My friend who just came to work at my office was the unofficial "social director" at our last place of work, a position which in essence entailed purchasing and overseeing the circulation of cards marking special events, mostly birthdays. For a while there was a shared monthly lunch off-site, but that died a painful death once higher-ups cracked down on lunchtime taking longer than the officially allotted 45 minutes.

Now that she's left, I'm sure no one will pick up the slack, even though our old boss slipped my friend like $30 a day or so before my friend's last day and begged her to go buy a cache of cards that could then be used throughout the upcoming months (which I think she totally should have done: a lot of really inappropriate ones with feisty geriatrics celebrating their still-kicking sexuality in the face of advanced age).

I doubt this will be enough to keep the tradition afloat, however, especially considering the fact that several people in the department just didn't "get" the process. Each card used to circulate in a manilla folder with a list of the names of everyone in the department (except the intended recipient--duh) on the cover. Obviously you were supposed to check your name off and pass the folder along to the next person on the list until everyone had signed, at which point it was to be returned to the social director. There were even directions to this effect at the top of the list.

But invariably someone (often multiple someones) would sign the card and automatically just go give it back to the social director. Over and over this happened, each time a card was making the rounds. And then there was the time the card and folder disappeared entirely (probably shipped off to some unsuspecting client). I guess because we all deal with words for our work it is somehow too difficult to read nonwork-related words...even when they specify that a certain card is for someone's anniversary of working at the business, seeing as how someone jauntily signed that particular card "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"