How to Make Retirement Toasts

When a loved employee retires, it's time to express appreciation to him or her for fun times and sheer joy you've had working with them. That's what retirement toasts are for.

Over the years, a set of informal rules have sprung up on making retirement toasts. Here they are:

1) A toast is not a speech. A speech usually always precedes a toast and is given by the retiree's boss, someone above him on the food chain, or a close work friend. A speech is meant to showcase the person's value to the company, highlight and show appreciation for his work ethic, humanize the person, and express a fond final farewell to him. It can be humorous or serious or a combination of the two. Retirement toasts, on the other hand, are always short. If you find yourself going on for two minutes and beyond, you are no longer giving a toast, you are giving a speech.

2) Retirement toasts are short, usually no more than one or two sentences. It can be as short as one or two words. For example, "Cheers!", "Good Luck!", or "Bottoms up" are all valid toasts. Most retirement toasts also contain an expression of good will. For example, "To Jim. May your retirement be filled with health and good luck". Or, "To Jane. May your retirement bring you everything you want in life." If you're so inclined, it's also appropriate to bring humor to your toast, for example, "To John. May your marriage survive your retirement."

3) Toasting etiquette. A whole series of polite behaviours have accumulated around the toasting ceremony. First, the person giving the toast, announces it with a statement such as, "I'd like to make a toast .." or "Please raise your glasses for a toast to ..." The custom is then for everyone to raise their glass.

The toaster waits for everyone's glass to be raised. If someone's glass is empty, the toaster will wait until that person's glass is refreshed. The toaster then completes the the verbal part of his toast which is followed by all participants clicking one another's glass and taking a sip from their glass. If the participants are too far away to actually click glasses, then simply raising their glass in acknowledgement of the toast is sufficient.

4) Retirement Toast Mistakes:

• If you raise your glass for the toast but do not take an actual sip from your glass, you are indicating that you do not agree with the sentiments of the toast.  It can be viewed as a sign of disrespect towards the person retiring.
• The retired person himself, does not take a sip when being toasted. He or she simply nods in acknowledgement of the sentiment.
• It's bad form to toast with an empty glass. If you don't want alcohol, it's fine to have it replaced with another liquid such as fruit juice, sparkling water, or even plain water.

But don't let your focus on all of the etiquette spoil your fun. The main reason for a retirement gathering is to honor the person being retired. Being there for anything else is a distraction.

Canadian Retirement Planning
In a lot of ways, Canadian retirement planning is much easier than the U.S. The Canadian system is also much more liberal as same sex retired couples are also allowed to receive guaranteed income supplements.

Ideas for Retirement Parties
Ideas for retirement parties do not have to be extravagant and outrageous to serve their purpose, which is to express gratitude for a fellow worker and send him or her off happily to retirement.