I Love Halloween, Even When I Have to Work

I love Halloween, even when I have to go to work. Might as well have fun — and play chess with someone who's actually good at chess.

There's a version of the workday where you leave the fun at the door. I've never understood it. If you're going to be at the office anyway, you might as well show up in costume and see who's game.

The costume is the easy part. The fun part is the people who play along — the ones who take one look at a guy in a monster mask and a suit and just sit down to a real game.

There's a real point under the costume: workplace culture isn't built in the all-hands. It's built in the small, slightly silly moments — the costume on a Tuesday, the chessboard on a break — where people actually see each other as people.

It's a small thing. But it's the kind of thing that makes a workplace feel like a place you want to be, not a place you have to be.

The field-notes version is on WanderingCTO.

Think this argument fits your event? Tell me about the room — the calendar is selective.