Normally in our office, we'll just do an all-inclusive birthday for everybody who had a birthday in that particular month. Sometimes there are exceptions though, like if it's for one of the bigwigs, or if one small group gets together and does something for someone.
But I've noticed that it also tends to breed bad feelings. I remember a few years back, one of the ladies here at work wanted to do something for her assistant. She bought him a cake, decorated up his cubicle, and had another assistant send out a mass email saying come on down at such-and-such a time and sing happy birthday and such. Well, another co-worker, who's the cousin to this guy, got her nose bent out of shape over it. She went and complained to someone about it. That person then sent an email back to the lady who sent out the mass email saying "then you should do something for Rachel (not her real name) too, since she recently had a birthday."
I don't think we ever did anything for her, though, that time.
Another time, the whole floor remembered my birthday, and got together and sang. I heard a lot of bitching about that, too, from the same co-worker. But then later that year, when her birthday came up, it was remembered, although it wasn't a big to-do. The following year, they forgot about my birthday, but honestly I didn't care. Although about a month later, my co-worker happened to look on a birthday list we have circulating around and said in a dismissive tone "Oops, looks like we missed your birthday. Guess we'll have to get you the next time around". Considering how she threw her little temper tantrum that time her birthday got missed, I thought it was pretty crappy for her to then turn around and just dismiss my birthday like that.
I remember yet another time, some people down the hall threw a small birthday breakfast for somebody. Metaphorically speaking, they practically twisted my arm to come down, sing for the dude, and have something to eat. Someone brought in fruit, bagels, and some other breakfast crap. Well, about an hour later, one of the ladies comes up the hall to my office, pokes her head in, and mumbles something. I didn't make out what she was trying to say, and actually had to have her repeat it about 3 times. It was "That'll be 8 dollars". I thought that was pretty crappy, trying to fill the crowd with birthday singers, get them to eat, and then hit them up for money. I can understand if you're going to do something that's kinda pricey, let people know UP FRONT that it's going to cost something. But that time it just rubbed me the wrong way, the way it was handled. After I coughed up the 8 bucks though, I said something along the lines of "Well, in that case I'm going back down there and get my eight bucks worth!". I could tell she was offended, but she kept yer yap shut.
Nowadays, whenever they do a birthday celebration for someone, I'll go sing, but I won't touch the food.
Oh, here's one other note of interest. For somebody else's birthday, my coworker was getting the cake. She was going to get a white cake, but then the Eight Dollar Lady mentioned one person who didn't like white, only chocolate. So, because of that ONE PERSON, the Eight Dollar lady thought that a chocolate cake should have been bought. And it wasn't even that guy's birthday! Oh, the Eight Dollar lady also emailed my coworker a bunch of Bible verses that somehow equated not buying a chocolate cake to doing the work of Satan, because of how it would spite this person!
Anyway, I think they bought a half-and-half cake. I'd still love to know how white cake got to be associated with Satan, though. Heck, I'd think that would be chocolate! You know, Devil's food and all!
Anyway, I think if they'd just do the usual thing, where they get together and celebrate all the birthdays of that month with an inexpensive sheet cake or something, that would be fine. But all this other stuff they try to do just seems to bring up too much drama, gossip, and bad blood.
I'm not the type to make a big deal over my birthday, so I don't care if they miss it or not. This last time around though, I lost track of how many people called me at work on my birthday and sang to me! My Mom did it, my roommate and his mother and sister did it (they think of me as family). Hell, my roommates GRANDMOTHER from North Carolina even called me and sang! My Dad even called me! He didn't sing, but he wished me a happy birthday. That one really struck me as odd, because my Dad's not the most sociable person in the world, and not much of an initiator.
As for celebrating in general though, I think it just depends on your office environment. For instance, in jobs I've worked where I was actually FRIENDS with my coworkers, it would've meant something. But here, with all the gossiping, whining, etc, it just comes off as phoney and something that you just want to get through without going postal.
