Many people want to celebrate their birthdays. And if someone's birthday falls on a weekday, then he will spend a precious part of the day at work.
So the question is not whether companies should celebrate their employees' birthdays. Rather, companies should ask how they should celebrate employees' birthdays. Concern about birthday celebrations—even if an employee chooses not to throw a party for those co-workers who would rather not celebrate their birthdays—can make a difference in determining how an employee feels about the job and the company.
This is because birthdays are one of life's important moments, along with other major milestones such as anniversaries. You might be surprised to learn that birthdays are actually one of three days when employees can leave their jobs. With high employee turnover, employers should not neglect birthday celebrations. These events provide an opportunity to engage employees and show them that they are valued by team members and by their employer.
To celebrate or not?
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It all depends on whether it’s common for your team to have parties. If you are new to work, it is better to clarify this issue with your colleagues, otherwise you risk getting into trouble.
It’s good if, during your questioning, you manage to find out exactly how holidays are celebrated at your work - whether guests expect a full banquet, or is it enough to bring a cake at lunchtime. If the celebration is limited to just sweets and fruits, there is nothing to worry about. It’s another matter if it’s customary to celebrate holidays on a grand scale – you’ll have to come to terms with material and physical costs. Let’s make a reservation right away, even if you hate your birthday, you still shouldn’t skip the banquet. Don't try to hide a significant date from your colleagues. Usually such things become public anyway, so it’s worth preparing in advance.
By the way, don’t forget to notify your superiors about the upcoming holiday and invite your boss to the table. Whether to come or not is up to him, but corporate etiquette does not recommend bypassing the boss with an invitation.
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Personal opinion
Mikhail Derzhavin
:
There are colleagues with whom you don’t want to celebrate anything, but there are those with whom you can celebrate in the same way as with your family at home. If you have good friends among your colleagues, why not celebrate your birthday at work? It's nice!
D
Birthday is a holiday that everyone looks forward to, because it’s so nice to be in the spotlight, receive gifts and listen to compliments from guests.
Many people celebrate such an event not only at home, in a restaurant or outdoors, but also at work with their employees. Each company has certain traditions for celebrating such an event, which everyone tries to observe, because in some places it is customary to celebrate at lunchtime by putting a cake on the table, and in others it is customary to organize noisy fun with competitions and dancing.
Housework
Naturally, as the birthday person, you will have to take care of food and drinks. The main rule of the “banquet menu” is that food should be convenient to take with your hands. It is better to give up salads and hot dishes in favor of canapés, sandwiches, tartlets and pies. When it comes to drinks, the key here is variety. There should be both “male” and “female” drinks on your table, and, of course, don’t forget about juices and mineral water.
Leading the conversation is also your task. Talking about work during a holiday is considered bad manners. Don't use the party as an excuse for another production meeting or to solve your work problems. Even if the boss is present at the holiday and behaves quite democratically, this does not mean that the time has come to talk about an increase in salary or a request to move you to the next office. It's better to choose something neutral as a topic of conversation, like the weather or the latest movies.
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Smart guys and smart girls
Your company loves intellectual games. Perhaps you are a master of complex board games or a fan of room quests. The IQ of your employees is approximately at the level of Everest and the competition of minds is more interesting for you than the demonstration of muscles. One, of course, does not exclude the other, but priorities are given to thinking abilities.
When planning a treat for a group of smart people, remember about foods that increase brain activity, concentration and the ability to think quickly. Research by scientists has shown that the ideal food for smart people and smart people would be dishes with fatty fish, eggs, grains, avocados, chocolate and nuts.
Therefore, for a small group of intellectuals, we recommend ordering the “Nourishing” buffet set. It includes canapés with roast beef and quail egg, mini bruschetta with salmon, cream cheese and pickled ginger, Atlantic herring rolls, bruschetta with mushroom mousse, and cheese skewers with chocolate and grapes for dessert.
Buffet set “Nourishing” for 5-10 persons from Ministerstvo Catering - 5,160 ₽
If there are more than 15 “bright heads” in the team, choose the “Sea Breeze” set. You will enjoy the taste of mini-burgers with salmon, brusette with Pacific bluefin tuna and salmon fish dressed in Catalan sauce, as well as Chuka salad with Japanese eel.
“Sea Breeze” set for 15 people from Villaggio Fest — 6,400 ₽
In the center of things
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Oddly enough, for many, the most unpleasant thing about celebrating your own birthday is the need to accept congratulations from colleagues. The fact is that responding to compliments correctly is a kind of art that not everyone masters. It is especially difficult for people with low self-esteem: they feel that they do not deserve praise, which makes them embarrassed or suspect their colleagues of insincerity.
Of course, it is unlikely that you will be able to love yourself in an instant, but it is quite possible to hide your embarrassment.
Never make excuses in response to a compliment. If your colleagues praise your figure, you should not refute them and talk about your shortcomings. If someone likes a dress, don't say you bought it at a big discount on sale. Just say “thank you” and smile.
Do not give return compliments that exactly copy the praise given to you. If someone says that you are a brilliant employee and the soul of the team, you should not respond in the spirit of: “Thank you, you too!”
Don't ignore praise. Otherwise, you may be suspected of snobbery and indifference to your colleagues.
Avoid long stories about how you managed to succeed at work, sharpen your figure in the gym, or learn several languages.
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Menu
First of all, it is necessary to develop a menu for the evening, because in addition to drinks, you need to decide on main courses, appetizers and salads.
If you do not want to cook the main dishes, then you can not complicate your life and not spend hours on cooking, but simply order sushi or pizza. The main thing is to place your order in advance so that the courier can deliver the order by the specified time and you don’t have to wait.
If you are an excellent cook and you enjoy preparing delicious delicacies and feeding your colleagues, then show your imagination and listen to compliments from your employees about your luxurious abilities.
When creating a list of snacks, take into account not only your tastes, but also your colleagues. In addition to alcoholic drinks, buy juice, mineral water, coffee and tea, because some people will not drink alcohol due to the fact that they are driving or for other reasons.
Make sandwiches, make some salads and slices.
For example, you can prepare meat, cheese, sweet chocolate or fruit canapés. You can make small sandwiches on bacon.
There shouldn't be any problems with choosing salads. You can prepare “Mimosa”, “Caesar”, “Olivier” and others.
Prepare meat, fruit, cheese or vegetable slices or all at once. Don't forget about bread, loaf or pita bread. As a main course, you can cook baked chicken or meat and potatoes in the oven, fish, rabbit and more, but you will just need to think about how to deliver the dish to work.
Buy something sweet for the table, because usually the meeting ends with tea.
Don't forget to set the table correctly. To do this, purchase a stylish tablecloth, unusual dishes (can be disposable), napkins and towels.
We accept gifts
A birthday without gifts is unthinkable. And here, too, there are certain rules of etiquette.
Even before the holiday starts, take care of your flower vases. Leaving bouquets on the table without placing them in water is impolite.
Be sure to unwrap the gift. Even if there are a lot of presents, putting them aside without opening them is considered a gross violation of politeness.
Thank the person who gave you the souvenir. At the same time, look into the guest’s eyes, and not at the gift.
If you have been given an expensive item, you should not express too much enthusiasm about its price. Your gratitude to your guests should be the same, no matter who spent how much.
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Room.
A well-decorated room is the success of a wonderful mood.
Balloons are considered an indispensable attribute of a birthday, because they create a cheerful atmosphere and improve mood. It is very important to choose the right color, for example, white and silver balls are suitable for men, and multi-colored ones for women.
Much attention should be paid to the location of the balls. You can order an original figure made from balloons or choose an arch. If you are planning an event to mark an anniversary, you can order numbers from balloons that will express the age of the birthday person.
To decorate the room, you can choose flower arches, arches made of sweets, toys, but this type of decoration is more suitable for women, because not all men love flowers, and some even believe that flowers are intended exclusively for the fair sex.
You can also beautifully decorate a room with the help of posters. You can also decorate the walls with photographs, just don’t put them on tape, because you can buy special frames that will match the design of the room.
It will be fun to decorate a room using fluorescent paints, but the procedure for applying them should be treated extremely carefully and responsibly.
If you are a guest
Interesting
Scientists from the USA have found that people get drunk faster at office parties than if they drink at a bar. And it's not the lack of snacks or strong alcohol. It turns out that drinking alcohol in a non-drinking environment (such as an office) makes people less resistant to alcohol. The fact is that the brain perceives signals of intoxication better when we are in a familiar atmosphere. Therefore, when we drink alcohol in a familiar bar or at home, it is easier for us to stop and refuse another glass. In the office, strong drinks are rarely consumed, so clerks easily lose their heads.
If a colleague invited you to his birthday, you will have to stop by for at least a few minutes. If you have not only business, but also friendly relations with the hero of the occasion, it would be useful to offer your help in organizing the party and buy a gift. At the same time, remember that there is a whole list of gifts that are not customary to give to colleagues, even if the colleague is your friend. This list includes:
Jewelry. They cannot be given even to women.
Perfumes and cosmetics. Even if it seems to you that you know the person’s tastes well, such a gift may be interpreted as a hint that you are not satisfied with the appearance of your colleague.
Strong alcohol and smoking accessories.
When giving a gift, you cannot:
Talk about the difficulties you had to experience while you were looking for the right thing.
Apologize for giving a gift that is not the one you would like to give.
Asking if the person liked the gift.
What to order from delivery?
This is wonderful and very tasty, you say, but what about those people who do not have a lot of free time or simply do not know how to cook food more complicated than dumplings?
Fortunately, the modern world gives us an amazing opportunity to have other people organize everything for you. As they say, every whim is for your money!
ADVICE ! You can go to the website of your favorite restaurant and find out if they offer food delivery and how much it costs (as a rule, a similar service exists in mid-range restaurants).
Just don't do everything at the last minute if the order turns out to be really impressive. Otherwise, you risk missing out on opportunities due to lack of time. You'll have to rush around your own kitchen in a panic, trying to cook something original.
You can also contact any trusted delivery service and pre-order by choosing your favorite dishes. All you have to do is unpack the food from the containers and set the festive table with dignity.
True, it will be very ascetic: basically such services offer:
- pizza;
- pies;
- burgers;
- sushi and rolls;
- kebabs.
IMPORTANT ! All hot “traditional” delivered dishes will arrive to you in a not very presentable form.
The most budget option
And finally, a more economical option is to buy salads and meat yourself in the hypermarket, in the culinary department. However, be careful: the food there sometimes leaves much to be desired, so it is better to stick to those stores where the price is a little higher (but the quality is better).
But this is a really smart step in conditions of acute time constraints. You can even pass off the salads as your own if none of your colleagues guess.
In general, noisy gatherings among colleagues are gradually losing ground and becoming a thing of the past. In their place are laconic and rather economical tea parties, and this is reasonable. Not all co-workers have close relationships with each other, so there is no point in organizing a large feast.
"Polygraph"
A prank game for which you need to prepare in advance cards with questions and cards with answers that would both be suitable for the prepared questions and would be absurd. For example, the question is: “Are you capable of starting an office romance?” The answer is: “Yes, but only on Tuesdays.” Participants draw cards in a circle: one draws, reads a question to the neighbor on the right, he draws a card with the answer, reads it out loud, immediately draws a card with a question, ask it to the neighbor on the right, etc. There are no winners or losers in this competition. This is a simple table entertainment that guarantees a great mood for everyone.
“Fast preparation – less bitterness”
Employees are divided into several teams, it all depends on the number of invitees. Each team is given the task of getting dressed for the road. Each team is given a suitcase containing a lot of things.
Players need to run to the suitcase and put on all the clothes that are in it. After clapping their hands, they take off their things, throw them back and pass the so-called baton to the next. So, everyone takes turns putting on their clothes, and the team that completes the task the fastest wins.
The winning team is awarded a prize, and the participant who performed the process in the most erotic way is awarded a unique prize.
You can play “crocodile”. The principle of the game is that a person is given a word, he must depict it without words.
Such a game always causes laughter in a cheerful company, especially if it is simply impossible to depict an animal well, think for yourself, how will you, for example, depict a jellyfish? What about the mushroom? Therefore, feel free to play the game and you will get a wonderful boost of mood.
"Understand me"
In this competition, everyone can feel like a boss. Ideally, this role is assigned to the hero of the occasion. The birthday boy puts on headphones in which he will listen to music loudly and try to read his lips what the “subordinate” is saying to him. “Subordinates” play for themselves, trying to pronounce as clearly as possible the sentence given to them in the note (they pull blindly). It is best to choose phrases like this: • Can I go home early? • Let me go on vacation. • I want a salary increase. • Pay me a bonus. Important! Giving the “boss” hints using gestures is prohibited. If the “boss” guesses what the subordinate is telling him, the latter gets one point. The winner is the one who has the most of them at the end of the game.
"Fairytale Story"
An improvisation game that is guaranteed to lift everyone's spirits. It is carried out for two teams, the participants of which draw lots to determine which hero of the fairy tale “Kolobok” they will have to portray. There is no need to rehearse the “production” in advance. Teams take turns demonstrating their versions of the kolobok, focusing as they go on the text read out by the presenter. The group of participants that turns out to be the most artistic and creative wins. Important! It is not forbidden to say something out loud, or to use “props”, that is, improvised objects.
