Good morning and welcome back to the breakroom and another exciting day here at the office. I hope that besides having a great week, you all saw the memo in which you are allowed to come to work today in a (work appropriate) costume in honor of Halloween! So grab some candy and lets breakdown all that happened everything that happened on this particularly spooky work day.
As I mentioned, it is officially Halloween and Dunder Mifflin is all in favor of allowing employees to dress up in costume! Now this is certainly not the case everywhere and is up the company on if they allow dressing up. Those in office settings like Dunder Mifflin are more likely to allow that chance to dress up, but then settings like a hospital will have pretty strict uniform rules in place (for obvious reason) which means they do not get to dress up. So what should you do if you are interested in dressing up for Halloween? Well, Carmen Reinicke shared four things to consider in preparation for dressing up through CNBC. First, make sure that your office allows you to dress up; second, make sure you have a work-appropriate costume; third, ensure you will be comfortable the whole work day; and fourth, get creative. Follow these and should be safe with your Halloween costume1. Now, I feel like the phrase “work-appropriate” is pretty self-explanatory and most employees can police themselves. But for those you need to hear it, the biggest rules would be nothing outrageously gory, overtly sexual, or anything that could be seen as insensitive. This doesn’t always pertain to cultural references, a good example would be you should refrain from dressing up as someone from work to do an impression of them as most people will grow tired of this pretty fast. For those in need, Goldie Chan with Forbes created a quick list of costume ideas okay for work, including: a ghost, a character from Sailor Moon, or even a dinosaur2. Always use common sense if you are going to be dressing up to head into the office, but remember that it is quite possible to be work-appropriate while still being creative.
We got plenty of people dressing up today, with our costumes being:
Michael – Two-headed Michael
Pam – Cat
Phyllis – Cat
Angela – Cat
Creed – Vampire
Devon – Hobo
Jim – Three hole punch Jim
Meredith – Zombie
Dwight – Sith lord
Oscar – Dressed in drag
Kevin – Dunder Mifflin Super Hero
Kelly – Dorothy of Wizard of Oz
We have a wide array of costumes along with varying degrees of effort and money put into them Ranging from Jim’s use of three paper circles to Dwight who spent $129.00 on his over to Michael who actually sent away for his head via catalog (what is this catalog?) over the summer. This brings up the question of how much should we spend on our costumes for Halloween? Capital One offers a full breakdown, where for 2023 the average American spends $108.24 on Halloween (this includes candy, costume, and decor). Breaking down further, they estimate that of this the costume reflects $36.843. Technically, the cost of costumes can vary widely because just as we see through the office, each individual’s ideas can run the gambit of cost. This goes even further based on are you purchasing the costume as is, or do you plan on making it from fabrics/pieces. I think it’s best to simply advise to stick to what you can afford, and ideally if you are going to spend more it’s best that it’s something that can be reused and held onto.
Now what I found interesting was Michael hasn’t seemed to be in his usual mood, he is always pretty excitable and looking to do an impression so Halloween should be one of his favorite days of the year. The rumor around the water cooler is someone is going to need to be let go by the of the day. Evidently he included Pam in on this information and when she asked why he wanted for today, the said it was “very scary stuff” so naturally it should be saved for Halloween. I feel like he should have kept this news to himself until he had formally completed the layoff, otherwise people will be worried it is them, but I don’t quite think he has made up his mind on who it is. Besides talking to Pam he also was talking with Dwight trying to get an opinion on who it could be, asked Accounting to try to find money hidden in the books equal to someone’s salary, and even was practicing the the act with Jim. Michael is certainly not someone who likes to disappoint people and have to present bad news, but layoffs are always very difficult since this isn’t tied to someone needing to be fired due to being poor at their job. It truly is about letting someone go to save on some money, and this of course results in the fact that there will be work without the ability to rehire them. I think we all know that every office has those departments where there truly is more people than work, I always had a feeling that having three employees in Accounting was an situation. They simply represent this branch and there is still an Accounting department at the corporate office which represents the larger aspects. But that is just my opinion, of course, it’s not like I’m about to tell Michael on who he should consider letting go.
While this was all going on, Jim and Pam were working together on an interesting prank to mess with Dwight. It seems they created a fake resume for him and have uploaded it in several places on the internet so he can be hired away and leave Dunder Mifflin. While funny, I just feel like this wasn’t fully thought out and if you were truly trying to set someone up to leave you need to keep them included somehow. Dwight is certainly an interesting character and they should have seen it coming that he could come on a tad strong and scare away this job offer. But major props to Pam that she was able to put together a resume which resulted in someone reaching out the day of. I do not know why Dwight thought that he could use this job offer to leverage a raise on a day that he fully is aware a position is going to be laid off today, but kudos to him for the moxie.
According to the Amy Gallo with the Harvard Business Review, this is a tried-and-true tactic. While many employees might ask their employer for a raise, coming in with a legitimate job offer does provide them a big of leverage in the negotiations. Not only does this provide confidence to the employee asking for the raise, they are also able to provide concrete information on what the industry average is to their position. Additionally, it does put the company into the deciding position on whether they want to keep you or would they rather attempt to find someone new. There are certainly risks to this tact; as we see with Dwight, the employer can decide they are actually trying to save money and let you choose to leave. Additionally, it is important to remember that not every leader likes the “threat” that you might leave if you do not make money so not every company will recognize this as a smart tactic. Regardless, if you are considering this tactic you should prepare yourself and do thorough research to ensure you go about it wisely. This article had a great deal other information besides the details I have summed up so feel free to use this as a starting point4. Having worked in leadership roles, I will warn that for most companies your leader cannot simply offer you a raise because you asked for one. Our wages are often determined by wage rules and measures designed by teams in recruitment and compensation. Unfortunately, in those situations you would need to hold a position which is considered difficult to fill to the point that you are invaluable. I firmly believe that employees should be paid fair wages and what they are worth, but not every company has the flexibility to meet our demands.
At the end of the day, Michael finally had to get around to making good on his task from corporate to lay someone off. I originally thought it was going to be Creed because he was called into a meeting with Michael but he came out looking pretty pleased with himself, but then Devon went in after him and that was a different story. I heard the yelling and then he came out inviting (most) the office to meet him for a drink so I think we all know who got let go, unfortunately. Michael had some incredible difficulty with letting him go and truthfully I just do not think he prepared himself enough.
Rebecca Knight with the Harvard Business Review offers advise on how leaders can prepare for such an instance, but having to complete layoffs is something that no one ever looks forward to. First, we can certainly tell that Michael did several things wrong with how he approached the layoff. He didn’t even decide who the person was until today, he absolutely should have made that decision so he could be prepared for who he was speaking to. Additionally, it is often recommended to not go in alone; if anything he should have had Toby with HR but, we all know what Michael thinks of him. It is also important to be direct; the news is going to be devastating either way so by not tiptoeing around the conversation and drag it on longer than it needs to be. And while it is important to be compassionate, you cannot let yourself get sidetracked as there is a great deal of information which needs to be relayed and you cannot miss it. In particular, you should make sure they have all the important details of any transfer opportunities, severance, benefit end dates, and so forth5. So for all of those out there who find themselves facing laying off staff, do not simply try to wing it and prepare yourself as thoroughly as you can.
And that, everyone, was this year’s Halloween work day and I hope you all learned something. Perhaps it was to always save “scary stuff” to do on Halloween to stay on theme. Or maybe it is to try to pleasant to your colleagues in case the office decides to issue layoffs as if it were a popularity contest. Personally, I am going with when you commit to chips and dip for the office potluck you better stick with chips and dips. Just because you thought it’d be fun to do brownies, you should at least have still brought the chips (seriously, Pam). With that said, I look forward to seeing you all again around the breakroom. Have a great Friday and weekend!
Feel free to share in the comments your own Halloween plans! Trick-or-treating with kids?Handing out candy? Or are you the type to stay in with a movie? Let us know!
- Reinicke, C. (2018, October 30). 4 things to consider before wearing a Halloween costume to work tomorrow. CNBC. Retrieved October 19, 2023, from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/30/4-things-to-consider-before-wearing-a-halloween-costume-to-work.html ↩︎
- Chan, G. (2023, October 9). Work Appropriate Halloween Costume Ideas. Forbes. Retrieved October 19, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2023/10/09/work-appropriate-halloween-costume-ideas/?sh=79c061b72ab3 ↩︎
- (2023, September 24). Halloween Shopping Statistics. Capital One. Retrieved October 19, 2023, from https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/halloween-sales-spending-statistics/ ↩︎
- Gallo, A. (2016, July 5). Setting the Record Straight: Using an Outside Offer to Get a Raise. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved October 19, 2023, from https://hbr.org/2016/07/setting-the-record-straight-using-an-outside-offer-to-get-a-raise ↩︎
- Knight, R. (2015, June 26). How to Tell Someone They’re Being Laid Off. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved October 19, 2023, from https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-tell-someone-theyre-being-laid-off ↩︎
