What on earth do you do when your family has over six hundred members and they all, of course, have birthdays? Sun International Resort in Livingstone has that number of staff and we regard ourselves as one family. We care for each other and we certainly have to remember each others’ birthdays.
For years we have been sending out cards to each staff member on their birthdays. It has been a struggle to remember them all and, we also thought, that a birthday card on its own was rather dull. So what could we do? Could we give them all a party? Certainly not; we would be spending every day having them. Finally we came up with the idea that we would have monthly parties for the staff with birthdays in that month.
The other day we had a party for our February babies, as we call the staff members who are born in that month. Their ages ranged from 20 to 50 years; their occupations ranged from cleaner to manager. And we all had so much fun.
It started off, as most occasions do, with some short speeches to wish them all a happy birthday and thank them all for their contribution to the smooth-running of the hotel. After that, Cynthia, our resident songbird took over the microphone and sang ‘happy birthday’. Then the birthday babies wanted to get up and have a sing, and they did. Then they wanted to dance, so they did. Meanwhile a group of them were playing football with the balloons.
We cut a huge cake and ate it, along with some sumptuous snacks all made especially for us by the kitchen staff. After about an hour, the senior management left to get on with their work, leaving the birthday boys and girls to continue their fun. We knew that, probably, all the balloons would be popped in a short time; and that many more of them would take up the microphone to try their hand at being superstars. I hoped too that the staff would cut up the rest of the cake to take home for their families to enjoy.
For us, as management, it is such a pleasure to see our staff members in a different light, away from the pressure of work. We forget while we are looking after our guests, that we like to have fun too sometimes.
