Pass the Cake
I had to do this. It’s not very nice of me, but office birthdays are getting out of control.
Look, I’m ALL FOR a reason to have a good time. I’ll celebrate a holiday I didn’t know existed. ESPECIALLY during work hours. However, something that has me just chapped is celebrating coworkers birthdays on a weekday, when their birthday isn’t until the weekend.
If your birthday falls on a weekend and you’re a nine-to-fiver, congratulations. You don’t have a work-birthday this year. This is something to embrace. But wait a minute…. For some reason, people feel the need to throw a party on Friday, rather than embrace this amazing gift of birthday alignment.
This is usually done by the “mother figure” of the office, not the birthday boy or girl. Hell, the birthday person is not thinking about how to celebrate their day at work. They are thinking about their real birthday. The one where they are going to get clobbered by drinks and activities AWAY FROM WORK. The way birthdays should be. They are NOT excited to get Happy Bday sang to them in the conference room, and work at a desk filled with balloons and confetti. That cake you brought?? Yeah, it sucks and there isn’t enough to go around.
I’m not saying to ignore your coworkers birthdays. Acceptable replacements would be:
- “Hey ______, have a great birthday this weekend!”
or on Monday:
- “How was your birthday?”
The details of one’s birthday plans should be left off the work floor. You only get those specifics if you are friends with the person outside of work. If you do find yourself in this situation birthday people, keep your plans short and sweet. Be very careful of a slippery slope here. We both know you don’t need the office clown showing up, and details just lead to more details on the dreaded Monday.
And for crying out loud, please refrain from mentioning specific birthday plans in front of the boss. ESPECIALLY if the “real” birthday falls on a Sunday. This should be automatic people, but hey these days you never know.
