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If your office is anything like mine, a workplace Halloween celebration could be in your future.

We're having a Halloween potluck lunch and costume party, with prizes awarded for the best get-ups. We're told that all costumes must be workplace-appropriate.

Almost a third of workers dressed up or considered donning a costume for Halloween at the office in 2005, according to a careerbuilder.com survey.

Dressing in costume for Halloween at work seems harmless enough as long as it doesn't freak out people outside the office.

For instance, who wants to look up from the operating table and see a doctor dressed as a clown?

Would you like it if your divorce lawyer showed up to court in a Britney Spears get-up?

What if your accountant pretended to be an IRS agent with handcuffs?

How would you feel if your exterminator came to your home dressed as a giant cockroach?

How comfortable would you be if your stockbroker arrived at your annual portfolio review decked out in a bear suit?

You might freak out if your math teacher arrived at your tutoring session dressed as the letter "F."

Or if your pizza-delivery guy came to your door dressed as a police officer (impersonating an officer, incidentally, is a crime).

I wouldn't like going to a food court for lunch and being served by a guy in an E. coli costume.

Local politicians might freak out a bit if we journalists arrived at the press conference in Geraldo Rivera costumes.

Wouldn't it mess you up if your barber decided to be Edward Scissorhands?

No dentist dressed as Captain Hook is going to drill my teeth. Nor is a chiropractor in a Hunchback of Notre Dame suit going to align my spine.

So keep these things in mind as you're sitting there in your cubicle plotting that award-winning costume.