Celebrating Halloween in a diverse workplace

Allowing your employees to celebrate Halloween can be a fun experience and a great way to promote motivation and engagement. If you don’t plan ahead, however, you could be in for some scary results.

Probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Halloween is costumes, and many offices allow employees to dress up for the holiday. Some even encourage it with costume contests. Unfortunately, there’s always the possibility that someone’s poor judgment in costume choice will offend a coworker or customer.

In 2007, then head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Julie Myers had to publicly apologize after pictures surfaced of a costumed employee at a Halloween party that was a fundraiser for the department. The picture showed Myers posing with a man wearing a black-and-white striped prison outfit, dreadlocks, and a skin bronzer intended “to make him look African-American.” Myers was on a three-judge panel that originally praised the prisoner costume for “originality.”

According to an ICE spokesperson, “It was unintentioned. The employee did not mean to offend although there were some employees that were rightfully offended by it.”

What If We Still Want Costumes?

While your employees hopefully have enough sense not to wear black-face makeup, there are many costumes that may seem completely innocent and fun to one employee while offending another, including:

• Frankenstein or Hannibal Lector costumes could be seen as mocking dementia and mental illness;

• any imitation of a minority or religious figure may prompt a complaint;

• while some employees may see wearing combat fatigues, pull-over masks ,and play guns to the office as paying tribute or supporting troops or just as a fun and easy costume, others could be offended by the portrayal of violence; and

• some costumes (French maid, sexy nurse, etc.) that can be too revealing, trigger the possibility for sexual harassment and other complaints.

If you do allow costumes at Halloween, consider sending out a memo letting employees know their costumes should be tasteful and that just because they are shedding their normal clothes, they can’t shed everyday manners or proper workplace etiquette. You can use the following language as a model:

We want you to be able to enjoy the Halloween holiday, and if you choose, that can include dressing up in a costume. If you wear a costume, you are expected to use good judgment and common sense. We are a diverse organization, and costumes that are offensive or insulting to any group are not welcome. While we want you to have fun and fully enjoy the day, we expect you to conduct yourself with usual workplace decorum.

Also, you might want to consider having themes for employee costumes. For instance, pirates, clowns, storybook character, or better yet, perhaps you could come up with a theme that is related to your business. This should help reign in the possibilities for offensive costumes.

Alternates to Costumes

If you want to celebrate Halloween but don’t feel costumes have a place in your workplace, consider these alternatives:

• Halloween cake/cupcake decorating;

• pumpkin chuckin’ contest–give each department five small pumpkins and one hour to figure out the best way to throw a pumpkin as far as possible;

• pumpkin bowling–line up some pin-shaped squash and the roundest pumpkins (it would probably be best to do this in the parking lot); and

• a pumpkin-themed baking contest.

• California Employment Law Letter
  Excerpted from California Employment Law Letter, and written by attorneys at the law firm of Freeland Cooper & Foreman LLP.The contents of CALIFORNIA EMPLOYMENT LAW LETTER are intended for general information and should not be construed as legal advice or opinion. Readers in need of legal advice should retain the services of competent counsel. The State Bar of California does not designate attorneys as board certified in labor law. Contact the attorneys at Freeland Cooper & Foreman LLP