Category: Holidays

Haunted Houses and Employment Law

Published by Brett Holubeck on October 31, 2019

Image of sign that says "Haunted Come Right In" that represents haunted houses. — Photo by Bee Felten-Leidel on Unsplash

Haunted Houses, Halloween Stores, and Employment Law

Halloween is a $9 billion dollar industry with more than 175 million Americans taking part. Haunted houses are a 300 million industry according to an NBC news article from 2013.

Consumers were expected to spend $3.2 billion on costumes and $2.7 billion on decorations with 35% of consumers going to a Halloween store to buy their costumes during Halloween. More than 36 million people were projected to visit haunted houses in 2018.

It is no surprise that Halloween is so popular, and people spend so much money on it. It is ingrained in our culture. Many Americans have fond memories of watching It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, carving pumpkins, going trick or treating with just your friends, watching Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes or, if you are like my mother, scaring yourself silly with the latest horror film (Mom, why do you do that? Even your dog is too afraid to watch.).

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make haunted houses and specialty stores come alive each October.

Preparing for an Intense Season

A haunted house will only be open, typically, about 6-8 weeks per year. Some haunted houses are open the entire year or transition their business to escape rooms or another venue in the off-season. The setup time can be four weeks or even more for a haunted house. As with anything else that requires setup, businesses must invest capital to see whether they will eventually succeed. Not all ventures are successful, so it is critical that haunted houses, Halloween stores, and any other pop-up businesses effectively prepare to run successfully.

Here are a few things that these businesses can do to increase their chances of success.

Start planning early. Every haunted house needs effective planning to ensure that they are prepared for the short season. That means planning the haunted house design and ensuring that the materials are ready to be delivered to prepare for the setup.
Train your workers. As with any popup business or event, you need to make sure that you quickly bring employees onboard so that they are ready to operate the facility when it opens.
Have a well formulated recruitment plan and clear procedures
- For example, the 13th Floor Haunted House in Houston, will hire over 100 people for the Halloween season. All of these employees need to fill out I-9’s, complete W-4’s, and a number of things. You can look at an earlier article I wrote on the things that you need to do when you hire new employees for more information;

Some Notes on Safety and Haunted Houses

Working in a haunted house is not easy. There are a lot of things that the actors and actresses need to do to prepare to safely work in a haunted house. OSHA can also inspect haunted houses as it can inspect any other amusement park or attraction. I have written a bit about improving workplace safety here but there are some special considerations for haunted houses.

Haunted Houses must adhere to strict protocol regarding protection from fires as noted by this blog post from Quick Response Fire Supply.

In 1988, haunted houses were classified as “special amusement buildings” and specific provisions were added to that year’s version of NFPA 101: Life Safety Code. Overall, these include:
Every special amusement building must be protected throughout by an approved automatic sprinkler system that is properly installed and maintained.
If the amusement building has low lighting levels, it must be equipped with a smoke detection system, which will sound an alarm at a constantly attended location on the premises.
In buildings where mazes, mirrors, or other features are used to confound the egress path, approved directional exit marking that will become apparent in an emergency must be installed.

Here is a really great article from Entertainment Safety Solutions discussing the numerous things that all haunted houses should consider (and may be required to do) before they open. The article is too long to quote in its entirety, but it has some really great tips that everyone should consider. It discusses Fire Prevention, Detection, and Suppression, Electrical Safety, Exits, Emergency Lights (Illumination), and Egress, and Training.

The training listed in the article includes:

Emergency Response and Evacuation Procedures, including employee accountability assembly locations.
Fire drills. Log evacuation times and any difficulties and mitigation efforts to improve evacuations. Fire extinguisher use.
Guest/employee safety e.g. do not touch or chase guests, ADA considerations, frightened guests/chicken exits, hostile guests.
Pre-opening safety checklists and inspections.
Hazard recognition.
Fire watch procedures.
Maximum occupancy limits.
Important phone numbers and radio procedure

Training is especially important, as many individuals will be new to the experience of running a haunted house and many of them are young and inexperienced in the business.

There may also be local requirements that operators must consider. For example, Illinois has specific requirements that must be followed for facilities in that state. All haunted houses in Illinois must be inspected.

Dealing with People

Haunted Houses also have one very unique aspect that is not found in many businesses: danger from customers. Physical injuries are common as noted by this article on the Huffington Post:

According to former and current professionals in the haunted house industry, it’s common for customers to freak out from fear and bust noses, bite arms and throw punches at the people they’ve paid to scare them. “It’s common, absolutely,” said Allen Hopps, who trains actors to work in haunted houses. “The problem isn’t the haunted houses or the actors, but the customers. They forget that people are actors and have a flight-or-fight reaction towards the person scaring them, not realizing one might be a 16-year-old girl.”

Also in the Huffington Post article, one operator said “I know one actress who scared a guy and he forced his way through a back door so he could hit her in the face,’ Hopps said. ‘Even so, she came back the next year.”’

Training employees is critical for understanding the best ways to prevent injuries. Such training typically includes rules against touching customers, maintaining the appropriate distance, and responding if someone lashes out. One of the major things that the haunted house operators can do is train staff before it opens to recognize signs of alcohol and marijuana impairment. You can read more about recognizing the signs of impairment here. Having your local sheriff or your worker’s comp carrier provide training on this topic may be beneficial for you business. Many businesses also employ security guards or others to deal with unruly customers also. It is often best to prohibit anyone that is drunk, high, or seems like they would cause problems from entering the haunted house. Safety of employees is critical and it is important that employees are trained before a problem occurs and that proper safety precautions are taken for your employees.

Moving Your Business into Other Areas

Haunted Houses, Halloween stores, and pop-up businesses are temporary businesses. They do not operate the whole year. Many operators cannot afford to work full time as haunted house, but there are some options.

Many haunted houses have begun to move into escape rooms. For some farms and other owners with adequate land, the haunted house was their side venture. When branching out there are a few important things for business(es) to consider and how they will affect your employment practices:

Will the new venture be its own business (LLC, etc.) or will it be owned by the current business? There can be important considerations regarding insurance, whether certain employment laws will apply (based on the number of employees), how the businesses will operate, and what will happen if the venture is unsuccessful.
If the new venture will be a part of the old business, then how will the duties of the various individuals change? You need to make sure to update any relevant job descriptions to ensure that everyone understands their responsibilities.
Update the employee handbook and any policies as necessary to adequately describe the new business venture and any necessary policy changes.
Do you need to adjust your various coverages (worker’s comp, insurance, etc.) based on the new venture?
Are you now subject to additional laws because you have more employees or because you now have expanded into another state or type of business?
Have you followed the right regulations for your new business venture?

Conclusion

Haunted Houses and Halloween stores have a lot of requirements that they must follow. There are a lot of unique situations that apply only to them. However, every business has its own unique requirements and employment issues. Every business needs to consider what they need to do in their specific industry, state, and their particular business to maximize their chance of success. Most importantly, have a happy and safe Halloween- and don’t punch a haunted house worker in the face.

The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, then you should speak with a lawyer about your specific issues. Every legal issue is unique. A lawyer can help you with your situation. Reading the blog, contacting me through the site, emailing me or commenting on a post does not create an attorney-client relationship between any reader and me.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.

Die Hard, Christmas, and Employment Law

Published by Brett Holubeck on December 20, 2018

Picture of a machine gun to represent John McClane getting a machine gun in Die Hard — Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

First, let’s get to the most controversial part of this post. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Bruce Willis said Die Hard is not a Christmas movie… it’s a Bruce Willis movie. Unfortunately, Bruce Willis is absolutely wrong.

Someone just made a Die Hard Christmas trailer and it is epic. The movie definitely has holiday themes. There is no denying that. It has Christmas trees, decorations, and a party. It is ultimately about a guy trying to get to be with his family, which is basically what the holidays are all about.

No matter what side you take in this great debate, Die Hard does demonstrate a lot of problems that affect everyone during the holidays. Issues at work, problems with your family, and some slight uncertainty about the future.

With that being said, let’s look at some of the employee issues illustrated by Die Hard.

Working Too Much and Not Being There for Your Family

John McClane works as a cop in New York and his wife works in California. When the limo driver asks John why he didn’t move to California with his wife John responds “Cause I’m a New York cop who used to be a New York kid, and I got six months backlog of New York scumbags I’m still trying to put behind bars. I don’t just get up and move.” John McClane would rather continue working as a cop in New York rather than move to the west coast with his wife. Basically, the movie starts out with one character choosing their job over their spouse.

Balancing work and family is always hard. There are a lot of people that have chosen their careers over their family. Careers, high performing careers or careers where the person’s identity is shaped by their career (lawyer, doctor, etc.), can be all consuming. There is always more work to do. These are the people that can end up like John McClane and choose their career over their family.

And in the end, it is like the great quote from Rabbi Harold Kushne “Nobody on their deathbed has ever said ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.”’ At the end of Die Hard, that is ultimately what the McClanes learn. The McClanes go from the children asking whether their daddy is coming home for Christmas to just being glad to be with each other.

As an employer, what does this mean for you? Ultimately, people have the personal responsibility to manage their lives. However, companies boost morale by providing things like remote-work capabilities, or flexible employee leave to take a sick kid to the doctor is an appreciated perk that allows employees to better prioritize their family as they wish, and especially in times of need prioritize however they wish. However, as an employer, you can provide opportunities to include family.

Employee Drug Use

Another interesting part of the movie is the drug use. John McClane calls out Harry Ellis, one of the big negotiators for the company, for using cocaine at the party. This happens in front of the president of the company. And he does nothing about it.

Unfortunately, many companies ignore employee drug problems and some companies may even consider encouraging drug use to make employees more relaxed, less anxious, and more productive. Of course, Die Hard was made in the 1980’s so there was bound to be some use of cocaine.

With that being said, if there is an employee that has a drug problem, then you should not ignore it. Now I’m not saying that you confront someone when you have some vague suspicion that they are using drugs, but there are some steps that everyone should consider.

All companies need to gather evidence that shows that a person is under the influence of drugs. To do this, a company needs supervisors that are trained to recognize the signs of drug use and impairment. No one will identify drug use if they do not know what to look for. When you have reasonable suspicion that an employee is using drugs, then you need to act quickly especially if that employee is in a safety sensitive position. Follow your policy and conduct a drug test on that person as soon as possible.

In Die Hard the drug use was obvious. The employee was seen snorting cocaine in the office and still has white powder on their nose when he is with the president of the company. This is not a situation where you are piecing together the information to get to reasonable suspicion. It would be equivalent to seeing an employee down a few shots of whiskey at work. And remember, the president of the company did absolutely nothing. That is the opposite of what should happen.

Employees Confronting Robbers

There are times that employees have fought off armed robbers, but no employee needs to do that when they have a gun pointed at them. You can read about employees successfully confronting armed robbers here, here, here, and by running a quick Google search of your own.

Unfortunately, things do not always work out for employees that confront armed robbers. This is why the best advice is often to instruct employees, especially retail employees, to open up the cash register and hand over the money to any would be robber. Just look at what happened to Takagi, the president of Nakatomi Trading. He tells Hans Gruber that Hans will have to kill him, and he will not give Hans the code to the safe. There is no reason that any employee should feel the need to protect a cash register or any amount of money when their life is threatened.

Of course, as we see in Die Hard, that does not work in every situation. The employees in Die Hard only escaped because John McClane fought back. He knew that these people were terrorists and they did not care about taking people’s lives.

Sometimes employees need to be prepared to defend themselves. If your employees work late at night or in a dangerous area, then the company needs to take steps to ensure their safety. Sometimes that may mean that the company gets a better lit parking lot, other times that may mean that it provides some self-defense training to employees, or it could include having an onsite security guard to escort people as necessary. It just depends on the job.

Conclusion

Even if we cannot agree on whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, we can agree that the McClanes learn an important lesson from it. The importance of family.

For those of you going to a party next week I only have one thing to say: Welcome to the party pal. Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating the holiday next week! And if you want a good Christmas movie, I would recommend Die Hard.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.

Office Holiday Party

Published by Brett Holubeck on December 18, 2018

Happy Holidays! It is that time of the year again, when the office holiday parties are held, and merriment abounds. Or maybe it is when HR has the dreadful task of dealing with employee shenanigans. It might depend on how much alcohol you serve at your office holiday party or whether you have a giant ice luge that you pour shots down.

I mean, obviously HR is the least favorite department (E.g. Toby from the Office-he’s the WORST),but in the event you want to be nice (not naughty) to your HR team- let’s talk about some things to consider when planning your office holiday party.

Set Some Ground Rules

Make sure employees know that your employee handbook rules are still in effect. Prohibit any off-color jokes and especially any sexual banter. I’d avoid having mistletoe as a part of any of your decorations. There is always someone that will make a joke or comment about “being under the mistletoe.”

Unless the company is a religious employer (like a church or religious school) you should not have religious themed holiday decorations. You should also be hyper aware of ensuring you are not acting against anyone’s religious beliefs. Just look at this company that lost a lawsuit because it forced an employee to wear a Santa hat and apron while working at the furniture store.The company fired the employee after she said that her religion prohibited her from wearing the Santa hat and apron.

Finally, management and HR should know their role at the office holiday party. They are still in charge and need to monitor the party and quickly handle any situations that may arise especially those related to alcohol and sexual harassment.

Attendance Should Be Voluntary

Do not require employees to attend your party or you will be required to pay them.

Invite Spouses and Significant Others

I may be in the minority here, but I think you should allow your employees to bring their spouse or a significant other to the office holiday party (if it is not held during working hours). Work is a major part of people’s lives that many spouses never see. By allowing spouses to come you enable them to meet their significant other’s coworkers and help fill in the question marks about their 8-5 workplace environment. Not only that, you show your employees that you value who they are and who they value outside of the workplace, which increases workplace satisfaction and ultimately employee retention.

And let’s be honest, if someone is coming after working hours or on a weekend, then they probably feel that they have an obligation to come even if it is not mandatory. What that ultimately means is that the employee has to make the decision to spend even more time away from their significant others, which most people do not want to do .

Make Special Arrangements if Alcohol Will be Available

Your staff is probably not trained to serve alcohol and recognize the signs of impairment. No company wants that kind of liability, so the best thing that to do is get a professional to serve the alcohol. Also, HR should set some drink limits. Do not have an open bar. That is a great way to get into a lot of trouble.

Do not allow employees to take shots. The company should only provide beer and wine. Some companies even provide rides to employees to reduce the risk of drunk driving and the legal liability that comes with it.The company should also limit the hours that the bar is open and the length of the party. A good party is probably 3-4 hours. That is enough time for people to mingle and get home at a decent time while minimizing the risk of someone drinking too much.

Also, the company needs to provide some food. Food reduces the risk of someone getting drunk, which again leads to a host of problems.

Holiday Parties are Great for Bonding and Morale

A well-done office holiday party makes employees feel appreciated.It shows them that the company cares. It allows them to relax and interact with each other outside of work. It is a great way to have different parts of the company speak with each other and not just about work.

To help with bonding, many companies have games, or some activities for the employees to do. A game or some activity is a great icebreaker and way to encourage people to interact with those that they may not meet on a daily basis, but some people hate them, so use them sparingly.

After the Party

Investigate any complaints quickly. If any employees report that something inappropriate occurred, then HR needs to act fast to handle the problem just like for any other investigation.

Conclusion

Throw an amazing party that allows your employees to feel valued, but don’t do it at the expense of your HR team. By following the steps above, you can have a great party and reduce your risk of employee related problems. Wishing you all a very happy holiday season!

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.