When you receive a birthday card at work do you push it to the side, do you toss it next to your TPS reports and let it collect dust? If that describes your yearly birthday ritual maybe it is time to start thinking about this another way. In a world of impersonal hiring and firings, where a lot of workers barely actually set foot in an office…there’s something special about being remembered. There’s something special about not being forgotten. There’s something special about those birthday cards.
Business birthday cards signed by your co-workers are a keep-sake. Believe me; I have a whole wall of them. Take some time to look at these old cards. Oh look, there’s when I turned 35. Bill from accounting wrote about how my Yankees aren’t that good. Little did he know they would go on and win the World Series that year! Now let’s gander at the year I turned 32. Nancy from production drew a funny picture of my cat Smitty. Little did I know I would end up getting Smitty cat friend to live with that we now call Ms. Holly. And little did I know I would have to deal with seven kittens then next year. All these birthday cards are reminders of where we’ve been and how we got here. Not to mention it’s nice to know your boss cares a little bit.
Let me clarify something here. Office birthday cards are only fun if people write something unique and personal in them. I have this coworker the writes “Enjoy your bday” to everyone…even her good friends. It’s people like her that I wish just didn’t sign my cards at all.
Matty–You are so right! Being that one’s birthday is the really the most special of all special days in the year, receiving a card from the bosses makes it even that much more joyous. One thing I wonder about, though – when you mention that you turned 35 and that the Yankees won the World Series that year, was it 1996 that you are referring to? Just wondering.
I have never thought of keeping my cards and mounting them on the wall. The first year would be a sad a lonely year for the card but now it would have 8 other buddies!