How Can We Celebrate Employees' Real Birthdays Without Legal Issues?

Dear All,

I need suggestions on the above topic.

Actually, I have a plan to celebrate a birthday party for our employees on the last date of every month or the last Saturday. Additionally, I plan to send a birthday greeting card to their home on that day.

As per company rules, I have collected the certificate birth dates and recorded them. However, most of the employees have real birthdays that differ from their certificate birth dates. In such cases, the party or card is not as effective.

Therefore, I plan to collect the real dates and keep a separate record of them (which is possible in my company since the staff is small). However, some people say the company should not engage in such practices as it may be against the law, etc.

What can we do about this? What's wrong with it?

Regards,
Ramya Shankar

Hi Ramaya,

I don't think any employee has problems disclosing their correct date of birth. The year of birth may be something they prefer to keep private, but as for the date of birth, I don't see why they claim it goes against practice. Kindly inform them that only the date of birth is required, not the year. 😛

Regards,
Sujata

Hi Ramaya,

We have a similar practice where we celebrate the birthdays of all the employees together on the last Friday of the month. I was also facing the same problem, but then I asked all the people to send their original birthdates for HR records only, and they all sent them. Now we celebrate their birthdays and anniversaries both. There is nothing illegal in taking the original birthdates. Don't worry and plan ahead.

Cheers,
Archna

Hi Ramya,

I don't think anything is like that because in our office, we celebrate employees' birthdays on their real date, not on the official date. So, go ahead and do that, but the only difference is that we celebrate it on the same day. Instead of sending physical cards to their homes, we send E-cards to their official email IDs. These cards are sent from HR, keeping all other employees in BCC.

Regards,
Wricha.

Hi Ramya,

Even we have this practice of celebrating employees' birthdays, and we follow the original dates rather than the certificate dates. No problem, you can carry on.

Sirisha Reddy

Hi Ramya,

We also celebrate birthdays in our company. What I have done is prepared a greeting card and sent it to their ID allocated by the company; you can try this too.

Regards,
Derek

The link Vijaya Lakshimi sent is very useful. That has really helped me and surprises my friends how I keep track on their birthdays and send them an e-card even long after we have lost constant touch. It gives you several reminders days ahead.
Anyway with regard Ramya's original question I don't think it is illegal to celebrate the birthday on a different day from the actual birth date. A person might chose a different day due to reason of his own and as long as this is not used in any legal activity and in your case just to greet the person, I really can't see anything wrong!

Hi Ramya,

As you have mentioned that the number of employees is fewer in your organization, you can approach them personally and ask them for their birthdays. There's nothing wrong in that.

In my company, I follow a practice by writing down the person's name (who has his/her birthday) on the respective date in my diary. Each morning when I come to the office, I look into my diary to see if anybody's birthday is there. I send a birthday mail to that person's official email id, and we also personally wish that person by calling him/her up.

Regards,
Rekha

Thank you very much to all - Sujata, Archna, Sirsta, Derek, Rekha & Vijayalakshmi. I will collect the original DOB and will celebrate hereafter. Thank you once again.

Ramya Shankar

Hi Vijaylakshmi,

Thank you so much for this link. I am somebody who forgets my parents' marriage anniversary every year, so remembering birthdays is a long way off for me. This site will save me from a lot of thrashing. 😄

Regards,
Devjit