Valentine’s Day at the Office: Go Back to School
Valentine’s Day is one of those polarizing holidays. Some people love it, some people disdain it, some people actively dread it. Many of the folks dreading it work in human resources, and that dread is well-founded.
Office romances on their own are a minefield for HR disasters, but missed, crossed or completely misconstrued signals due to Valentine’s Day activities are the worst kind of headache: the completely preventable kind.
The best way to avoid Valentine’s Day snafus around the office is simply not to do anything for the day; treat it like any other Tuesday and let out a big sigh of relief at 5 p.m. However, if your employees insist on something Valentines-y, take a cue from grade schools everywhere and keep it simple and innocent.
No “naughty” emails, posters or parties. No special happy hours to which everyone is invited. No matchmaking between employees. No exchanging of gifts, and no distribution of gifts to your employees. At most, have a cake or set out a giant dish of something chocolate where everyone can nibble from it.
Really, the only difference between your office and an elementary school on Valentine’s Day (between the ages of the occupants, of course) should be that no cards are distributed in your office. (Assuming they still do that in grade schools anymore.)
After all, those cards can cause a massive misunderstanding on their own. Look what happened to Ralph Wiggum and Lisa Simpson.
What about you? Are you planning anything special for your office for Valentine’s Day? (Don’t do it!) Let us know in the comments!
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