6 ms·
Is that a thing in the US, taking a day off on your birthday? To the best of my knowledge, nobody does that in Europe - certainly not in the Netherlands.
by englishrookie 6y ago
Is that a thing in the US, taking a day off on your birthday? To the best of my knowledge, nobody does that in Europe - certainly not in the Netherlands.
- function_seven 6y agoAs far as I know it's not a thing here, either. I've known one or two that do, but in my experience the vast majority of people will celebrate their birthday on the nearest weekend, if they do so at all.
- fogihujy 6y agoIt does happen in Europe too; It's more of a personal preference than an actual thing, though.
- mschuster91 6y agoDepends on where in Europe you are and how much the people you know value getting wasted or stoned. Personally, I prefer taking off at birthday + 1 day after.
- markus92 6y agoDutchie here, most of my colleagues do.
- kjakm 6y agoIt's probably just a personal thing. I'm in Europe and always take my birthday off - I don't understand why anybody would want to work on their birthday. Even if I don't have plans to celebrate until the weekend the idea of working on my birthday is very depressing (in fact in rarely celebrate my birthday and if I do it's something small like dinner with a couple of friends). To be honest I thought it would be more prevalent in Europe given we seem to get more time off and taking time off is less 'frowned upon' (at least this is my experience compared with my US based colleagues).
- Reason077 6y ago> "I don't understand why anybody would want to work on their birthday." Well, if you're lucky, your co-workers will chip in and buy a cake!
- onehp 6y agoIn all the work environments I've been in (UK) the culture is the opposite, as the birthday person you are expected to bring in cake.
- danpalmer 6y agoAnd I've had exactly the opposite experience in the UK. I think this depends entirely on the workplace.
- Reason077 6y agoIn that case, I'd be trying to keep my birthday a secret!
- inglor_cz 6y ago"I wasn't born. I just ... slowly coalesced over a year or so, just like celestial bodies do."
- oblio 6y agoYeah. I've worked in multiple places in Europe and people except you to bring a cake or something. They might pitch in and buy you a small present, in return. But they definitely expect you to bring a cake or at least some sweets.
- pedro596 6y agoI'm from Europe and in my past job my team had the tradition of having cake bought or baked by the guy celebrating his birthday.
- brmgb 6y ago
- heyoo 6y agoDane here. Also never heard of this. People often bring cake to work on birthdays, though.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jahller 6y agoGerman here: I always try to take a day off. Not as a rule in general, just a personal preference.
- ariejan 6y agoWell, I do. So there's at least one of us. Then again, I grew up having my birthday in the "herfstvakantie" and the habit kind of stuck :-)
- petercooper 6y agoIt's debatable whether the UK is "in Europe" but all my employees take their birthdays off, as does my wife. It seems to be hugely common here. I don't do it though because I just don't see the point.
- collyw 6y agoSome people do. I wouldn't say its the norm, but maybe one in five people do it in my anecdotal experience.
- watwut 6y agoNever seen anyone to take a day off on birthday. Living in Europe too.