Do you ever take the day off just because it’s your birthday?
Have you rung work and told them you’re sick so that you could have your birthday off?
It seems that more and more businesses are giving employees the day off, with companies like American Express advertising for staff with the promise that “as a special thank you, you will never have to work on your birthday again!”
News.com.au published the article Birthday leave the latest office perk claiming that the practice is becoming more widespread.
Of course there’ll always be someone willing to pour cold water over someone else’s good idea.
Organisational psychologist Christopher Shen welcomed the initiative but warned that it might be open to abuse.
“It’s a wonderful initiative but the complexities need to be considered and some boundaries set,” he said.
“People could start trying to replace their own birthday with a another special day such as a wedding. I think that’s problematic because it makes it difficult for managers to assess the merits of these claims and it opens up the prospect of discriminatory behaviour.”
Mr Shen also warned about the threat to staff morale if birthday cakes disappeared from the workplace.
“These events are seemingly unimportant but can actually be critical to building a good atmosphere at work,” he said.
I was a little gobsmakced with the idea that birthday cakes would disappear from the work place just because the person wasn’t there on that particular day. What happens for those who have a birthday on the weekend? If your workplace is anything like ours, we just have the cake before or after the day. Thankfully there are some people who can think things through.
Courtney Tippett, marketing project manager with telco Fone Zone, which offers birthday leave to all its employees, said her company had a different solution to the cake problem.
“We have it the day before,” she said.
So, would you take your birthday off if you were offered the opportunity? I love my job so I don’t mind being at work on the day. Besides, I’d probably end up be the only one at home. That’s no way to celebrate.
Do you think birthday leave is a good thing?
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