Birthdays on the noticeboard

Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

Our office birthday list began with a question: did anyone want their day included? I added mine, expecting little more than a greeting. On the morning itself, a colleague placed a card beside the printer. People signed it between ordinary tasks, and a person from another floor stopped to ask whether I had plans for the evening.

I enjoyed being noticed without needing to organise the noticing. The list showed a day and month, not a year, and somebody could remove an entry without explaining why. We agreed there would be no collection for presents. That kept the small ritual from quietly acquiring a bill or an obligation to supply a celebration in return.

Some colleagues preferred not to take part. Their empty spaces on the calendar did not make them less friendly. I would not defend the list if a blank entry became an invitation to investigate. As we used it, though, the noticeboard offered an easy way to remember a detail people had chosen to share. A workplace need not become a family to make room for a card.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

The department’s birthday calendar already contained my name when I first saw it. Someone had copied dates from another office list, assuming that a celebration would be welcome. The administrator was kind when I asked for mine to be removed. I still had to explain a preference that should not have required an explanation.

I do not dislike a card from somebody who knows me. I dislike finding that a private day has been turned into a shared event before I have decided how much of it belongs at work. My colleagues have different reasons for wanting quiet, and none needs to be supplied as the price of an empty square. The cheerful border around the calendar does not settle that question.

Ask first, keep the choice easy to change and do not count entries as a measure of team spirit. If people want a list, I have no objection to their names appearing on it. The distinction is between remembering what someone offers and displaying what an organiser happens to know. Kindness becomes more convincing when it leaves a person free to decide what being noticed should mean.

Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about marking birthdays at work. Support your comparisons with detailed references to both texts.