October is my most absolutely, positively favoritist time of the year. Not just because my birthday is on October 24th (hint hint) but because the month culminates in the greatest, spookiest holiday of all - Halloween!
I've been a big fan of halloween my whole entire lifetime. I don't know what appeals to me so much about it - the costumes? the makeup? the interior design possibilites? Who knows! But every year I see the artistic possibilities and I succomb to the siren call of cobwebs, black lighting and rubber bats. I've already pulled out my collection of Halloween movies and spooky sounds CD and done my window shopping.
But this year I have to be careful about how I celebrate Halloween in my office.
Two years ago I went all out in my workspace. I erected silhouettes of haunted houses, skeletons, 5' mummy statues and stuck Martha Stewart rat silhouettes all over the walls. I've done this everywhere I've ever worked and my co-workers always enjoy it, even to the point of competition. Nobody ever seemed to mind the decorations.
But that year I had a new neighbor whose office was across from me. I'll call her Risa for the sake of anonymity. I knew she wasn't crazy about Halloween but I didn't realize the extent of it. I talked to her about it beforehand (I always check with people I work with before I decorate) and she said I could do whatever I wanted as long as I waited until October and she would keep her door closed.
Well, October rolled in and my decorations went up and her door stayed closed. For two whole days I didn't see her come out of her office at all. I thought it was strange but didn't realize the extent of it until she finally emerged on the third day in tears.
I talked to her in her office as she stood in the corner shaking:
"I see demons everywhere and you don't care!"
"But, Risa, I talked to you about this two months ago."
"Yes, but I didn't know it would be like this! This is a workplace!"
"Okay, I'll take them down."
And I ripped everything down and threw it in the garbage. When I returned to my desk I checked my email and found an angry email from Risa to me commanding that I remove everything and be more professional. Naturally, she CC'd everyone in upper management.
And, for the next year I was given the silent treatment by her entire department. (Later, I was accused of being unfriendly toward them but that's another super-fun and not-at-all-excrutiatingly-painful story.)
The moral of the story is this: Don't bring your passion to work. Be dull and ordinary and everything will be spiffy great. And definitely don't be bitter about it two years later.
