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I spent much of the past year telling people I was "thirty-eleven — in my very late thirties." But now I've resigned myself to fortyhood.
Many years ago, when I first went away to school, I remember being bummed out that no one knew it was my birthday. When I mentioned it to my mother, she asked in a way that only mothers can: "Well, did you tell anyone it was your birthday?" I hadn't, of course. Now I do. And it makes the day more fun.
Some people don't make a big deal out of birthdays. Some think birthdays should be limited to friends and family. Some workplaces even have policies restricting or forbidding the at-work celebration of birthdays. Wow. What fun places to work those must be.
Today, my work colleagues wished me "happy birthday" with a funny group card, a banana bread, and a bookstore gift certificate. We're also going out for a drink later. And trust me: this has nothing to with my being the boss. We do similar things for everyone's birthday. It makes our workplace seem like more of a family, and that's a good thing in my book.
People like to be reminded from time to time that they're special. Making a point of celebrating a person's birthday is one way of doing it.
Managers: if your workplace doesn't celebrate your employees' birthdays, why not? Because of expense? Give me a break: people can chip in a few bucks, or it can come out of petty cash. Because it's a distraction from work? Please. The goodwill that you generate by treating your employees as people — as special people — will more than make up for any expense or lost productivity. Add everyone's birthday to the calendar, and do something nice for them on their special day.
By the way, two days ago was Gruntled Employees' third birthday. We began with a post about how RadioShack fired people by email. Three years — and over 120,000 pageviews later — employers are still trying to figure out how to keep their employees gruntled. Thanks to everyone who's stopped by. I appreciate all of you.