Don’t let your office Halloween antics haunt you

Regular workdays can be scary enough but throuw Halloween into the mix and it is a virtual land mine of potential horrors. Rowdy pranks. Questionable costumes…

Don’t get sucked into these tales of terror. Here’s how to enjoy Halloween in the workplace, without your antics haunting you…

Make scares more festive than freaky. Last year, the office of Damian Garcia, regional vice president of specialized staffing firm Robert Half, had a contest for the scariest bathroom decorations. Think: cobwebs, skeletons – the works. “But one team took it up a notch and had a huge, fake spider rigged so when someone got close, it triggered a sensor and jumped out at the person,” Garcia says. “Well, it was a hit with everyone except the first person to trigger the spider,” he adds. “She was so startled that she almost fell down and nearly broke into tears.”

Opt for office-appropriate costumes. Remembering your 9am meeting when you’re already mid-commute – and dressed as Harry Potter is not a good move. Robert Hosking, executive director of specialized staffing firm OfficeTeam said: “A colleague showed up to the office dressed as Daisy Duke of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’. The outfit was so revealing that even Daisy Duke would have considered it inappropriate. The worker thought it was perfectly acceptable to interview candidates and go about her regular business in that getup.”

Before pulling out the new outfit, ask yourself the following questions about your costume:

• Is it too revealing? Generally, if you have to ask yourself this question, the answer is probably “yes.”

• Is this costume insensitive? Keep it politically correct. Step away from the geisha getup, and opt for some cat ears. If you were called into a last-minute meeting with a potential VIP client and your company’s president, would you be comfortable in what you’re wearing? Would they be comfortable?”

• Is this costume impractical? Will you be tripping on your cape all day? Will your mask or face paint make it difficult to take calls? Will no one take you seriously if you have a lightening bolt painted on your forehead? “Here’s a good litmus test,” News On Careers blogger Alison Green says: “If you were called into a last-minute meeting with a potential VIP client and your company’s president, would you be comfortable in what you’re wearing? Would they be comfortable?”

Don’t be a party monster. Take it easy on the witch’s brew, so you don’t say or do something that would make a Daisy Duke outfit look tame. As with most things, when alcohol gets involved is when things really have a chance to go wrong.

Read the full article here: http://goo.gl/8ylU5i