Improve work anniversaries at your organization without permission
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
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by Rick Joi Rick Joi is the founder of The Workiversary Group and author of the award‑winning book, Inspiring Work Anniversaries. |
This blog has posts aimed specifically at human resources, managers, CEOs, executive assistants, people on IT support teams, people who work in marketing, graphic designers, and fun/culture committees.
What if none of those roles apply to you?
What if you don’t fill any of the roles covered so far? Do you want to shrug and say, “Not my problem?” Or do you want to prevent your friends at work from having mediocre work anniversaries? Do you want to avoid having a mediocre work anniversary yourself?
As Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander so eloquently put it in The Art of Possibility:
You can lead from any chair
You don’t need the CEO or HR or any of the managers at any of the levels above you to give you permission. You can make work anniversaries where you work better, and you can start right now.
Lead by first knowing yourself
Great leaders are great because they serve others. To serve others well, you need to know yourself enough to avoid inadvertently undermining your own efforts. So before you decide to lead the movement to improve work anniversaries for those around you, check in with yourself to see if you’re truly ready.
Use work anniversaries as an annual opportunity for reflection
One thing that anyone can do to make their own work anniversary meaningful, without being dependent on anyone else, is to use it as a time for reflection.
Ask yourself these questions, and maybe even write out the answers so you can not only clarify your thoughts but also read them next year to see how far you’ve come:
What opportunities did I get at work in the past year?
What projects have I worked on?
What were the interesting moments/memories?
What were the wins?
Who did I meet for the first time?
Who did I get to know better?
How’s my relationship with my manager?
Am I working at my full potential?
Do I feel like I’m part of something meaningful?
Am I still inspired by the purpose of the organization?
No job is perfect, but all things considered, should I stay or should I go?
If you’ve lost your connection with your organization and it’s time to go, there’s no need to read any further. Focus on figuring out the next steps for making that happen rather than focusing on how to improve your colleagues’ work anniversaries.
But if you’re unsure of whether to stay or not, one way to decide is to do the Uncle Ry gift test. That is, ask yourself if you’re willing to give Uncle Ry gifts. If you aren’t, you should probably consider finding another job.
So what’s an Uncle Ry gift? Glad you asked…
Give Uncle Ry gifts
In the story “Uncle Ry and the Moon,” by Jon J. Muth, from his children’s book Zen Shorts, we learn that Uncle Ry “always gives presents on his birthday.” Elementary schools in the United States embrace the same spirit by encouraging students celebrating a birthday to bring in gifts for their classmates instead of the other way around.
You can follow in the footsteps of Uncle Rye (and millions of kindergarteners) and flip the traditional script: rather than expecting to receive on your work anniversary, view your work anniversary as an opportunity to give.
This can have such a powerful ripple effect that you may find the tradition spreads throughout the organization once you get it started. For instance, though the originator is lost to history, Microsoft employees celebrating a work anniversary are expected to bring in and share a pound of M&M’s for every year they’ve worked at Microsoft. That’s about ten standard-size bags for every year.
And there are entire countries where this idea has taken root in a big way. Giving on your work anniversary is the cultural norm in countries such as Austria and the Netherlands, where employees are expected to bring in a work anniversary cake to share with their colleagues at teatime.
Why would you want to give on your work anniversary rather than receive? After all, the day is supposed to be about you, right? Well, neuroscience, psychology, and religion all agree that unhappiness comes from self-centered expectations and feelings of entitlement, while happiness comes from generously giving.
If you’ve built up in your mind what a work anniversary should be and what others should do because it’s your work anniversary, you’ll be unhappy when it falls short. And no matter who you are or how many people read this blog, some—possibly most—of your work anniversaries won’t meet your expectations.
Thus, the path to true happiness on your work anniversary is, to paraphrase the Roman philosopher Cicero (as popularized by John F. Kennedy):
Ask not what others can do for you on your work anniversary,
ask what you can do for others on your work anniversary!
Lead by example
If you’ve reflected on your job and are committed to staying but work anniversaries aren’t handled as well as you’d like at your organization, then let’s get started!
Find out the work anniversaries of those you work with
Start by making a list of the people at work who matter most to you. Who helps make your job easier? Whose jobs do you make easier? Who brightens your day? Who would you miss if they left? Make sure your list has at least ten people on it. Get to twenty if you can.
Next, find out the work anniversaries for each of them. You can ask them directly, but that’s less fun for everyone than you just “magically” knowing. There are a variety of ways to find out:
Figure out when the employee was hired by looking up an old email or group messaging platform message
If your organization mentions work anniversaries in a newsletter, look up old newsletters
If your organization publishes work anniversaries on an intranet, wiki, or somewhere similar, look them up there
Reach out to HR and say you like to acknowledge work anniversaries and ask them where you can find them for your colleagues
If HR says that there isn’t a place where you can access them, ask if they can let you know the ones you’re looking for. If you’re committed to improving work anniversaries for everyone at your organization, tactfully suggest to HR that they publish work anniversaries somewhere so people other than you can join in on spreading the love.
Set reminders
Don’t expect yourself to simply remember everyone’s work anniversary. You’re probably already trying to remember so many birthdays, meetings, holidays, and other event dates that there’s just too much risk you’ll forget one.
You most likely have a way of reminding yourself of things, in which case just plug into that. The two most common approaches are:
Put a recurring annual reminder event on your calendar
Put a recurring annual to-do item in your to‑do list
If you don’t use a calendar or to-do list, you can post a list in your workspace, but in that case you’ll need to figure out how to ensure you don’t forget to look at it regularly.
Acknowledge the work anniversaries of those you work with
You can help make work anniversaries memorable for your coworkers by connecting with them in a meaningful way. As we’ve mentioned in many other blog posts, it’s best to do so on the actual day, but if you can’t, it’s better to be early than late.
Stop by their desk, stay after the meeting, or catch them in the break room and congratulate them. If you and/or they work remotely, initiate a video call. Here are three powerful topics of conversation:
Let them know what makes them special – Tell them the three words you think of when you think of them or otherwise share the unique ways they stand out from the rest of the team
Remind them of interesting or memorable moments the two of you shared – What will you never forget? What did you do together for the first time in the past year? What happened that was funny? What happened that was touching?
Share why you’re thankful they’re with the organization – Describe how different your life would be without them, describe how different the lives of others in the organization would be without them, or maybe point out a specific skill that makes them especially helpful
We don’t have conversations like that enough. If we all had them more, we could cure impostor syndrome. It can be awkward to start them out of the blue, but a colleague’s work anniversary is the perfect opening!
You can make these conversations even more impactful—and your relationships stronger—by actively collecting thoughts for work anniversary conversations throughout the year. Jot down notes year-round and you’ll amaze coworkers with your recall at their next work anniversary.
For each of the ten to twenty people on your work anniversary list, ask yourself these questions:
How do I connect with them on a human level?
How do I support their passions?
When will I talk to them next?
What question can I ask them about what they care about most?
This next suggestion isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy tracking things, use a spreadsheet to create a grid of each month of the year and your ten to twenty work anniversary connections—and then commit to learning one new thing a month from each connection and putting it in the spreadsheet.
However you do it, making connections takes some time and initiative, but you’ll find that the internal network it builds will greatly help you succeed at your current organization and beyond and make your work life—and the work lives of those around you—more fulfilling.
Use LinkedIn’s work anniversary feature to maintain your network
Acknowledging work anniversaries doesn’t have to be limited to the people you work with at your organization. LinkedIn makes it extremely easy to congratulate people who work at organizations all over the world.
Admittedly, LinkedIn’s work anniversary feature is often derided, and there are good reasons for the derision:
Getting a single-button-click “Congrats on your work anniversary” message from someone you barely know feels very disingenuous
Getting a sales pitch from someone you don’t know that’s disguised as a work anniversary congratulations message is an annoying waste of your time
LinkedIn often doesn’t know that someone has died and will dredge up sad feelings every year when it asks their colleagues to wish the dead person a happy work anniversary (if this is happening to you, see the how to report a death to LinkedIn blog post)
But even with those drawbacks, the LinkedIn work anniversary feature exists for a reason and can work well if you know how to use it. It’s an easy way to help you maintain the weaker connections in your professional network. Conversations with those connections will spark thoughts and ideas that help you in your current job, and if for any reason you need to find a new job, a strong extended network will help you do so quickly.
Any time someone you know uses the LinkedIn feature to wish you a happy work anniversary, know that means they feel some sort of connection to you and have at least some interest in you. They may have sent you a generic message, but they did think of you. If they’re clearly trying to sell you something, ignore them, but if they’re a former colleague, strongly consider replying to them that it’s been a while and asking if they’d like to schedule a video call to catch up. Post-pandemic, this is a lot easier than it used to be, and an option most people appreciate.
You can also use LinkedIn’s work anniversary feature to initiate conversations. Any time you see that someone in your extended network is having a work anniversary, consider sending them a message. LinkedIn also now has a page that lists all the upcoming work anniversaries in your network, so you don’t have to passively rely on seeing notifications.
Don’t send the canned “congratulations” message, though. Instead, say that when you saw they were having a work anniversary, it reminded you that you haven’t been in touch for a while and let them know you’d like to reconnect.
It’s easier to rekindle a friendship than to make a new one
Sure, there may be a lot of people you’re connected with on LinkedIn who you don’t want to invest time in, but don’t let that get in the way of reaching out to those you do.
What about making baked goods or creating personalized digital artwork?
These options aren’t for everyone, and perhaps not for most people, but if you love baking or creating art, then check out this blog post about work anniversary baked goods or this blog post about work anniversary artwork.
The managers blog post isn’t just for managers
Now let’s think bigger. Do you want to be a manager someday?
You don’t need permission to start practicing right now.
Sure, walking around giving people orders won’t turn out well, but that’s not what great managers do. Great managers appreciate, encourage, and empower their employees, and work anniversaries are an opportunity to appreciate and encourage. (You can empower once you’re promoted.)
If your manager isn’t doing the things in
the work anniversary tips for managers blog post blog post,
you can start doing them
This isn’t for everyone, as it’s extra work your organization may not care about, but it’s great practice for ambitious employees who one day want to be managers, either at their current organization or at their next one.
If this is for you, check out the work anniversary tips for managers blog post.
Lead by enrolling others
As is the theme in this blog post, you don’t have to wait until you have an official leadership position to practice leading.
Leadership is having a vision and
inspiring others to contribute to that vision
You don’t have to be limited to leading your peers. You can also lead those above you in the official hierarchy. You can lead your manager. You can lead their manager. You can lead the CEO. You can lead the heads of IT and marketing.
Here’s a simple (not easy, but simple) model of leadership:
Develop a vision of how the world could be better than it is today
Make that vision concrete and easy to see by finding examples, mocking up pictures, or doing a small‑scale pilot
Figure out who can contribute to making the vision real
Figure out concrete next steps that other people can take to make the vision real
Inspire those people with your vision and ask them to take those next steps
When people decline to help, consider using that as feedback to improve your vision and next steps
There are many variables, such as where your organization is starting from, who you have the best access to, and what you’re most enthusiastic about, but if you have the enthusiasm, you can find ideas throughout this blog for other roles and work on getting other people involved in doing them.
The frontline employee checklist ✔
A true leader doesn’t need an official hierarchical position or title to start leading.
Make a list of the people you care about most at work
Find out the work anniversaries of those people
If the previous step is hard, encourage HR to make it easier
Set a reminder for each work anniversary
Deliberately build your relationship with each person on your list
Acknowledge the work anniversary of each person on your list with a heartfelt conversation about what they mean to you
If you’d like to be a manager someday and your manager isn’t acknowledging work anniversaries, consider taking on that responsibility yourself
If you love baking, you work on a co-located team, and you’re able to take on the commitment, consider baking for your colleagues’ work anniversaries
If you do a form of artwork that lends itself to custom pieces celebrating work anniversaries and can take on the commitment, consider doing custom artwork for your colleagues’ work anniversaries
If you’d like to be a leader someday, consider figuring out how to enroll others in improving work anniversaries at your organization