HALLOWEEN COSTUMES AT WORK: A 6 POINT PLAN TO KEEP THE FUN FROM TURNING INTO A HORROR MOVIE

Wearing costumes to work on Halloween is fun. Right?  If your employees are into it, and I've had a few teams that really got into it. They went all out on costumes.  I don't want to suck the fun out of the room, but if you plan to let your employees wear Halloween costumes to work putting some guidelines in place is essential. 

Without establishing and communicating guidelines to your employees, a day that was meant to be a fun experience can spiral into a nightmare. Costumes present the opportunity for all types of issues from offending coworkers or clients to costumes that are too revealing, too over the top, just too everything.  

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{I told you they got really, really into Halloween. They were an awesome team so hey, if  it made them happy I was good with it.}

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We'd all like to think that employees would exercise good judgement in selecting costumes to wear to work, but I'll be painfully honest with you. That doesn't always happen. Guidelines stop all the skimpy, gruesome and just inappropriate costumes from entering the building.  In addition to helping employees keep it classy with the Halloween costumes having some guidelines will make sure that your employee aren't too distracted getting into character that productivity grinds to a halt.  Because even though it's Halloween, your customers still expect to be  serviced.  

But how do you make these fun saving guidelines that will help your employees have an amazingly fun but also productive day? It's quite easy really. And I have some time now so of course I'm going to walk you through the process with a few awesome points to include and things to think about. There are six major areas to consider:

1. The dress code 
2. Types of costumes that will be deemed inappropriate 
3. Communication plan
4. Disciplinary options for employees who go rogue 
5. Choice to participate 
6. Safety

The Dress Code

For sure you have a dress code already. Yes. Yes? I'm just going to assume so. If not, we can fix that later. Employees should be clearly told that Halloween is not a free pass to dress inappropriately. Even though that statement should be enough, a brief recap of the dress code is helpful. Especially points about lengths and fit of clothing.  It's also a good idea to decide and communicate if full  face masks will be allowed. In some situations, that would be a safety concern.  But we'll talk about that later.

The Inappropriate Stuff

Here's your opportunity. What absolutely shouldn't walk in the door? That's up to you, but a few things I suggest are:

• The overly gruesome.
• Things that would be offensive to any race, gender, age group, or sexual orientation
• Costumes that are overly sexual or revealing
• Costumes that require props
• Anything that is overly distracting to business operations

These are some ideas to get you thinking. Add in anything else that makes sense for your business.

Communication Plan

Plan to communicate the guidelines with employees early. Doing so provides them enough time to plan their costumes accordingly and clarify questions. The means to do this can be any way that works but just ensure that all employees receive the communication. Consider reminding employees of the set guidelines are your costume day approaches. This will eliminate any reason for any employee to say they didn't know.

Discipline for The Rogue 

Be prepared to handle employees that ignore your guidelines and go rogue.  You may simply send an employee home to change clothing that doesn't comply with the guidelines. You may go with formal discipline. Or maybe a combination of the two. Whatever options you think are appropriate make sure to communicate the consequences of non-compliance to employees.  

Choice to Participate

Some employees will get really excited about wearing a costume. Others may have no interest at all, possibly for religious reasons. Whatever their reason, employees should have the option to not participate and not be harassed if they opt out. Make it clear  that your company expects employees to respect the decisions of anyone who decides not to participate.  

Safety 

What safety hazards are possible if employees wear costumes? Some positions present practically zero risk. Other positions, may be too dangerous to even participate. In general costumes should not cause a tripping or fire hazard and should not interfere with vision. 

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Don't Forget Your Template!

These are the things that I have found that  keeps employees safe and maintains a professional work environment, even if everyone is dressed like a zombie. Oh and before I forget, here's  a template you can use to communicate the guidelines we just discussed to employees. It covers the highlights of the six points, but you can easily make changes to fit your business.

Just tell me where I can send you a send you a quick email with the link to the document. You'll get that template as a Google Doc. Just save a copy, then you can download into Word or edit right there in your browser.