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Halloween is an unofficial holiday. Yet, it has grown from a children's holiday to include adult celebrations. Many businesses celebrate by letting their employees dress in Halloween costumes. Furthermore, Halloween is the most popular holiday for candy sales. There is no major holiday immediately before Halloween, so it gets more display time on shelves than other holidays. Many stores devote shelves and aisles to Halloween products beginning in August. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), "More Americans than ever will be in the haunting mood this year, with seven in 10 celebrating Halloween, the most in NRF's 10-year survey history. On average, celebrants are expected to spend almost $80 on decorations, costumes and candy as total spending on the holiday is expected to reach $8 billion." What did you buy for Halloween? How much did you spend?

An employee resigned at Goldman Sachs in a very public way. In March, he sent a letter to the New York Times calling the firm "toxic" and disrespectful of its clients . MWW used the open resignation letter in a survey to explore the connections between corporate reputation and corporate culture. The study found that three out of four business leaders believe corporate reputation is substantially driven by internal corporate culture, yet only 5 percent think their organization’s culture is strong enough to preclude reputational crisis. (Read the full report .) Listed below are some of the findings of surveyed business leaders' reactions to the scathing open resignation letter. 77% believed the letter had a negative impact on Goldman Sachs’ reputation Only 3% strongly believed that this was an isolated incident of a single disgruntled employee and not representative of the culture at Goldman Sachs 66% expect to see more of these situations with other companies in the future “Nearly every week a major company is in the news with a culture related crisis, and this study demonstrates a growing acknowledgement of the connection between internal culture and external reputation,” said Carreen Winters, executive vice president, reputation management of MWW Group. “Yet all too often, reputation management programs focus exclusively or predominantly on engaging with external stakeholders. Positive, productive cultures don’t just happen; they are cultivated and nurtured over time. Communications can be a powerful and effective tool for connecting the dots between internal and external stakeholders, and for creating the kind of culture that serves as the foundation of a bulletproof reputation.” What is reputation management? How should managers incllude employees in reputation management programs?

We spend a lot of time at work with our co-workers, so it is natural to want to celebrate with them. Holiday parties provide an opportunity for everyone in the organization to have fun. But, Amrop Battalia Winston , a global executive search firm, reports that "fewer of the nation's businesses will hold holiday parties this year than at any time in nearly a quarter of a century." The company has conducted an annual survey of corporate America's holiday party plans for 23 years. In 1988, the first year of the survey, most companies (95 percent) had a holiday party. This year, only 74 percent of the companies polled will have parties. Most of the companies not celebrating said the party was not in the budget. Dale Winston, Amrop Battalia Winston's chairwoman and CEO, said, "The trend is downward and we're seeing that once a company does away with them, parties rarely get back in the budget. In many cases, the holiday party is the last vestige of company sociability. Some young people entering the job market may never see a corporate holiday party." So, if the company isn't celebrating, managers should celebrate life events with employees (birthdays, marriages, and births of children) and acknowledge their achievements. Remembering important events and achievements with celebrations is a morale booster. "What is the best way for a manager to handle celebrations at work?" Eilene Zimmerman asked Steve Harrison, the author of "The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies" and the chairman of Lee Hecht Harrison, a global career management consultancy in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. Mr. Harrison answered, "The best celebrations are small, spontaneous and creative. It needs to be intimate. On the group level you all know each other, and that makes celebrations rich and culturally important. These are not the stuff of policy manuals; they are unscripted and have their own charm, depending on the character of the department or group." (See " Forced Fun? The Limits of Office Celebrations ," The New York Times , May 20, 2007.) How would you like to celebrate at work?