Birthdays in the workplace

I recently received additions to my collection of greeting cards and added another candle to the old birthday cake, officially making it a towering inferno of chocolate. Birthdays can become such a stressful experience for everyone involved: Coming up with party ideas, buying birthday supplies, and dealing with invitations can suck all the happy out of any birthday. And when you add the workplace into the mix, sometimes you’re better off just hiding under your bed than dealing with the embarrassment. I asked around for some stories about birthdays at work and heard tales that were good, bad, and ugly.

An arresting celebration

Birthday celebrations in the workplace used to be as simple as buying a cake and singing “Happy Birthday” for each person. When the staff is larger, the birthdays are more frequent and with everyone counting calories, this tradition may become one of the past. I have seen some groups doing a free day off on your birthday, which is appreciated by the employee and better on everyone's budget and waistline.

A few years ago, a key member of our staff was celebrating a birthday. Well-liked by all, someone bought him a huge cake, we gathered around his cubicle to sing to him, everyone got a slice of cake and dispersed back to their desks to tend to the demanding workload going on. The birthday boy was left with the cake and the cake knife on his desk. Big cake, big knife. He wiped the frosting off the knife and placed it in his rolling bag, figuring he would take it home to wash and return to the person that brought it.

About two days later, birthday boy was going on a business trip with another staff member. I received a call saying he had been arrested at the airport. I thought it was a joke. Apparently, he forgot about the knife in his bag until airport security pulled it out. He was handcuffed in the middle of the airport, taken to jail, spent the day in jail and was charged with a felony. Unfortunately due to the size of the knife, they were required to arrest him. We scrambled to find the name of a lawyer for him. After several months and lots of legal fees, the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and I believe a $10,000 fine. It was like the birthday gift that just kept on giving.

We abolished birthdays.
–Kim Lockhart, Regional Vice President of Spherion Corporation

Birthday emergency

When I worked for an ambulance company, we had a woman who turned 50. During a meeting outside the EMS environment, we brought in a gurney to the meeting and made her get on the gurney to take her out as a birthday present. The gurney had balloons and “over the hill” banners. She was mortified—in a fun way. We stopped on the way out, let her get off the gurney and had cake and presents. The meeting Chair was in on the gag and fully supported the fun.
–Sharon Tucker

Birthday dance

My birthday story is from my managerial days for a property management firm in Los Angeles. We were in a staff meeting at the corporate office when a contractor knocked on the door. We immediately noticed how good looking he was, but otherwise, he was a sight we saw all the time—a building maintenance person, complete with a tool belt. He asked if I was present and my heart sank. I envisioned collapsed scaffolding from the window-washing going on in my building while I attended the meeting. Or, I thought an elevator had plunged 20 stories, injuring dozens. (Mine is an active imagination, I grant you.) I stood and asked what was wrong. He approached me, asked me to take my seat and began gyrating in front of me. There are more graphic details, but, basically, my coworkers had ordered a singing Chippendales dancer to celebrate my special day.
–Marlene Caroselli, Corporate Trainer and Author

On your own

At my workplace, we agreed that each person would be responsible for his or her own birthday activities and goodies. This way, the same handful of people wouldn’t be stuck with the task. Also, if you didn’t want to have your birthday recognized, you could just skip it. New people find this unusual, but it works unusually well.
–Harry Liebman

Birthday lockdown

I have a good story to tell about what happened on my birthday in November of 2008. I am a correctional officer and I had to work on my birthday. When I got to work, I asked my supervisor if we are not short after our count at seven o’clock if I could go home early because it was my birthday. She said that I could, but stuff does happen when you work in a prison. We had an inmate who took seriously ill and had to be taken to the hospital, which took our extra officers out if the prison. My supervisor apologized and said that she wouldn't have an extra officer take my place, so I couldn't get off early. I guess she felt bad about it because the next day at work, I walked into a surprise belated birthday party. She had paid for all of the food, including the cake, for me.
–Lindi Hamlin

No birthdays allowed

My last company had a strict “no birthday’ policy. The owner didn’t want to be responsible for a cake and the employees never took any initiative to celebrate themselves. The company was privately owned with less than 20 employees. In the two years I worked there, we bought a cake once with our own money. When the owner saw us celebrating at lunch he said “I hope you don’t expect me to pay for that.” Therefore I always made sure to be off, or better yet on vacation, on my birthday.
–Tracy Antol

The personal touch

Birthday celebrations in my department are quite special! We typically base the birthday celebration around a particular theme, something that is special and unique to the birthday person.

For example, on my 30th birthday, the team made a birthday sign from recycled cardboard and aluminum cans. We used "real" dishes—not disposable ones—because I am passionate about environmental initiatives. Other examples include a baseball food luncheon (hot dogs, Cracker Jacks, tortilla chips) and decorations for our Orioles-loving Communications Manager, a health food birthday celebration for our Web Project Manager, and an Italian birthday breakfast dish for our Customer Service Representative.

The main goal for our birthday celebrations is to highlight the favorite items of the team member who is celebrating his or her special day. The birthday celebration also provides a team building opportunity where we learn more about each other’s personal interests.
–Shannon M. Zimmerman, Senior Public Relations Specialist at Auntie Anne's

Do you have a good workplace birthday story? Please share it in the comments.

Part Two: Birthdays in the workplace (continued)

More Workplace Communication:
Job interview horror stories
Why social networking is an important tool for effective job hunting
What the #%@&!?: The problem of profanity in the workplace
New York Goes to Work on VH1: Characteristics of difficult employees
Why texting and job hunting don’t mix