I love other people’s happiness so much I asked to make it my official duty at work. I even got a budget for it and everything. By “budget” I mean I have a challenge to buy something for everyone from Daiso. Boy, there are some fun and bizarre items on the shelves there.

We tend to celebrate the achievements of people who work on projects and campaigns because look! Something new and shiny! We don’t always acknowledge the people who work to keep the business running daily in the same way.

I wanted to level the playing field, and celebrate the achievements of all team members so I came up with an idea: Work Birthdays! Celebrating people’s achievements over the past year on their anniversary. Team members come and go so it’s worth celebrating those who remain by recognising another year of a job well done.

In the context of work, an anniversary is better than an actual birth date because every chump alive was born - their parents did the heavy lifting there; not everyone can progress their career and personal development - that needs to be earned.

It means a bit of extra work for me on weekends to buy work birthday gifts, and coordinate messages with team leaders, which I then hand write in cards I’ve hoarded over the years. We then present the gift and card to team members in our weekly group meetings, and then on their actual anniversary day I send an email of what we wrote in their card.

It’s corny but I don’t care. It makes other people happy and lets them know that they are appreciated. Happy work birthday!