When did your workplace last make you truly feel like you were being celebrated, not for reaching a goal, not for closing a deal, but simply for being another year older, wiser, and still alive and active in the lives of those around you? This feeling happens less often than it should.
iARATech takes birthdays seriously. Not in a way where employees have to pretend to have fun; but in a way that feels genuine and shows we actually care about the people who work here. There’s cake. Everyone in the team gathered together. There’s the moment when an employee who usually flies under the radar because he/she/they spend most of the day doing great things is in the middle of a room full of people who can’t help but smile at them because they appreciate that the employee exists.
Appreciation doesn’t require anything complex to be effective, it only requires honesty.
When iARATech began its journey, the founders created the company based upon the belief that people perform their best when they are treated as valuable members of the team. Not by being monitored or controlled, but by being valued. That principle does not turn off just because we are not reviewing employee performance or winning clients. It appears unexpectedly when an employee walks into the office to discover his/her/their coworkers waiting with a cake and singing with all their might to celebrate the employee’s birthday.
Birthday celebrations at iARATech are also quietly collaborative. All 30+ of the team members showed up, not because they saw it on a calendar reminder, but because showing up to support one another is important. The time spent in the meeting room to honour an employee’s birthday represents a few minutes away from the tasks each employee performs daily to communicate that this individual’s life is worth interrupting for. As this type of interaction develops among employees and eventually among departments, the lines of communication become slightly softer and the employees become, over time and in earnest, a community.
Whereas before the employee may have felt he/she/they were working with others, he/she/they now see themselves working with a team. A birthday celebration at iARATech is not merely about having a cake; it serves as a constant reminder that regardless of what task an employee completes, what role they play, and Regardless of whether they complete a project, Each employee is a whole human being worthy of being celebrated loudly, joyously, and with as much icing and frosting as possible.