I must dress up at Halloween for work

[PBAT]

Our office has about 40 people. For the last 7 years or so, about 15-20 of us have dressed up for halloween, including the owners. We also have a potluck lunch for everyone. Usually the majority owner, Warren, jokes that "next year only costumed folks get to participate in the potluck."

This year the announcement for the potluck included a note - "make sure to wear your costume, or Warren will make one just for you." So far two people are taking vacation days for Oct 31 to avoid the mandatory costume.

[Niko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by accountingsucks So I work at a fairly large company - fairly corporate. Having said that, 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 $ this will cost me. Anyone else "required" to dress up at Halloween?

Come to work in a t-shirt and jeans. Tell folks you dressed up as an early retiree. Little do they know . . .

[W2R]

You know -- the more I think of it, the more I can imagine a person in this situation showing up in costume and finding out that the majority of his co-workers didn't. My (revised) advice would be to either do nothing, or do something that you could easily ditch if necessary, leaving you in normal clothes.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

since i mostly worked out of my house my usual corporate dress was underware and in winter socks. for halloween i dressed in a tie and sometimes even a dress shirt if i was feeling especially festive.

[bow-tie]

Put some handcuffs on a one of your wrists and maybe a plastic ball-and-chain to your ankle.

"What are ya?"
"I'm a wage slave."

[wallygator69]

Shave your head

Put a piece of electric tape down the middle of your head.

D$CK with ears.

Sounds like your bosses would empathize.

Actually have done this but not at company party..Head was already shaved though....

W

[NinjaPigeon]

I never understood the MegaCorp mandatory fun days. I got that speech about how I wasn't required to participate but that it was "strongly encouraged".

There was even a guy on our team who said he couldn't participate because he was trying to meet his deadline. Got the same speech from the director so he gave up on work and just endured the celebration. Later that night, after the event, he was playing poker in the office. Director wanted to know why he wasn't working


It's all a bunch of BS in my opinion. You can't force fun. If you like your coworkers, you already hang out with them. If you don't, making you attend a silly function isn't going to build team spirit.

I say you don't dress up and if they ask why tell them you are dressed up as a "party pooper". Or if you wanna take that to the next level, wear a 1$ birthday hat and carry around a bag of poop roll of toilet paper

[CuppaJoe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaPigeon I never understood the MegaCorp mandatory fun days. I got that speech about how I wasn't required to participate but that it was "strongly encouraged".

The more I think about this, the more I think it's a really good opportunity to display your problem-solving ability. No doubt every contact I had at MegaCorp knew what I did about Halloween, etc. I'm inclined to think that if it's important to the culture of the small group I'm (temporarily in), I will play the game because in this case, people are more important than principle. (I relied on contacts to include me on future projects at that MegaCorp).

If I had to wear a "costume" on this coming Wed. (and fortunately, I don't) I would wear one of the fake noses you can find at nature stores; and then re-cycle it by stealing SO's nephew's nose and replacing it with the fake one.

[Sandy]

Accountingsucks:

What did you do for Halloween?

[deserat]

The creativity here is great! Thanks for the laughs - and frankly it looks like it is easy to comply yet put the message across about your unhappiness. And or by not complying you look like you are in costume if everyone around you is not dressed normally. I personally liked the idea of showing up in comfortable clothes and calling yourself and early retiree - easy and makes the day better as you are wearing what is comfortable. Accountingsucks - I second the poster who asked what did you do on Halloween?