If you are foreign and it is the birthday of your father, who lives several time zones away, you may ceremoniously excuse yourself from a meeting early to call him. Then everyone knows that you are a virtuous son and a person with important calls to make.
If you are native or perhaps a foreigner from a different continent and it is the birthday of your father, who also lives several time zones away, you would have already called him and you would be there for the whole meeting.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
FYI, the name of the continent to which I refer here in a somewhat disparaging tone begins with E.