As we roll into a new year, many companies are thinking about new policies or perks to keep their teams motivated and happy. Forget the usual “paid holidays” list you’ve seen a hundred times. At McFarland Productions, we like to shake things up. One of our favorite perks? Birthday Day Off.
Every team member gets their birthday as a paid personal holiday. Why? Because no one wants to be answering emails or pounding keyboards on their birthday. I sure don’t. Birthdays are for slow mornings, zero agendas, and celebrating the people we are. So we made it a company policy: take your birthday off, paid and guilt-free.
And we make it flexible. If your birthday falls on a weekend, even better, you get the weekday closest to your birthday off. That turns it into a long weekend and gives our team an extra reason to relax, recharge, and celebrate. It’s simple, thoughtful, and surprisingly rare in most workplaces.
Birthday Day Off is about more than just time off. It’s about respect, respect for life outside work, respect for the people who make our business thrive, and respect for the little moments that matter most. When our team members return, they’re recharged, appreciated, and ready to bring their best selves to their work.
Implementing a Birthday Day Off policy might seem small, but the impact is huge. It communicates that your company values people over processes, health over deadlines, and life over lines of code. It encourages employees to step away, rest, and celebrate themselves. And it can do wonders for morale, engagement, and loyalty.
For managers wondering how to start, it’s simple: pick a day, mark it as a paid personal holiday in your system, and tell your team, no guilt, no questions asked. Add the weekend adjustment for birthdays that fall on Saturdays or Sundays, and you’ve created a perk that is memorable, meaningful, and easy to administer.
As we plan for a new year, consider this: perks don’t have to be complicated or expensive to make a real difference. Birthday Day Off is one of the easiest ways to show your team you care and to create a culture where work respects life, not the other way around.
If you want to implement one thing in 2026 that your employees will talk about, this is it. Celebrate your team, celebrate life, and let birthdays be what they were meant to be special.
