The retirement speech

A speech is a communicative act that is elaborated with the purpose of transmitting or communicating a message of interest to a specific audience. Within the wide range of speeches that exist, one of the most popular is the retirement speech. This speech can be addressed in one's own name or in the name of others, so that sometimes the speaker will also be in the position of the retiree.

It is of interest in this course that you focus on those retirement speeches that are made in the name of another, that is, in which the speaker expresses his words in reference to another person to announce his retirement during a ceremonial act.

In this session, we will analyze some of the basic elements of the retirement speech. This will be useful for you to make your first approaches to this interesting communicative act.

Generate an intimate and trusting atmosphere: The retirement speech should be developed in an intimate and trusting atmosphere. Generally, those present have an advanced degree of relationship with the person who intends to retire. We are talking about co-workers, friends, bosses and relatives, so the treatment and the language used during the presentation must be familiar, personal and pleasant.

These celebrations place the focus of attention on the employee who will soon be leaving or who has already terminated his or her employment relationship. Having said this, we will elaborate a presentation that will highlight the values and the work developed by this person throughout the years.

Our body language, tone of voice and verbal expressions must take care that the friendly atmosphere is not lost. It is important that we try to maintain the closeness with the audience, since they have been an important part of the retiree's work trajectory.

Highlight the retiree's contributions: Our job as a speaker during these presentations should be to highlight the retiree's contributions. We must gather as much information as possible about the most significant elements that revolve around the person we are interested in. For this, we will look for data such as the time of work, the results achieved, the quality of the labor relations, the discipline in the execution of their work, etc. All this is essential to build a speech that is useful to recall the work career that the honoree has developed.

As a complementary resource, it is recommended that you include some anecdotal experiences of colleagues and close people; you can give the floor to these people to express their gratitude and express their opinion about the retiree. Anything you can do to demonstrate the results of the presentation will be useful for the purpose of your presentation.

Develop a simple and pleasant language: Another important point when elaborating a retirement speech is to focus on achieving a simple and pleasant language. Keep in mind that excessive formality is not appropriate for an event that will take place in an atmosphere of trust, where everyone present has a good relationship with the honoree. Try to use natural expressions, keeping a plain and understandable vocabulary for everyone. Humor is highly valued in this type of presentation: approach the topics with charisma and include some personal jokes to keep the audience entertained.

The informal atmosphere, which characterizes these presentations, is useful to give way for other people to present ideas along with our speech, even for the retiree himself to express how he feels and to exchange brief words with the audience to express his gratitude for the event held.