Employee Didn’t Want His Birthday To Be Celebrated In The Office, But One Coworker Ignored His Wish And Did It Anyway, Causing HR To Get Involved
by Mila Cardozo
Not everyone loves celebrating their birthday, but some people react to this as if someone told them they just experienced a Sasquatch sighting.
In this case, this man’s coworker totally ignored his request and made a big deal about his birthday anyway, singing to him in front of everyone.
Well, HR ended up getting involved.
Let’s see how this panned out.
Please don’t sing Happy Birthday to me when it’s my birthday, please.
I worked for a place that had a largish staff cafeteria.
It was a good working environment.
We posted calendars with (among other things) birthdays that month. When it was yours, someone would ring a bell and we’d sing Happy Birthday.
I didn’t mind, it was 2-3 times a month.
I prefer not to receive the treatment, so I kept mine off of the public calendar.
Sounds simple enough, right? But someone didn’t respect his birthday wish.
My (fellow GenX) work friend knew my birthday (same as her moms), and wished me a HBD at the table, making a joke about “At least you don’t have to hear the Birthday song”.
Our bubbly, annoying co-worker (think Ensign Tilly from Star Trek) overheard the whole thing and was AgHaSt!! that I didn’t tell anyone.
She had a very bad habit of getting in her co-workers personal business (yeah, I got stories), and just LOVED to be the bell ringer.
She even did the XX-year young! until that got nipped in the bud.
Anyways, I told her it wasn’t for me.
He made it very clear he didn’t want that treatment, but she ignored it.
After too much back-and-forth, she said I was a ‘grump’ and said “I’ll ring it for you!”, sprang up and marched to the bell.
Halfway through the first line, I stood up and walked out the door.
They ended up singing my name to an empty chair, everyone looking at her like ‘WHAT’?
Things were awkward, but they were also about to get very dramatic.
She wondered aloud to everyone why I had left the room, and my friend snapped loudly…
“He told you he didn’t want this!!! You really need to learn to respect other people’s boundaries.”
HR heard about the incident (due to the cuss word), and we were both questioned the following day.
I lied and said I had bad memories associated with my birthday, which is why I kept it private. I then repeated the entire incident, including the ‘grump’ insult.
Then HR also got on his nerves.
HR got nosy and pressed me to share my ‘bad memories’, so I doubled down.
“No, I won’t. There’s a reason I kept it private. I didn’t call anyone names, I simply walked out when this was done to me against my will.”
“Now, not only do I look like a jerk for walking out, I’m being questioned about personal matters that have nothing to do with the workplace.”
“This conversation is over, and I’ll be submitting a complaint with the COO (Chief of Ops).”
He stood up for himself in a real ‘mic drop’ moment. And things changed.
A complaint was submitted, but I never talked to the COO.
I got an email (with HR and the VP copied) apologising to me for the incident.
A company-wide missive went out concerning respecting personal boundaries in the workplace, along with some ‘training’.
At that meeting, they even took a vote to keep/toss the bell.
Most everyone looked at me, and I voted to keep it, so it was kept.
He is not a birthday Grinch, it’s just his preference. But the workplace dynamics changed.
Tilly very rarely rang it again, though.
She got an HR slapdown, and (because of this and some earlier incidents) her popularity in the workplace took a nosedive.
There was a company catchphrase ‘boundaries please’ that went around for a month, and she knew it was her that had brought it on.
Best of all, she never talked to me unless it was work-related again.
Finally, his birthday wish was granted.
Let’s see what Reddit has to comment about this situation.
A reader shares their thoughts.
A compliment.
This commenter shares a similar story.
Someone shares what they do.
Another reader chimes in.
Another person also doesn’t like birthdays.
This is funny.
Some people just want peace and quiet as their birthday present.
If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.

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