Introverted people do not like being the center of attention, and this sometimes seems impossible for extroverted people to understand.

Imagine being so introverted that you don’t even want your coworkers to sing happy birthday to you. Would you be upset if they got you a birthday cake and sang happy birthday to you anyway, or would you graciously smile and accept a piece of cake?

In today’s story, one introverted person insists she doesn’t want a birthday cake. Let’s see how her coworkers take this news.

AITA for not eating my birthday cake?

I’m an introverted person and today is my birthday.

I work in healthcare leadership and when a department head has a birthday the administrator usually gets them a cake so that everyone in her office can sing Happy Birthday to them.

I’ve been at this job 3 years, and on the first year the administrator asked me what my favorite type of cake is.

I told her the truth–I said I’m not a big cake-eater, and I’d rather my birthday be kept low-key as I didn’t want all of the fanfare.

She had to eat the cake anyway.

She must’ve thought I was just being modest (and she has a tendency to put her wants before anyone else’s), so she got me a cake anyway and had everyone sing Happy Birthday to me as she’d do with anyone else.

I took a few bites of cake and made small-talk to be polite, but deep down I was pretty bothered that she disregarded what I had said to her.

The next 2 years passed and she asked me what cake I wanted again.

Each time I insisted that I truly don’t want a cake and that I don’t want anyone singing Happy Birthday to me.

It actually stuck and she respected my wishes.

These people don’t seem to take “no” for an answer very easily.

Fast forward to the beginning of the week and she pulls the same routine. She asks me what cake I want.

I tell her don’t get me a cake.

She then asks if I want pizza or food instead, to which I declined.

My colleague at work asked me if I wanted a cake or anything else this morning, and I confirmed that I didn’t and that I wanted to treat the day as any other.

Again, they got a cake.

I come back from lunch and one of the employees from our Admissions office tells me to come on over so I can help her review a document.

When I go into their office all of the higher-ups are in there and there’s a cake on the table with lit candles. They start singing Happy Birthday to me.

But now I’m honestly ticked.

Again, she felt forced to eat cake.

I’d made it abundantly clear that this was exactly what I didn’t want and they decided to do it anyway.

They handed me a piece of cake, to which I initially said I wasn’t hungry (which was true considering I just ate a pretty big lunch) but thanked them anyway.

The administrator’s assistant told me I was “ungrateful” for the administrator’s nice gesture and that I should take a few bites.

I took a tiny scoop of the icing to taste, but otherwise didn’t touch the cake and made a quick exit back to my office so I could throw it in the garbage.

I feel kind of silly about the whole thing, but there’s an underlying theme of the administrator not taking my requests seriously and I’m kind of sick of it and the lackeys that reinforce her disregard for my feelings. AITA?

They honestly must not believe her, either that, or her coworkers want an excuse to eat cake at work.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person thinks she should just go with it.

Here’s another similar comment.

The only way to avoid this is if nobody knows when your birthday is.

This person offers a suggestion.

What OP is missing is that everyone just wants an excuse to eat cake.

It’s hard to be grateful for something you said you didn’t want.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.