Stop with All the Ultra-Specific Appreciation Days — Just Have One Staff Appreciation Week
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues for consolidating the many separate appreciation days into one meaningful staff appreciation week.
Key Takeaways
- Appreciation day overload dilutes meaning - When every role gets its own day, none of them feel special
- One week for everyone - A single, well-executed staff appreciation week that includes all roles is simpler and more meaningful
- Quality over quantity - One great gesture beats twelve forgettable ones
Transcript
Alright, so here is why we should make Teacher Appreciation Week Staff Appreciation Week and not try to have a separate Appreciation Day or Appreciation Week for everybody else.
Even if you have your own Appreciation Day listed on a calendar like that, here's why I think you should not take it and say, nope, just celebrate me during Staff Appreciation Week when we're going to celebrate everyone.
And if you are a teacher, here is why I think it's not worth hogging Teacher Appreciation Week and saying, no, no, it's just for us.
You guys get your own day.
Look at this list.
And I've seen lots of lists go around like this, like National Social Worker Day, Social Worker Appreciation Week, Maintenance Worker Appreciation Day, Bus Driver Day, National Principal Month, Assistant Principal Day.
The list is endless.
And I think it's great to recognize.
Everybody deserves to be recognized.
Absolutely.
Everybody deserves to be appreciated.
But here's what happens.
Somebody is going to be left out and somebody is going to find their appreciation day is just subpar.
Even if they get remembered, they get way less stuff and recognition than everyone else.
So my recommendation is just do one staff appreciation week for everybody.
everyone, make sure everyone knows they are included.
Make sure everyone knows that there's not going to be a separate appreciation thing coming from them for them.
And if someone tries to make one for you, if you're the principal and someone tries to bring you stuff on principal appreciation day to say, Oh no, no, no.
You know, a teacher, you know, staff appreciation is in may.
We just do it all together.
And then everybody gets a donut.
Everybody gets the lunch buffet.
Everybody gets a little whatever.
I don't care who, What I get, to me, I think everybody deserves to be appreciated far more than we can do during Teacher Appreciation Week.
But what we don't want to do is end up with a lot of hurt feelings and drama over this stuff.
So if you are trying to satisfy all of these and do something special for every single person in every one of these roles, What's going to happen inevitably is you're going to leave someone out and somebody is going to have hurt feelings or they're going to think they should have been included in the other appreciation day that like sort of overlapped with theirs.
Like it's a nightmare.
Let me know what you think about this.
Do you agree or disagree that we should just have one staff appreciation week for everyone in the school?
Let me know.