I must dress up at Halloween for work

[Goonie]

Just dress like you always do, and if/when questioned about it, just say you decided to dress up like an adult and then turn and walk away.

 

[RunningBum]

Put tape on your glasses ,pull your pants up , plastic pen protector and you can go as a nerd !

And curl your tie and go as Dilbert. Sounds like the right company for it.

I'm a Halloween grinch. I usually find a reason to get out of the house because I got tired of kids asking for more than I give them, older kids coming up with no costume, kids who wouldn't say thank you, etc. A lot of them are cute and creative, but enough ruin it for me.

 

[spncity]

Carry around a box of Fruit Loops with a big butcher knife stuck in it.

When they ask, you reply:

"Cereal Killer."

 

[maddythebeagle]

Dress up like a drag queen to the point that nobody knows who you are and tell folks that the big boss invited you...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Btw, the tater goes in the front...

Hah, learned your lesson about that LAST year!

I used to just take a plastic pitchfork with me and say I dressed up as the devil. To which most replied "But you ARE the devil!"

 

[bssc]

When I worked for the American Psycho Association, the ass. Director insisted that everyone decorate their offices. One group did Blue Christmas with theme of suicide. This was dropped.

One good thing about our Megacorp embracing diversity is that we don't do holidays. And we have no preset holidays.

 

[Sue J]

Dress up as a parody of your supervisor. See if he thinks it's funny.

When I worked at mini-corp we were "invited" to the mandatory Christmas party. Luckily, the overindulgence in alcohol, married men hooking up with clerical staff and family infighting was optional.

 

[Janet H]

Headphones
Portable electronic game
Converse high tops
t shirt and baggy jeans
Bag of skittles

Put your feet on the desk, crank the tunes and play! Sounds like a company sanctioned, in-house holiday to me

 

[Milton]

My manager told me that dressing up is "required" and that it would look bad for anyone who does not dress up.

You must work at Chotchkie's! Remember, 15 pieces of flair is the minimum ... and you do want to express yourself, don't you?

 

[wheel9]

Wear a light blue shirt with cotton taped to it. Carry a small water gun hidden, and walk up to the persone who is making you dress up and ask "What am I?"

After he/she can't guess, tell them you are partly cloudy with a chance of rain, and then let them have it! I actually did this as a protest at having to dress up, and it was great getting to blast everyone in the office. I actually one the beat costume award, and felt good!

 

[justin]

dress up as a giant middle finger.

 

[Miss_Lala]

One very easy last minute costume that typically required no extra $... take a wall clock off the wall, run a string through it and wear it around your neck. Instantly you are rapper and reality show star Flavor Flave! If the majority of people working there are just out of school, they'll get it.

 

[CuppaJoe]

On one job I was apparently the only one without a costume. When anyone asked "where is yours," I stuck a yellow sticker on my chest which had the words, "watch this spot." The movie "Alien" had just come out.

 

[flipstress]

Being required to dress up for Halloween is cause for complaint, although I do like it at work because we are allowed/encouraged to dress up. The Social Committee takes pics of everyone, there's a contest for several prizes, but non-participants are not given grief. (I missed out on Halloween as a child, not having grown up here, so I occasionally enjoy dressing up for Halloween.)

If you are dressing up, don't buy a costume; just go for the simple minimum as suggested already. You could:
- come in pajamas, robe, slippers
- wrap a bedsheet around yourself for a toga
- borrow a female friend's clothes and come as a transvestite, etc.

Either try to grin and bear it--(if you go as The Joker, your wide lipstick grin can hide your displeasure at being forced to do this) ...or, make a stand and don't dress up.

 

[ChemEng]

The best costume Ive seen was a guy wearing regular street clothes who had a large band aid on his neck at a Halloween party. I asked him what happened and he responded with "Just dont hurt the tiger!" Ends up he was dressed as Roy from Siegfried and Roy magical act from right after the tiger mauling. It could still work and I think the gender neutral part would help sell it even better.

 

[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]

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]

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?