Tag: personalized birthday card

A Very Special Personalized Greeting Card

My Mother passed away recently so I had a few of her personal things I packed in boxes to go through at a less emotional time. Mom loved sending personalized greeting cards to family and friends. She had a greeting card for every occasion. It was a ritual for her to go to the store to buy cards all the time. She would always say it makes a person feel special to receive a card, and it was uncanny how she could whip out a card if you needed one for any occasion. As I was going through her things I found some greeting cards she had carefully put away. I came across an envelope addressed to her sister. I carefully opened the unsealed envelope and came across a lovely personalized birthday card she had gotten for her sister’s birthday, which was still a month away.

The personalized birthday card expressed how lucky she was to have her as a sister. It was so touching it brought tears to my eyes. I said to myself, wow she took the time to address and sign the card months ahead so it was up to me to deliver it to my aunt. I mailed the birthday card two days before her birthday and it did arrive exactly on that day. My aunt called me that evening to tell me about her special birthday card.

She was feeling down that morning thinking of her sister not being here to share the day with her as they’ve done in past years. She went to get her mail which came earlier than usual, and when she went through the mail and saw the card addressed in her sister’s handwriting she thought, “How could that be?” She opened the card and read the final loving words sent by her sister for her birthday. She told me how wonderful she felt and the birthday card just made her entire day because she did spend her birthday with her sister after all, and she will cherish her last birthday card from my Mom until they see each other again someday. My Mother was so right when she said “a greeting card of any kind will always make a person feel special.”

An Employee Birthday Card Finally Made This Worker Feel Appreciated!

Employers may wonder whether it is a good idea to send employee birthday cards to their workers. I’d like to relate the tale of the first time I received one of these birthday greeting cards and how much it was appreciated.

To begin with, let me state that my previous employment history consisted of less-than-stellar circumstances. It started in high school when I was employed as an indoor helper in a large garden center. The store micro-manager would stand with his hands on his hips analyzing my floor sweeping technique, occasionally snatching the broom himself to show me the “right” way to sweep the floor – from the perimeter to the center of the store in a symmetrical pattern. You can trust that he never cared enough to give me an employee birthday card!

Then there was the summer job I held in college at the office headquarters of a large grocery store chain. The executive that I worked under spoke to me three times all summer and called me “Byron” instead of “Brandon” each time. And finally, there was the rather sadistic pharmacist I worked for whose only interaction was to thrust a feather-duster into your hands if he saw that you didn’t have any work to do for all of five seconds, or to run outside screaming and shaking his fist at you if you returned from deliveries after 32 minutes when he thought that you should have been back after 28.

After these experiences, you can imagine my surprise and delight when I received a personalized birthday card on the occasion of my first birthday with my current employer. The employee birthday card was signed by my manager as well as all of the members of the executive committee. And best of all, everyone got my name right! What I learned is that my company gives birthday cards as a classy way to show appreciation to their employees. So I would say to any employer that it is well worth the time, money and effort to send employee birthday cards. Your thoughtfulness is likely to be paid back many times over.