Is Your Corporate Culture a Halloween Nightmare? Ghosts and goblins belong in your neighborhood, not your company.

Since moving to the United States, I have been continually amazed at how much Halloween is embraced here. By late September, shops retool (as if by magic), selling costumes and accessories galore. The neighborhood is strewn with festive lights and decorations, graveyard scenes and cackling skeletons; spooky cobwebs adorn people's doors. And carved-pumpkin displays appear, more ornate and intricate by the year, replacing the simple Jack-o'-lanterns I remember carrying on a stick as a child.

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It's one of those holidays that you either embrace or don't. Either way, it's the one night of the year when ghosts, goblins and all things spooky rise up to scare the neighborhood. On October 31, doorbells ring as communities come alive with trick-or-treat antics . . . hopefully more treats than tricks! The costumes, homemade and store-purchased, seem to get more and more elaborate, as does the size of the bag for collecting the candy!