba tea-making happy hour event, a hot sauce-crafting activity and much more.

Team Feud

A virtual retirement party can just be an excuse to have fun. You can opt to simply play a game, and then afterward have everyone say their goodbyes and maybe share a good memory of their coworker. If you're looking for a simple, entertaining game, try Team Feud. Team Feud is the same as Family Feud, just played over Zoom. Prior to the meeting, create a PowerPoint with questions and about five answers for each question. Here are a few examples to get you started:

• Name something a vampire likes
• Name an animal that starts with "P"
• Name something that people keep in their car
• Name something associated with Santa Clause

To begin the game, split your team into two groups. Then ask each team to select a captain. The two captains will get asked the first question. Have them raise their hand to answer. Share your screen, and ask the first question. Whoever raises their hand the fastest gets to answer first. If they choose one of the correct answers, their team goes first. For each answer a team gets right, they get a certain amount of points. The fastest to the total points wins the game.

To find additional ideas for retirement parties at work, check out Offsyte's 'Retirement Party Idea' collection where we have gathered more than 50 events to pick from.  

More to Know About Virtual Retirement Party Ideas for Work

Some common questions people have about virtual retirement ideas.

How do you celebrate retirement virtually?

You can celebrate retirement virtually in a variety of ways. You can host a happy hour, maybe play a game, or simply have everyone log on and reminisce. It doesn't have to be formal, it should just be a way to show the team member your appreciation.

What do you do at a retirement party?

A retirement party — whether in person or on Zoom — is a way to celebrate someone who worked with you for many years. You can recall fond memories of the person or just hang out and have fun.

How do you make a retirement party special?

You can make a retirement party special just by being sincere. There doesn't have to be some big event. You can simply show up and express your gratitude for the retiring worker. Showing the colleague that they'll be missed is enough to make it special.