It's Halloween time and that means a celebration of all things scary. Ghosts and goblins decorate neighborhoods. Carved pumpkins glow eerily with the light of stumpy candles hidden inside. Trick or treat outings yield bagsful of goodies. It’s a deliciously creepy time when night falls earlier, setting the stage for spooky stories and frightful costumes.

Back at the workplace, scary characters know no season and they don’t crawl back into their dens or under the bridge after Halloween is over. Trolls and witches walk among us every day, exercising their mischief and unleashing dark natures.

There are the rude and self-centered, who rarely notice you unless you interrupt their day. If you have no reason to interact with them, your best bet is to leave them alone. If you must interact, stay focused on the task at hand. Be prepared to endure some childish behavior but don’t react to it.

There are the perpetually grumpy, who seem bent on sharing their gloom with everyone. While these people can be annoying and wearisome, they are harmless enough. They, too, are best left alone. More than that, if you can stay out of their way, your life will be sunnier. Don’t try to cheer them up, they will only make fun of your rose colored glasses.

Then there are those who seem to be purposefully mean, like the woman who drops snide comments about your clothes, hair or shoes as she struts around the office. Her haughty air and outrageous remarks make her hard to ignore. She is hard to confront, too, because most people are afraid of what she would say or do to a challenger. Therein lies the source of her mean power. She intimidates others.

This persona takes many forms. It can be a co-worker who pokes fun at your work or calls attention to your mistakes. It can be someone from another department who accuses your department of making their work late. It can be a boss who is never satisfied or who changes the priorities of your work daily.

These people are scary because they are so hard to argue with or to change. Don’t try! You will only provide a target for their meanness. Recognize that although these people are difficult, they can only scare you if you allow them to.

If they point out your mistakes, thank them for the correction. If they make fun of you, smile and walk away. If they tell lies, like the one who blames your department for her failures, provide truthful information to people who need to know it.

The point of this advice is to help you get beyond the bad behavior of others and work the best you can. Whenever you deal with scary people, you need to remember that they are acting out of some inner motivation that has little if anything to do with you. Do not take it personally, do not accept it as your problem, and do not add fuel to whatever fires they would like to start.

Watch these people interact with others and you will soon see that they treat almost everyone the same. Rude behavior becomes habitual. It also tends to limit the places such people can go and the people who will interact with them. Rude people have very small circles of friends, if any, and whatever influence they have is short lived.

Whenever you encounter scary people, always be the person you want to be, the one who makes you proud of yourself. This will take great self-discipline sometimes and you will undoubtedly react negatively from time to time. Forgive yourself and keep moving.

And remember this: We all have bad days. We live in scary times filled with various pressures. We don’t always respond very gracefully. But stay focused on your goals and do your best each day. Then even the creepiest of office ghouls won’t scare you