7 last-minute ways for HR to be the wettest of wet blankets on Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween.

Slacking this year, my family made our last-minute trip to the farm on Saturday for pumpkins. The kids held it together for the most part, except when it was every boy and girl for himself/herself in the “cornbox.” Fortunately, there were plenty of cider donuts available to encourage good behavior and a well-timed crash right before bedtime. 😉

Fortunately, we did not procrastinate on other Halloween preparations.

Back in August, we went to the local pop-up Halloween shop for costumes for the kids. My younger son had designs on being a skeleton. At five years old, he’s not exactly adept at distinguishing between the various skeleton costumes for kids and adults. Fortunately, we were able to talk him out of his first choice, the “Adult Skeleboner One Piece Costume,” because it didn’t glow in the dark like the less-endowed kids’ version he ultimately selected.

Between Skeleboner, other similar phallic October 31 apparel, and the wide array of naughty [fill in the blank] costumes, odds are that someone in your workplace may not exercise the same awesome discretion when coming to work on Tuesday. Therefore, if you’re spending today furiously composing a last-minute Halloween Do’s and Dont’s memo, here are some tips to assist you:

Halloween is a Scary Time for Employers from BeLabor The Point
Afraid of Sexual Harassment Claims? Then Be Afraid of Halloween from Dan Schwartz at the Connecticut Employment Law Blog
Hosting an Office Halloween Party: Dos and Don’ts from the Evil HR Lady
How To Avoid Halloween Horrors At Work from SHRM
Can the ‘Naughty Nurse’ and Modern Workplace Coexist? also from SHRM
Halloween can be more trick than treat for employers from bizjournals.com
What HR really thinks about your Office Halloween Costume from Recruitingblogs.com

I’ll close with my own “Dress Like This On Tuesday, File For Unemployment On Wednesday” list of never-ever-ever 2017 Halloween costumes:

Harvey Weinstein
Sexy Poop Emoji
Sexy Fidget Spinner
Gangstaclaus
Anything else on this list