Hi all, Pam here! I do communications and public relations for Stories, and I’m in grad school at Georgetown, but in a past life I was an elementary school special education resource teacher (and eventually, chair of the special ed wing of the school), which comes in handy often, not least of all for this blog post. My favorite candy is the elusive Take Five.

Call me a curmudgeon, but I’m not huge on Halloween. I run a little skittish, so haunted houses are out, and so many costumes and concepts are problematic. There are really only two things I love about Halloween: little kids being adorable and giving out candy. In fact, I support giving out candy as a regular feature of homes, schools, and offices alike. Happy were the weeks when my family’s dining room table had a colorful centerpiece of a bowl of M&Ms. A Christmas stocking with candy tucked inside is terrifically festive. And who doesn’t feel welcomed and delighted with a treat-as-gift? I know someone who, when traveling to new places, brings a bar of fancy chocolate for this specific reason. Upon introducing herself, or being introduced, she immediately offers a piece to her new acquaintance. Why? “If you bring people chocolate, you’re instant friends,” she maintains.

In this spirit, when I was the special education chair, I kept a bowl of fun-size Doves or Hershey’s on my desk for my teacher colleagues. Based on the rate of depletion, I like to think it made coming to my office — which was usually for direction on writing tedious or rigorous legal documentation — a little less painful. Similarly, the principal of my middle school had a drawer full of Jolly Ranchers (that you only found out about as you were leaving).

What does this, you ask, have to do with the price of tea in China? A bowl of candy set out for the taking is like so many of the things we talk about here: not enough by itself, but a good sign. That is, setting it out isn’t a band-aid that will fix an unhealthy culture (and certainly, an office lacking it isn’t automatically unwelcoming), but it can be a symptom of a fun consideration of employees and guests. It’s a little detail, a small touch that says that at least someone is paying attention to try to make sure the tricks are outweighed by the treats.

Questions, comments, concerns, poetic insights? Let me know at info@storiesincorporated.com; I’d love to hear from you!