co workers birthdays

Miami NightNurse · Mar 11, 2008

We have a Birthday Party once a month for everyone who has a birthday that month. I work night shift. Every brings food so it's a pot luck. We don't usually get each other presents. Although occassionally people do. Like last year me and another nurse bought a nurse's aide who was exceptional a gift certificate for him and his wife to eat dinner at an expensive restaurant.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 11, 2008

I have always worked at places that have employee turnover rates close to 100 percent, so we generally don't do anything for anyone's birthday. After all, people generally quit or have their employment terminated prior to their birthdays anyway.

nursejohio, ASN, RN · Mar 11, 2008

My unit does a 'birthday board'. You volunteer to handle a month, and then decorate a poster board with all the names. Everyone gets a goody bag with lipgloss, emory boards, candy and such in it. The actual contents vary by month, but it's supposed to stay between $5-10 per person. Seems to work pretty well, but we've always got a couple overachievers who totally blow the limit:nono:

papmar · Mar 11, 2008

I work nights, and in my unit, we plan to celebrate each night-shift co-worker's birthday. No gifts, just a party. Someone brings a cake, someone else brings sodas, etc. It's nice for everybody (not just the birthday boy/girl). Breaks up the monotony of ordering out/cafeteria left-overs.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Mar 11, 2008

I work in a state agency with 5,000 other people (I'm the only nurse). I learned early on I had to make a decision to either participate in every birthday/retirement/leaving/promotion/birth celebration or none at all. I chose none. It's too much for me to get involved in what could literally be an event every day.

bollweevil · Mar 11, 2008

I don't feel close enough to most of the other workers to spend my hard-earned money on them. I have learned, through painful experience many times in life both on the job and off, that not too many people are loyal enough for me to spend money on them. :cry: It is nice to do some celebrating, though, so it's hard not to get involved at all.

I really wish the rule about not selling stuff at work would be enforced. :angryfireI'm really sick of all the Avon, Girl Scout cookies, & fundraisers for kids' schools, summer camps, and the like. Especially when the managers are selling the stuff, I feel really coerced. Especially when people never have bought from me. And when I was a supervisor, I never asked them, as I thought it wasn't fair to ask a subordinate to buy somemthing my kids' school was selling.

Like Quickbeam, I feel I have to contribute to all or none. And I can't afford it. Lots of times, I'm asked to donate to people I don't even know. Deaths of retirees who have living relatives still working with us, retirees I barely knew, gosh, it gets so frequent and so costly. I feel cheap only giving a couple of dollars and people think RN's should give more than the aides do. But I have limits, too, on discretionary income. On the other hand, I do sometimes like to participate. :bugeyes:

bollweevil · Mar 11, 2008

I work in a state agency with 5,000 other people (I'm the only nurse). I learned early on I had to make a decision to either participate in every birthday/retirement/leaving/promotion/birth celebration or none at all. I chose none. It's too much for me to get involved in what could literally be an event every day.

Isn't it kind of lonely not to participate at all? Do you take food in for the parties, just not donate cash? If not, do you eat anyway, if invited? Do you think they resent you?

If you got sick, would they take up a collection for you? Do you mind if they don't?

Not criticizing, just wondering. I pretty much do what you do - not participate.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Mar 11, 2008

We have a monthly covered dish lunch on day shift to celebrate birthdays for the month. No gifts.

mom4josh · Mar 11, 2008

Most of the people who celebrate special occasions are on day shift. I say happy birthday or whatever, but usually don't do anything special unless the person is a special friend. Unfortunately, there's only one or two of them left.

allnurses Guide · Mar 11, 2008

Our hospital has a big lunch, monthly, for all of the people who have birthdays during that month. In addition, if someone on my shift (night shift) is having a birthday, usually there will either be a pot luck, or everyone will pitch in some money and someone will make a run to the grocery deli for potato salad, chicken, chips and dip, etc. Plus someone will get a cake. No gifts, usually.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2008

Isn't it kind of lonely not to participate at all? Do you take food in for the parties, just not donate cash? If not, do you eat anyway, if invited? Do you think they resent you?
If you got sick, would they take up a collection for you? Do you mind if they don't?
Not criticizing, just wondering. I pretty much do what you do - not participate.

I don't bring in food. I don't go to the parties. I don't contribute to the cards/collections.

I think people would resent me more if I went to occasional events. Everyone knows me (only nurse in a 5,000 person agency) but I only know a handful of them. I think it is more fair to be consistent.

Nope, I don't get lonely. I have a lot of job to do and when I work, I'm friendly but all business. I can't afford to literally put cash in an envelope every single day for people I don't know or who like upthread, are relatives of retirees I never knew. I am often appalled by the free flow of medical information through my agency about employee's health problems. I'm a very private person and I would NOT want my agency to take up a collection for me or my husband in the event of a health crisis. I've officially and unofficially asked to opt out of every social event in my agency.

Perhaps it makes me seem less unfeeling if I explain that most of these events include alcohol...I not only don't drink but my agency oversees highway safety! Most of the upper managers in my agency have had OWIs. I do not want in anyway to allow my presence to indicate I approve of these events.

I certainly understand people who create a social network at work. I'm just not that person. I have a social life away from my job. I also like to role-model for employees that it is ok to not feel pressured into financial ruin by these social events.