Birthday Celebrations
kldrake
30 Posts
Just curious what others do for birthdays at work. My comany employs 450, but in my building there are 17 employees. I have recently started in this comany and what they have done for past years is...each person gets a party (where the 17 staff gather, sing happy birthday) with cake and small gift from each employee. Curious as to how others celebrate birthday or elected not to celebrate birthdays in the workplace?
Comments
We have 21 employees here and our office manager sends around a birthday card that we all sign and present the birthday guy/girl with on their special day.
At our Corporate office, we have a monthly ice cream social. Two or three people bring in their ice cream makers and make homemade ice cream. At around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, we gather to have ice cream and celebrate the people with birthdays that month. No gifts are exchanged at this social. Gifts and cards are personal between the employees. There are approx. 60 employees at Corporate.
At my divisional office, we only have 8 people in the office. Usually, we put up a sign on the persons cubie announcing their birthday - someone usually brings cake or cookies. Often, we will all go out to lunch together - the others buy the birthday persons lunch.
Once a month we purchase a b-day cake with the name of each employee whose b-day falls in that month. No gifts are exchanged and cards/gifts are left up to individals to purchase if they wish. This way no one feels obligated financially or becomes embarrassed if unable to participate.
I think these group/monthly celebrations are fine, especially if money is an issue. But I believe that, assuming your department/company can afford it--or if you as a supervisor or manager can afford it if it comes out of your pocket--that some type of individualized celebration/recognition is ideal.
In our company, we have some supervisors who take it upon themselves to bring in a few different types of food for the person having the birthday. It is totally on their initiative--there is no policy or company norm for this and there is no budget for such celebrations. It's just that these supervisors want to do something nice and show the employee that they appreciate them. And oftentimes co-workers gladly assist the supervisor by offering to bring in a snack or beverage to add to the "spread", lessening the financial burden on the supervisor who otherwise spends his/her own money.
I think so long as these things don't get too elaborate/pricey, it is a gesture that is definitely worth making--people are going to feel more appreciated if they're recognized on an individual vs. group basis. With rare exceptions, I think the vast majority of employees are going to feel better about their employer if their birthday is somehow recognized. To me, a company- or department-wide monthly celebration doesn't have the same positive impact or personal touch.
We have over 550 nationwide. No "national" celebration.
We have about 150 here in my building locally. We have a monthly full sheet birthday cake once per month (ice cream cake in the three summer months).
In my dept we have 9. Our dept goes to lunch during a birthday month (if 2 birthdays are close we combine). I buy lunch for the staff member having a bday, everyone else buys their own lunch. And we set up a birthday "list" where you are responsible for the person who has a birthday after you - you buy the birthday card and get everyone in the dept to sign it, get a few balloons, and decorate the cube from our dept's birthday decoration stash.
This year we have a new staff member join us who is a Jehovah's Witness. To ensure we included her we don't have a "birthday" lunch. We have a "Celebration lunch" - so it's a "Celebration for Suzy!" luncheon.