I know this is going to sound very dramatic to a lot of people since most people love their birthday and want others to aknowledge it, but I'm hoping at least someone here will understand.
I don't celebrate my birthday and ever since I was a child, I have always felt extremely sad during that time. There are several reasons for this, but the bottom line is it's an incredibly personal and vulnerable time for me. I consider the exact date of my birthday an extremely intimate information that I wouldn't even disclose to very good friends.
Unfortunately, I was recently required to fill out my personal information (personal address and date of birth) and send it by e-mail to two people in the company for work-related purposes. And unfortunately, this coincidentally happened close to my birthday. I already felt quite vulnerable sending out my information by e-mail, but I hoped they wouldn't notice, and that if they did, that the information would be handled professionally and with confidentiality. The next day, I came to e-mails wishing me happy birthday, including a photo of a cake. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but due to my personal situation, I was quite shook up and had to go to the restroom to cry.
The reason it affected me this much is not just being wished happy birthday in and of itself (I deal with this with my family, and while it does make me sad, I can handle it), but mainly the fact that I feel like my privacy was violated when I shared sensitive information in confidence. I do understand they didn't have bad intentions and that they didn't know about my situation. That being said, I believe that this is exactly why one shouldn't put someone on the spot about potentially sensitive life situations, especially in a professional environment – you never know someone's story. My birthday is not related to my work activities, it is a part of my private life, and I find it a bit inapproprite to make comments on information that was shared with you strictly for business purposes. Normally it would be illegal for my employer to disclose my personal information to other employees, but in this situation, I can't complain because I shared it myself – I feel like I was backed into a corner though. I didn't have the choice to refuse. How can I even react if they bring it up again without being rude?