Listen, I’m a big fan of cakes. I really am. So if my co-worker surprised me by baking me one for my birthday, I’d probably cry with happiness before shoving the entire thing in my mouth.
Because cake is life, right? I mean, obviously I’d share it around first (maybe), but the point is I’d be massively grateful for the time and effort put in by them as my friend.
That being said, I would never just automatically expect anyone in the office to bake me a cake on demand. That would just be next level weird.
Apparently though, one woman thought this was a perfectly acceptable thing to do and requested that her co-worker – who she allegedly didn’t even speak to – bake her a cake for free.
When their colleague politely declined? Well, the unknown woman threatened to tell HR about her (perfectly normal) behaviour, warning her to ‘watch their back’.
I’m struggling to imagine how that conversation would go. Like: ‘Hi, is that HR? Yes, my colleague is refusing to spend her spare time baking me, a person she doesn’t even know, a birthday cake… Yes, I can hold’.
The message exchange was shared on Reddit recently by the mystery would-be baker to emphasise the pure cheek of her co-worker for asking such a question.
I’d love to say that the conversation started out polite, but it really didn’t. The co-worker who demanded the cake didn’t even say please, instead informing her colleague that it’s her birthday next week so, ‘can you bake me a cake and bring it into the office?’
To make matters worse, she ended the message by saying:
Its [sic] free right?
Wow. The audacity. Referencing the time her co-worker had baked a cake for a man in the office previously, the woman seemed to think this meant she had her own personal cake fairy who would drop everything for someone she doesn’t even know.
The woman politely explained that she had volunteered to make that one cake because her team usually puts money together for birthdays, going on to say that it would be slightly awkward to make her a cake as they’ve ‘never spoken’. Fair.
This is where you’d expect the co-worker to accept the weirdness of the situation and back the hell off, but nope. Instead, she gets even more rude (if that’s possible) by explaining how she was going to buy a cake, but it’s ‘free to ask you to make it, so’…
Not stopping there, she then apparently sent a picture of the kind of cake she wanted – including Ferrero Rocher and Lindt no less – before telling her to bring it to her desk at 2pm on Monday. What. The. F*ck?!
Still being a hell of a lot more polite in her responses than I would’ve been in a similar situation, the baker offers to make her a box cake or cookies. Which is more than what their rude co-worker deserves at this point, but there we go.
The co-workers response? This:
Wtf? Ur joking right lol [sic]
The mind boggles. At this, the woman apologises but says she’ll be too busy to bake the cake and that the request ‘makes no sense’ to her anyway.
Random cake demander then says ‘please’ for the first time in the entire conversation, but swiftly ruins it by following it up with three exclamation marks and then brattily stating, ‘I want this cake’.
Upon seeing this, the woman once again apologises and says she ‘really can’t’ – at which point the co-worker says she is ‘going to avoid’ her in the office from now on and threatens to go to HR.
The conversation ends with the co-worker saying:
Watch your back, HR might want a word with you soon
Wow x100. I’m completely baffled, does this person honestly believe this is the best way to get a free birthday cake?
Maybe try actually being nice to your co-workers and see where that gets you?
Just a suggestion…
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).