A Love Letter to Halloween
or, how my coworkers learned to stop worrying and love the mustard suit
Two things were said to me when I first started working at Metric Collective that have really stayed with me.
“You’ll be a big part of shaping our company culture”
“You can wear whatever you want”
Maybe I was supposed to take that to mean “jeans are fine here”, but I dream big. And so, as a new recruit in an office full of smart people I desperately wanted to impress, I immediately instituted…
Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love to dress up. Wearing a costume on a random Tuesday is generally frowned upon, but on Halloween all bets are off. It’s one of the only times where you’re actually encouraged to run your freak flag up the pole. I wanted to share that with my coworkers.
When the day of Office Halloween arrived, I rode the rush-hour subway in a massive ballgown, slowly filling with silent terror. What if nobody else dressed up? What if they hated it? My idea was terrible, I knew it.
But if there’s one thing I can say for Metricians, it’s that they are up for absolutely anything. Every single person at the company showed up to work that day in costume. Every person got into it and wore something totally strange and totally perfect for their personality. It was awesome. I couldn’t believe it. And I couldn’t believe it when it happened again the next year.
I’ve always loved Halloween. But I love it even more now, because once a year every single Metric Collective employee walks out their front door dressed like a crazy person, and proves that they care more about their one weird coworker than they do about hundreds of judgmental New Yorkers.
These are the people I have the privilege to work with.
Tomorrow is the Third Annual Mandatory Metric Halloween, and I’m stoked. I’m pretty sure the rest of Metric is too. And if they’re not, they certainly know better than to tarnish my 100% compliance record.
Happy Halloween, folks!
