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HR Files – How to Handle a Company Halloween Party Nightmare

Swift Staffing HR Files allows managers to ask questions that will be answered directly by our CEO, Darcy Swift. This month’s discussion is: How to Handle a Company Halloween Party Nightmare.

QUESTION: The managers are typically in charge of any holiday themed parties we have for our department. This year, a group of my employees asked if they could take over the decorations and planning of our Halloween party. I agreed, thinking it could be a good team building project for my team but it backfired. The party is after hours, but kid-friendly. Employees and staff are encouraged to bring their families so the themes need to be light and fun.

I got to the party about 30 minutes early to find out that my employees have turned our office into a haunted house. The decorations were scary, gruesome and NOT AT ALL kid friendly. I didn’t have time to make many changes so we went with it as is. Of course, many people were very upset as most of the kids were too scared to participate. A lot of the fault falls on me because I should have never delegated this task. How do I handle this? Should the people in charge of the decorations get a corrective action? Can I even do that?

ANSWER: This is an extra activity and while the people doing the decorations and putting the party together obviously did not listen to the details, this should not be a corrective action type situation.  As managers, we need to understand that these things can happen when staff is involved.  They get excited and have ideas that may not relate to everyone coming to the party.  It was not a bad idea to Involve the staff with ideas, however, in the future it’s important to have a manager overseeing the planning and execution so it does not get out of hand.

Another good idea to involve staff and stay within the kid-friendly realm is to have a vote on theme ideas. A clear theme that has been approved by management will help control the decorations and games involved in the party. For the time being, an apology can be issued for the confusion of the theme. Let your staff know that rules will be set in the future to keep the theme kid friendly.

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