Workplace birthdays

This is a short note on workplace in Denmark compared to Canada.

Let me first of all discuss birthdays in Canada. At my last job in Vancouver, one person was asked to keep track of all office birthdays. A couple of days before a birthday would occur, this person would be responsible for emailing everyone in the office to remind them of the upcoming birthday and ask for a small donation towards a cake and a card. I think the standard was about $2 a birthday. That person was then responsible for purchasing the cake, ensuring utensils and plates were available and organzing a time when everyone in the office would be around to enjoy the cake (which is actually the trickiest part given meeting commitments). The objective is to surprise the individual celebrating the birthday with song and cake. My office mates in Vancouver would often go out for a birthday lunch for that person, where someone would usually pick up the birthday person's tab.

Sounds pretty normal to all Canadians, right?

In Denmark, things are a little different. Luckily, a coworker had his birthday a few days before Ben so he go to see how it was done. In the Denmark case, it is the responsibility of the birthday person to provide cake for everyone in the office. Thus, on the day of his birthday, Ben's coworker sent out an email to everyone informing them of available goodies in the lunchroom. The office staff shared in quite a feast of cake! So, while in Canada an office birthday is prepared for by someone not celebrating the birthday, in Denmark you are responsible for your own event. Apparently this is also true of birthday lunches (where the birthday person would pay for the tabs of all individuals they invited to the lunch).

I think both strategies have their merits; while it is nice to have others take care of everything for your birthday, it is slightly more complicated than every birthday person providing their own goodies.

So what did Ben do? As we are still not familiar with what a good Danish cake is, we went right off the map and bought Baklava from the local baklava bakery that makes ONLY baclava. It was quite a hit. Below you can see the 3 kg of baklava that was sent into the office.



Future visitors to Copenhagen: we will definitely make a trip here!