Once, 10 years ago, during my in-office days, a co-worker I barely knew and whom I had nothing in common with, from another team and another floor, bought me a cake for my birthday, brought it to my desk whilst I was away at lunch, and wrote a note, reading ‘from a secret admirer’. It felt so special. Since then, she’d become a friend for life.
So from my own experience, I feel like celebrating these milestones matters. It’s not about the card or the cake, it’s about showing you care. That’s what makes colleagues feel like friends.
In offices, people get cake and cards for birthdays, work anniversaries, or farewells. As a nomad, you don’t want to miss out on those small but important rituals.
That’s actually why my team and I (a fully remote crew ourselves) started building GatheredCards (https://www.gatheredcards.com/) – a group greeting cards app for remote teams, designed as a digital solution for celebrating milestones like birthdays, farewells, weddings and work anniversaries. Instead of one person signing a paper card in the office kitchen, everyone adds their own personal messages online – sometimes with images or even an AI-generated illustration. It can be as simple as a note, or as playful as adding a picture of them playing tennis, sipping a coconut on the beach, or anything that reflects their personality. The final card can feel collective and heartfelt, even if you’re spread across time zones.
You could either send the card by yourself or organise other colleagues to collectively sign the greeting card – another opportunity for you to mingle with your other colleagues.
I also think that it’s similarly effective to send them a ‘happy birthday’ message over email as well, if a lower-key approach feels more appropriate.
To find out when everyone’s birthdays are, my personal tip would be – striking up a conversation with a colleague on your birthday and slotting in that it’s your “birthday today”; then using this as an opportunity to casually ask them when is theirs. Take a note of this in your calendar.
And when it’s their special day, send them a free e-card, or, if you are close enough, and preferably the same gender (as you don’t want to confuse your colleagues with your intentions), you could even buy them a coffee or a cake online from their local coffee shop if it does online orders (similar to what my colleague did years ago). You are unlikely to be able to find out their exact address without sounding creepy (unless you are already very close), but you can let them know it’s waiting there for them whenever they are ready. Alternatively, you can just let them know that you’d like to order them a coffee and ask them how to best deliver it. From my own experience, this can go so far.
