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Employee Birthdays |
cbworden
Joined: Jun 20, 2007
Posts: 2 |  Posted: 2007-06-20 09:05
We have a small staff of only tweleve people it is a non profit organization with no funding for any kind of employee recognition.
We have a fund that staff contributes to so we can purcahse air freshner and kitchen soap.
Anyway how do other similar groups deal with the purchase of cake and with folks who don't want their birthday celebrated? It seem there are always hurt feelings.
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howard7
Joined: Sep 13, 2001
Posts: 2615 | Posted: 2007-06-20 09:20
If people do not want their birthday recognized or celebrated by all means don't do it. Why create an issue over this. In fact I am aware of at least one recognized religion that states that it is not appropriate to do this.
Also, do not force them to celebrate someone else's birthday either if they do not wish to.
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malara
Joined: Apr 18, 2005
Posts: 61 | Posted: 2007-06-20 09:34
Would it be feasible to just give everyone a few hours off for their birthday and not celebrate it in any other way. That's what we started several years ago to save hard feelings. Someone's birthday would get forgotten and someone else would have a big celebration. We now give everyone 4 hours off for their birthday (has to be used at our convenience during their birthday month - ie., mid week). We don't do any other celebration. Everyone is happy! I think everyone would rather have an afternoon off instead of a cake - win/win - everyone is treated exactly the same.
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mtaylor692
Joined: Feb 01, 2007
Posts: 101 | Posted: 2007-06-20 10:51
We used tp have a "birthday" celebration once a month where we buy one cake for all people who are celebrating birthdays, babies, retirements, etc. No one was realy singled out but everyone was recognized. Since you have so few employees you could make it a quarterly celebration rather than monthly.
We have stopped doing that (there were disagreements over who would pick up the cake - and disagreements over the type of cake.) So now it has become a tradition that the person whose birthday it is brings their own cake.
We also give employees their birthfay off.
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cbworden
Joined: Jun 20, 2007
Posts: 2 | Posted: 2007-06-20 12:14
Thank you all for responding.
I think what I have learned from this is that there is no formula to make everyone happy regarding birthday celebrations and that adults don't always behave in an adult manner.
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mrhrpro
Joined: May 08, 2007
Posts: 18 | Posted: 2007-06-21 07:31
I have always enjoyed celebrating my birthday. Unfortunately, not everyone shares my sentiment. This is a goodwill opportunity for any employer to recognize birthdays unfortunately, it should not be a "cookie cutter" approach because of the different dynamics.
I would suggest asking individuals around the office in an informal manner, how they prefer to recognize this special day. Perhaps have a predetermined list of suggestions. Cake and ice cream, lunch out of the office, a gift card, day off, etc. It has been my experience that as the birthday of a coworker approaches, my staff has circulated an email and we have quietly
collected say $5 for a gift we know would make the recipient happy. Given we understand this person to enjoy celebrating their birthday and do not mind being fuzzed over.
Be careful of the day off situation though. If everyone takes the day off on their birthday then this defeats part of your objective and that is to share in the goodwill with all co-workers.
Then of course there is religious beliefs. Be mindful of them. Respect them. As a society we should be more inclusive of all around us. This of course is also goodwill.
Good luck.
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csquires
Joined: Aug 08, 2006
Posts: 31 | Posted: 2007-06-21 12:58
I'm sorry, I don't understand how religious beliefs fit into celebrating a birthday?
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lzimmerman
Joined: Jun 21, 2007
Posts: 2 | Posted: 2007-06-21 13:19
At my company, the birthday person brings in donuts or bagels or whatever, or doesn't, for the rest of their department. When I was new here, I thought this was an odd tradition, but now I appreciate that the person decides how to celebrate their birthday (or not).
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boilerfan528
Joined: May 26, 2006
Posts: 46 | Posted: 2007-06-22 07:03
At our company we have a birthday list - each person is randomly assigned another's birthdy. On the birthday the assigned person brings in the treat - either cupcakes, a cake... we've even been treated to fresh fruit, and chips and dip. Is a nice way to acknowledge the birthday and not go to a great expense.
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ellymae
Joined: May 06, 2006
Posts: 181 | Posted: 2007-06-25 10:03
csquires, I think probably the religion referred to above is Jehovah's Witness. It is against their religion to celebrate birthdays. I can see where it would be a problem where the dept insists on celebrating when the ee says they don't want to do it. It's happened here more than once.
Elly
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Hrpro
Joined: Mar 16, 2007
Posts: 809 | Posted: 2007-06-25 10:06
It isn't just Jehovah Witness's. Some far Eastern religious tenets preclude celebrating birthdays too.
personally speaking it is something I would prefer exit the workplace. There should be plenty of more appropriate things to celebrate in the workplace other than personal matters like birthdays and anniversary's. As we become more ornery(?) in our culture eliminating another possibility of contentiousness seems prudent.
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JMcQuaid
Joined: Dec 07, 2004
Posts: 36 | Posted: 2007-06-26 07:58
We have a very small, centralized office too. Our birthday tradition is limited to a card that the secretary designs appropriate to the individual (because she knows us all well) with her graphics software. It gets circulated and everyone writes in their own funny little comments and best wishes. Then it's pinned to their door on their birthday. There's no cost and no one's ever been offended because it's no big deal. But it still acknowledges the person and allows us all to be more than coworkers for a moment. I think it would be too bad to have to remove even that small humanity for fear of breaching political correctness.
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JMcQuaid
Joined: Dec 07, 2004
Posts: 36 | Posted: 2007-06-26 08:01
Further to HRPro, maybe it's the lack of little humanizing things in workplaces that's making our culture ornery?
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Hrpro
Joined: Mar 16, 2007
Posts: 809 | Posted: 2007-06-26 09:08
Jim it very well could be. For what ever reason we seenm to have become cantankerous over simple innocent acts of kindness. Seems being kind is now somehow offensive.
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Fossumsj
Joined: Jul 03, 2007
Posts: 1 | Posted: 2007-07-03 08:29
When I worked in Europe, they had a unique (to me) system that worked great. Everyone paid for their own b'day party. So, I paid the $15 (or so) for cake(s) for my co-workers to enjoy my birthday.
I got the return benefit of going to 19 other "parties" for free. Some chose not to participate, but the majority did. No problems with party escalations/war/out doing others. Since it better to give than receive, no one had a problem.
Here in the US, only the few "popular" people are "given" parties by their co-workers as there is no company budget.
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