Workers Share Which Halloween Characters Their Bosses are Most Like in CareerBuilder Halloween Survey

CHICAGO. - Think you need to head to a haunted house to get spooked this Halloween? Think again - some workers report that you don’t even have to leave work to get your fill of fright. According to CareerBuilder’s Halloween survey conducted among more than 4,000 workers, nearly one-in-five (18 percent) workers describe their workplace as scary.


Some workers think their workplace is scary because their bosses bear a strong resemblance to famous Halloween characters. When asked which popular characters best reflect their boss’s behavior, workers said the following:

* Glenda the Good Witch, liked and respected by all - 20 percent

* The Wolf Man, is fine one minute, howling the next - 11 percent

* The Invisible Man, never around - 10 percent

* Casper the Friendly Ghost, eager to help, but often misunderstood - 9 percent

* Dracula, constantly sucking the life right out of you - 6 percent

* Wicked Witch of the West, always acting conniving and sending out minions to do his/her dirty work - 5 percent

* The Mummy, slow-moving and has an ancient thought process - 4 percent

* Grim Reaper, constantly delivers bad news and inspires fear among workers - 3 percent

* Frankenstein, green with envy - 1 percent


In addition to spooky bosses, when asked what the scariest part of their job was, workers reported the following fear-inducing activities:

* Workload - 18 percent

* Performance reviews - 9 percent

* Tight deadlines - 9 percent

* Hours worked - 8 percent

* Their boss or supervisor - 7 percent

* Sitting through meetings - 6 percent

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 4,285 U.S. workers (employed full-time; not self-employed; and non-government); ages 18 and over between August 20 and September 9, 2009 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 4,285 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.5 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.