Category Archives: work parties

Halloween sluts and office parties

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I love going to my online community from time to time and asking for guest posts. It’s always a good idea to mix things up. I am blessed to have an amazing community of folks I can ask to help out and today is no different. Not only do I love this title the post makes great points. Thank you Nisha Raghavan (our HR Buddy) for your contribution.

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I always commend building a friendly environment, maintaining relationships better through socialization and fun gatherings at work. And I personally looked forward to all those special days when I could possibly call for and arrange festivities in the office. Of course, Halloween is one of the most enjoyable times of the year at work and it is right around the corner.

We often find ourselves entangled in the trick and treat of every day work at the office! And these kinds of celebrations can help leave the stress out of our busy schedules and get into a much more casual atmosphere. If you are one of those who are fascinated with the concept of Halloween, you most definitely will wear an awesome costume to work!

The entertainment can be unlimited with all sorts of weird and funny costume possibilities and other fun activities like pumpkin carving competitions, dreadful cubicle and creepy office decorations. And trick or treats especially with the kids of employees cutely dressed up like little pumpkins, action heroes or their favorite Disney characters. My niece loved to be dress up as Rapunzel along with that long blond hair every single year!

Chances are people might go wild at your office Halloween party and assume that everything is acceptable in the name of celebration! But it is not. And I hate that, as an HR person, I need to police people during this delightful occasion.

However here are a few tips that you may want to keep in mind before you go wild.

No Hide and Seek: Make an active participation. I have noticed most of the times a few employees refuse to show up in a costume and try to be serious throughout the day. Come on, it is time for fun and try to go with the flow by getting yourself involved in the celebrations and if possible volunteer your help to co-ordinate the festivities.

No Slutty costumes :D ress up for the Culture. If your work is such that you have client meetings daily you probably don’t want to show up looking like pregnant Snooki or in Slutty cheer leader costume (anything that can be deemed too sexy or politically incorrect). So be sure to read the dress code if your HR has issued one and if not use your common sense in wearing something suitable to the culture of your organization.

No dirty Dancing: When your office party kicks off into full swing chances are someone may go out of their mind in the celebration mood. Don’t be the guy to do dirty dancing with your female coworker. Remember people are watching you and you might be surprised to see your photos flooding through social media sites next day which can hurt your career!

No playful gibes: You might look for an occasion to take a playful gibe at your Boss in return for his bullying. Don’t take that chance, He might be drinking with you and encourage you to be casual. Remember he is still your boss; whatever you do in the name of celebration might not end there.

No plus one: Unless you get a notice to bring your friend outside of your work, don’t invite anyone and make them and the company feel uncomfortable.

No flirting: Do that outside of your office and don’t think no one is watching you. You might feel everyone is busy with the celebration and might not bother you guys. But we can see you.

Photo Credit: iStock Photo

About the Author:

Nisha Raghavan-Your HR Buddy!!  is a Talent Management Professional and a blogger who likes to paint her thoughts with the shades of HR at http://nisharaghavan.com/. She writes about Work Culture, Employee Relations, Organization Development and engaging employees with Employee Engagement Initiatives. Her experience in the corporate world was as an HR Deputy Manager from Reliance Communications Limited, India where she specialized in orchestrating Talent Management & Development. Currently she is settled in Dallas and enjoys doing Acrylic and oil paintings in her free time. She is a contributing author at WomenOfHR.com and SocialBusinessNews.com . Connect with her on Twitter @Thehrbuddy.

Halloween office parties gone bad

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Some few years back, when working in the third level of hell, my boss and HR / Office manager thought it would be a great idea if several of us from the office got together and celebrated Halloween. She set the time and place for us to meet and told us we all had to dress in costume and head to one of the local bars in town.

We all thought that rallying the troupes and trying to create some kind of camaraderie in and out of the workplace would be a great idea, at the time.

So there was a buzz of excitement for the next few weeks throughout the office talking about our costumes and how much fun we were going to have at the party. We talked of what we would sing at karaoke, who we were bringing to accompany us, it was going to be “the shiznik.” We also discussed how we were not going to drink that much because we all knew that was never a good idea, and to act civilized which we all agreed was crucial being out with our supervisors and coworkers – God only knows what would happen if we didn’t. We laughed at that thought, and all agreed.

Time came and we all met up in our lovely costumes as we congregated outside the local pub awaiting our perfectly planned evening.

And then things changed………….

Once we walked through the doors, somehow that plan we had conjured up of not drinking too much and maintaining some sort of self-control went to #$%@. People were drinking more than their body weight, dirty dancing on the floor with their boss, and some things I saw reminded me of  an episode of “Girls Gone Wild.”

What happened to the plan? We seemed to have good intentions to begin with but with all the Halloween hooplah, something happened. We all lost our marbles.

Guess what happened on Monday morning? People were walking in the doors with their eyes towards the floor in embarrassment. They had behaved so badly that they couldn’t look any of their co-workers in the eye. They had lost the respect of those around them, and might I add – we all lost respect for each other and especially our managers who too, behaved badly.

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Think twice before posting that pic to Instagram!

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We’re still in HR Conference mode with two extraordinary conferences here in Chicago this weekend (HR Technology Conference and HRevolution) and then a couple more the end of October (SHRM’s Diversity and SHRM’s Work-Flex Conferences).

These conferences are great and have some of the best speakers and sessions on what’s up in Human Resource Management and also gives us a chance to hang out with fellow HR folk and talk shop – whether it’s the latest technology or the idiot at work who wrongfully tweeted crap about our current President.

They also give us a chance to hang out, get to know each other in a more personal way with all the after hour parties and such.

TAKE HEED

That being said, I think it’s safe to say that keeping in mind that your online brand matters, especially when attending these HR parties (or even your own WORK parties).

We all love Instagram and the ability to immediately share pics of us with our online friends we meet IRL (in real life) and show the world that we think we’re important cause we’re hobnobbing with the cool kids.

But let’s get something straight – posting pics on Instagram and sharing to Facebook or Twitter the one of you dancing on the bar while using the #hashtag of the event,  is gonna bite you in the rear come Monday when you go back to the office. You’re likely to hear the phrase “I’m sorry. You’re no longer employed here.”

Then you’re doing the job search thingy and find that everything has spiraled out of control in your little world. You may even have a heart attack when someone tells you “I’m sorry you’re just not a good fit for the job” because they can’t get that party pic outta their head.

Okay, I know this sounds a little extreme, but this stuff happens. It not only makes you look “wild and crazy” but it takes away from the purpose of the event and sharing socially. It diminishes it, really.

We’ve come so far with Social Business and Social Sharing in the world of work and especially at our conferences in keeping those informed who were not able to attend the conference. Why would we want to ruin it and take us all back to the year 2000? (It only takes one bad apple)

So this is just a friendly reminder to think before you post. Whether at a conference, a church picnic or at work.

And as our friend William TinCup always reminds us “Just use common sense.”