Office Birthdays: To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate

• August 12, 2024
• Newsletter Article

Want to make every office birthday celebration special and memorable while honoring everyone's preferences and beliefs? Delve into these essential strategies to unlock the secrets of creating a truly inclusive and respectful celebration. By embracing diversity and fostering an environment of understanding, you can ensure that each team member feels valued and celebrated.

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We’ve all been there, right? Every other week, there is a card passed around, everyone mumbles the “happy birthday” song, and there is a room of people asking only for a “small” slice of cake. Once the small slice is eaten, everyone jets back to their office. While celebrating office birthdays is a great time to relax with coworkers, they can also become incredibly mundane. Though not every office decides to celebrate birthdays, it is a great way to step away for a few minutes and celebrate. If your office does decide to celebrate birthdays, there are a few things to remember that can make everyone more comfortable and bring the celebration back to birthdays.
 

 

 

Celebrating Office Birthdays

 

1) Have a celebration once a month. If you have a larger office, consider a once a month celebration.
 
2) Don’t force everyone to contribute. If possible, set aside money in the budget for employee celebrations, this will allow employees to feel a little less constricted.
 
3) Respect folks if they don’t like to celebrate or have religious preference not to. Some people just don’t like their birthday celebrated and certain religions do not celebrate birthdays. The onboarding period is a great time to get an employee’s preference about birthday celebrations.
 
4) Make sure you treat every celebration the same. Try to put the same focus on each celebration so that all employees feel valued.
 
5) Focus on the person, not the age! Birthday celebrations are a time to focus on the person and in the professional world, it’s best to leave the person’s age out of it. Maybe they’re 22 and maybe they’re 62, either way it is possible to celebrate the occasion without mentioning their age.
 
6) Switch it up! Most employers are focused on creating a healthier workplace, so offer options that area little healthier.
 
7) Have fun, get to know your co-workers! Break away from the day to day and get to know the folks around you!

 

To celebrate office birthdays really comes down to the culture of the office. As every office and employee are different, focus on what works best for the office and employee.