We recently tweeted the story from BBC News that Manchester City footballer Yaya Toure was disappointed that his side had failed to mark his 31st birthday. Office Birthday Etiquette Workplace birthdays can be tricky, as behaviour expert, Judi James describes them in the article as a “complete and utter minefield” mainly due to the fact that different companies, departments and …
What Should You Expect from a Workplace Birthday?
We recently tweeted the story from BBC News that Manchester City footballer Yaya Toure was disappointed that his side had failed to mark his 31st birthday.
Office Birthday Etiquette
Workplace birthdays can be tricky, as behaviour expert, Judi James describes them in the article as a “complete and utter minefield” mainly due to the fact that different companies, departments and teams do things differently.
And when it comes to treating staff equally, she admits that “Birthdays bring out people’s infantile side” as people will take note of what their colleagues receive and expect the same.
Agony Aunt, Virginia Ironside, adds hers two cents advising that normal etiquette dictates that when it comes to office birthdays, the celebrating party should be the provider of cake and that no-one should be expecting presents.
This advice seems sound. Yet, it’s clear that acknowledging an employee’s birthday in some small way, can show that you value them as part of your team.
How things might have been
If we look at this news story again, it’s disheartening to think that if only Man City Manager, Manuel Pellegrini, had taken the time to browse through our range of Corporate Ecards he could have found just the right way to wish Yaya many Happy Returns, thus avoiding all this ill-feeling and resentment.
With a personal message from The Blues and the Man City badge proudly attached, what more could a £200,000-a-week midfielder ask for?
We think he would like this one:
By using our scheduling feature, Pellegrino could have also guaranteed that there was no need for an embarrassing belated birthday card. And in the interest of not showing favouritism, our Birthday Ecard Tool, allows companies to add the dates of their employee’s annual celebration, meaning that Aguero, Silva and the rest of the gang are all kept on-side.
On a more serious note, making your employees feel a little bit special on their day can have quite an effect on morale, so keep your team members happy and do something to make them feel appreciated on their birthday.
