At my last job I was sitting in the staff lounge during a coffee break, scrolling through Facebook on my phone. Then a woman walked in, whose birthday it happened to be that day, as I'd just seen it come up on Facebook. As she had sat next to me I thought she might have seen me scrolling through Facebook and I felt like I should verbally wish her a happy birthday there and then, as it might seem unfriendly if she saw I was scrolling through Facebook yet didn't acknowledge her sitting right next to me on her birthday, and also I thought it was a good way to make conversation. In my culture it's a normal social standard to wish someone a happy birthday.
So, rather confidently, I said, "oh, I see it's your birthday today," and just as I was about to say "happy birthday", she dismissed my pleasantry with an unexpected "SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" I was kind of alarmed by that reaction, and the two others in the room giggled and said that she didn't want people to know it was her birthday today - even though they both obviously knew and almost everyone at work was on her Facebook so probably knew from that anyway, and she was only like 27.
I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, and she wasn't being rude or anything, in fact she hadn't done anything wrong either, but I still inwardly scolded myself for saying that out loud and wished I had just kept my mouth shut, which was one of two decisions that came into my head at first, unfortunately I took the other decision.
I don't like being shushed, but I understand she wasn't to know that, so I didn't make an issue of it or anything. But I always feel really embarrassed when I'm shushed. I don't know why. I feel my cheeks flush hot, because often being shushed is the consequence of an embarrassing social faux pas.
Have you ever been in a social situation where you thought twice about saying something but said it anyway to look friendly or make conversation, only to wish you hadn't? It can be so embarrassing, even if others don't think anything of it. But it's not always what others think, it's how you feel within yourself.
So, rather confidently, I said, "oh, I see it's your birthday today," and just as I was about to say "happy birthday", she dismissed my pleasantry with an unexpected "SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" I was kind of alarmed by that reaction, and the two others in the room giggled and said that she didn't want people to know it was her birthday today - even though they both obviously knew and almost everyone at work was on her Facebook so probably knew from that anyway, and she was only like 27.
I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, and she wasn't being rude or anything, in fact she hadn't done anything wrong either, but I still inwardly scolded myself for saying that out loud and wished I had just kept my mouth shut, which was one of two decisions that came into my head at first, unfortunately I took the other decision.
I don't like being shushed, but I understand she wasn't to know that, so I didn't make an issue of it or anything. But I always feel really embarrassed when I'm shushed. I don't know why. I feel my cheeks flush hot, because often being shushed is the consequence of an embarrassing social faux pas.
Have you ever been in a social situation where you thought twice about saying something but said it anyway to look friendly or make conversation, only to wish you hadn't? It can be so embarrassing, even if others don't think anything of it. But it's not always what others think, it's how you feel within yourself.