Workaversary or Workiversary? (or something better?)
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by Rick Joi Rick Joi is the founder of The Workiversary Group and author of the award‑winning book, Inspiring Work Anniversaries. |
What’s the correct spelling of the mashup of the words work and anniversary?
It’s workiversary.
The statistics
Correct spelling generally comes down to popularity. The most common spelling is the better one because it’s more recognized and less distracting.
On Google, the search term workiversary is three times more popular than workaversary.
On Instagram #workiversary is twice as popular as #workaversary.
On X, #workiversary is twenty times more popular than #workaversary.
The why
There are a couple reasons why workiversary is more popular than workaversary.
First, in the mashup of work and anniversary, the part of “anniversary” being added to work is spelled with an i, not an a.
Second, workaversary subtly hints at the words averse and adversary, which both have negative connotations. They are the opposite of what most people are intending when celebrating a work anniversary. (This is subtle, but perhaps workaversary is the spelling for someone who hates their job and is thinking about quitting as their work anniversary comes around.)
Should it be hyphen-ated?
No.
Word mashups (more formally called portmanteaus) are more fun when you go all-in and treat them like real words. If you’re uncomfortable about the word workiversary not being in the major dictionaries, then just go with the two words work anniversary.
Is there something better?
Yes!
If you want to make your culture more fun and work anniversary celebrations more special, then use a mashup of your organization’s name and the word anniversary instead.
Here are some examples of organization’s and their custom name for work anniversary:
Automattic: Matticversary
Elantis Solutions: Elantiversary
Facebook: Faceversary
Google: Googleversary
Oho group: Ohoversary
Sherpa: Sherpaversary
Vaco: Vacoversary
The best mashups use one or two syllables from the unique part of the company name. If there’s an /i/ or /uh/ sound, then that goes right before “versary”.
What if your company name just doesn’t work?
Some company names are made up of generic words. Some are too long to add another four syllables from -iversary to. You may still be able to figure something out, though!
One of the biggest organizations with a unique work anniversary name not based on their company name is T-Mobile. They are strongly associated with the very unique color of magenta and they celebrate each employee’s Magentaversary.
Is there a unique word other than your company name that is positively associated with your organization?
For example, if you were trying to come up with a unique work anniversary name for employees of the Philadelphia Phillies (a baseball team in the U.S.), then you would run into the problem that using Philadelphia or Phillies is too generic because it might denote an anniversary of moving to Philadelphia.
If you tried to think of a unique and positive word associated with the team, you would quickly think of their mascot, the Phillie Phanatic. From there, you could make up the word Phanativersary, which plays off the positivity and uniqueness of the word Phanatic.
Culture is about being unique
What makes a culture special and something that employees want to belong to is the way in which it’s unique and stands out from other organizations.
What you call work anniversaries is a tiny part of your organization’s culture, but a very visible and automatically recurring part.
A unique name for work anniversaries becomes another signal to your employees that being a part of your organization is something special. And, if you don’t have much of an organizational culture, then a unique work anniversary name is an easy place to start.
If you can come up with a unique name for work anniversaries at your organization, that’s the best. If not, then use the word workiversary rather than work anniversary because it’s more creative and fun.
Want to do something really meaningful for a colleague’s work anniversary?
What if it was also low-cost and low-effort?