Sunday, November 2, 2008

#138 Office Halloween

Friday was Halloween and our general manager, Duane, encouraged everyone to come to work in costume. As you might guess, Halloween is mostly a U.S. holiday with little or no following in China. There was some extended debate during the GM's staff meeting about whether it made sense to make a work day event out of a holiday unknown to the Chinese staff. Duane insisted that it would be fun and people would follow along if the expat managers lead by example.

With the big boss' encouragement, many people came to work in costumes and I must admit that he was quite right. The local employees seemed to love seeing the managers in costume and at least a dozen of them also came to work in costumes. Some people also brought extra masks, wigs, and make-up to share and people eagerly borrowed items to put together impromptu costumes. The excitment was so great, at times it was impossible to hold a telephone conversation in the office because of all of the laughter, gasps, and exclamations about the various costumes.

I wore a silly afro wig that I took from the kids toybox on my way to work, and that alone generate repeated bouts of uproarious laughter. Pictured above are all of the costumed employees including some close-ups of Duane, Lucy, and Stanley.

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