A woman has shared her joy after colleagues surprised her with a modest, yet thoughtful, birthday celebration at her workplace.
Known as J, she lives in the Western United States and is a self-described introvert who typically shies away from extravagant birthday festivities.
When it comes to birthdays, her workplace usually likes to celebrate, providing grand decorations on coworker’s desks. But J wasn’t keen, telling Newsweek: “I like to keep my birthday more causal, and I’m generally shy.”
u/jester_kat/Reddit
As a result, she politely requested that her coworkers not indulge in the usual decorations.
“I asked them not to do the big decorations they usually do. They all seemed a little disappointed, so I made a concession,” J explained. “They could decorate, and I would just work from home and take a few days off so I could have more privacy on the actual day of my birthday.”
But instead of not decorating at all, J’s coworkers decided to go the extra mile to ensure her special day was celebrated in a manner that respected her wishes while still expressing their affection.
Instead, they decorated her desk with subtle, miniature birthday decorations. Including cake-topper banners reading “Happy Birthday,” miniature gift and cake figurines and even a tiny tassel banner.
When she returned to the office, J was pleasantly surprised to find her desk adorned with the charming, low-key decorations.
Prompting laughter and appreciation, she shared her coworkers gesture with her family, describing it as “hilarious and lovely.”
Moved by the display of kindness from her colleagues, J felt compelled to share her experience with others and posted a picture to the subreddit r/MadeMeSmile.
On Reddit the post gained over 57,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments as people were delighted by the subtle gesture from J’s coworkers.
“I love this,” said one commenter. “Love that they respected your wishes but still wanted to recognize you. Happy Birthday.”
“Your coworkers are good at obeying instructions, I would give them 10/10. Happy birthday,” said another reply.
Others referred to the sweet decorations as: “Anti malicious compliance,” or “wholesome compliance.”
One Redditor said that the gesture, although seemingly small, was actually much bigger: “Honestly, that’s going above and beyond to me. Doing nothing and just saying “Happy Birthday” would have been just fine, but they went the extra mile and still did something, but exactly to specifications. This is wonderful.”
“I swear to God this is adorable. I’ve asked the same of my colleagues and would crack up if someone acknowledged me in this way. They love you,” agreed another comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.