This year, many of your offices while be decked out for Halloween, according to a recent Women In Optometry Pop-up Poll. Sixty-two percent of respondents said that they are are moderately in the Halloween spirit with decorations and costumes, which are optional to wear. Another nearly 22 percent said that they are all in with costumes and decorations. Six percent of poll participants said they decorate the office but do not wear costumes, and another 9 percent does seasonal displays only.
Just more than half of respondents—52 percent—said that dressing up in a costume is totally optional. Thirty percent said that they choose an office theme that involves the whole team. Another 17 percent said that ODs do not dress in costume, and 10 percent discourage costumes.
Overall, 40 percent said that they enjoy the they love the holiday and the spirit, and they find this holiday to be a fun team-oriented day. Another 30 percent said it’s a good business day for us because patients know we celebrate, while 18 percent said that, while fun, it is not the most productive day.
Several poll participants also shared additional feedback on this topic:
Staff and patients love the holiday, docs don’t want to be in costume and discussing a serious eye issue with a patient.
We have decorations up…all eye themed as it is so easy to find this time of year! We discourage costumes as some patients due to religious reasons can get offended. Costumes also can get in the way of our day to day. We do have candy for children behind the counter. We love holidays but do take into consideration the beliefs of other and attempt to be respectful when celebrating.
We absolutely do not allow any witches, ghosts, scary, otherwise demonic outfits. We have lots of very conservative Christian patients who are absolutely against that part of Halloween.
Traditionally a slow patient care day so we might as well have fun!
Love to have visitors and patients in costumes, but would hate to have to give bad news to someone with me dressed up. I will usually go with something more subtle personally to avoid that (spiderweb tights or bat earrings, orange and black clothes, etc). It is usually a fun day for the office and community though!
It’s a great party and the staff and patients look forward to it every year!
