October 29, 2009

Dressing up for Halloween at the office -- yea or nay?

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I've always been fairly ambivalent about office Halloween celebrations.

One the plus side, any festivities your department has scheduled (haunted house, costume contest, orange-and-black cake, people bringing in their kids to treat or treat) can provide a nice distraction on an otherwise dull Friday.

On the minus side, if you're trying to put a pressing project to bed before the weekend so the coming Monday isn't quite so miserable, you may not appreciate gathering round the jack-o'-lantern with your coworkers in superhero garb, especially if attendance is mandatory.

On the web community Early Retirement, one worker at a "fairly corporate" company had this to say:

"Because much of our staff is right out of school, they dress up for Halloween. My manager told me that dressing up is 'required' and that it would look bad for anyone who does not dress up. I find this ridiculous. Not only is dressing up for Halloween past the age of 12 a bad idea, I have to take time out of my personal life to go find a Halloween costume to wear...never mind the money this will cost me."

I don't consider this a curmudgeonly statement. Many people have lives they like to tend to outside work, lives that don't necessarily include rummaging for the most cost-effective, office-appropriate Halloween attire they can find. (This mandatory-Halloween-festivities manager will probably require everyone to participate in a $25 Secret Santa gift exchange in December, too.)

For those who look forward to wearing a Halloween costume at work, Laurie Ruettimann of the hilarious blog Punk Rock HR offered this tidbit:

"Use some common sense. Don't wear a diaper, a white T-shirt, and a bonnet as your Halloween costume. I speak from experience on this one. It's just creepy."

Ruettimann then gave HR pros license to send home any costumed employees who show up "looking like a sexy goth cheerleader or a pimp."

As you can imagine, Ruettimann's post prompted a heated online discussion about everything from expecting your HR department to play Halloween party planner (an idea that was frowned upon) to bringing your costumed kids to the office to treat or treat. That last point prompted one HR professional to leave this scathing comment:

"If you want to bring in your kids and show off how cute they are in their costumes, I'm all over that. I love seeing cute little Halloween costumes. But to expect your coworkers to bring in candy and let your kids go cubicle to cubicle while people are working their tails off trying to keep the company afloat? C'mon, folks!"

Here I'm torn. If you've never worked in an office where parents bring their kids in to trick or treat, I can see how this practice might sound oppressive. But I've worked in offices where people put out sweets for visiting kids in costumes, and it wasn't a big deal, no matter how large one's workload. Those who didn't want to bake or buy a bag of candy didn't. They either took off early, shut their office door, or retreated to a quiet conference room that afternoon.

That said, I'm a firm believer that Halloween costumes and party attendance should be optional. Ditto for supplying candy for your coworkers' little trick-or-treaters. If ever there was a year to let employees get their work done and not mandate that they spend more of their hard-earned cash, it's this one.

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

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3 Comments

Marcia Robinson on October 30, 2009 5:21 AM | Reply

I personally don't like dressing up or costume events from masquerade balls to Halloween. I think that's what vacation days are for.

I always like what Jim's character from The Office does. Last year he wore a name tag with the word 'Dave" and this year he went as "Book Face", the popular social networking site in their ficticious world. He wrote the letters "BO" and "OK" on either side of his nose. Thought that was hilarious.

Made costumes for my kids every year until they were 11 and then they stopped, which means I stopped!

Marcia
http://www.BullsEyeCareerblogs.com

Sarah Ellson on October 31, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply

Sorry but come on!! It's Halloween! Everyone has as some time enjoyed dressing up and getting candy. It's one Friday out of the entire year that your "pressing project" will not 100% be put to "bed" before the weekend. Buy a couple dollars worth of candy put a little thought to a costume and enjoy not having a normal day at work!!

r4 dsi on December 3, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply

Holding a Halloween office party has become as traditional as a Christmas party. It’s a chance to celebrate the spookiest time of the year with your co-workers and relieve some of the workplace pressure.

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