Digital Invitation for a Corporate Event and Sick Leave

The office dinner is on the 12th. Someone reads out the guest list and asks the question nobody wants to own: 'Should we take Maria off it?' She's been on sick leave for three weeks. Nobody wants to send the message, and nobody wants to quietly delete her either. This is exactly the kind of situation a digital invitation makes easier.

You can set one up in about ten minutes. Pick a design from the Send The Joy catalogue, type the details into the browser editor and send a single private link. You can do all of it today, and her situation never has to come up in the group chat.

Digital invitation etiquette: let them decide

The first decision here isn't about fonts or colours. It's about who gets to choose. If someone on your team is off sick, don't remove them from the list and don't add their name to a public one. Send a private message instead: 'We've kept the link for you in case you fancy coming. No pressure at all.'

• Check with HR before you send anything, so the invitation is appropriate and doesn't cut into their rest.
• Keep medical details out of shared channels: no diagnosis, no reason, no explanation in the office group.
• Send it one to one. A personal link means nobody else sees who was invited or who replied.
• Send it once. No reminder the next morning, no 'just checking you saw it'.

How to word a digital invitation for an employee on sick leave

In the editor, every piece of text has its own field: the label, the names, the date, the line and the venue. That helps here. You can put her name on the cover with a short neutral line — 'For Maria, if you'd like to join us' — without writing a word about why she's at home.

Set a soft RSVP question, something like 'Would you like us to keep a seat for you?'. A yes, a no and silence are all easy answers. And spell out the time, the venue and the dress code, so if she decides to come at the last minute she doesn't have to ask anyone.

Including someone who is off sick isn't an extra. It's one private link, sent with a bit of thought.

One link for the corporate event, no chasing replies

A digital invitation is a web page, not a PDF or a photo. It opens in any mobile browser with nothing to install, so she can look at it at 11pm or on the morning of the event. If the venue or the time changes, you edit it in the same place and the same link shows the new version: no reprints, no second round of messages. Replies arrive inside the invitation in one tidy list, so you're not scrolling a chat to count yeses.

What to avoid when you invite a colleague on sick leave

Don't post about who's off and who isn't coming. Don't treat silence as a no — the reply list fills at its own pace. And don't promise a special menu, a lift or anything else you can't organise. 'If you need anything, message me and we'll sort it' is honest and enough.

Book the dinner, send the link and leave the rest to her. Create your digital invitation in Send The Joy for €29.99 and give everyone on the list — including the person at home — a way to answer when they're ready.