Office decorating contest judging: doors, cubicles and remote staff
A door or cubicle contest is judged where the entries stand, and the entrants work next to the judges. That makes clear rules and a written score sheet matter more than at a bake-off. This page has a 100-point sheet with weights, a short pass/fail safety check, awards, a way to include remote staff, and a phone vote that keeps the result off the desk-neighbor level. It works for December decorating and for Halloween.
Score sheet for doors and cubicles
Five criteria, 100 points. The weights are my suggestion: creativity leads with 25 so a clever idea can beat a bigger budget. One cubicle-contest guide names creativity, use of theme, originality and overall visual impact as the usual benchmarks and says to reveal the criteria before voting starts. Score the decoration and leave the person's standing in the office off the sheet.
| Criterion | Max | Low scores | High scores | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theme and story | 20 | Holiday items on a door with no common idea. | One idea you can name in five seconds: a snow globe, a gingerbread bakery, a haunted mailroom. | |
| Creativity and originality | 25 | The wreath-and-garland setup half the floor has. | A twist, a pun or an unexpected material that nobody else brought. | |
| Craftsmanship and neatness | 20 | Taped on crooked, paper curling at the corners. | Clean edges, secure attachment, details that took real time. | |
| Visual impact from the hallway | 20 | Disappears next to the cubicle wall. | Reads from ten steps away and rewards a closer look. | |
| Use of the space | 15 | Covers a small patch and leaves the rest bare. | Uses the whole door, wall or desk area that the rules define. | |
| Total | 100 | Door or cubicle number: ______ Judge: ______ | ||
Run the pass/fail check below before scoring. An entry that fails is fixed first, so a safety problem never turns into an argument about points.
Pass/fail checks before scoring
These are yes or no checks about the space. The same guide advises battery-operated lights only, no fire hazards and no obstructed walkways. My suggested checklist adds a check against your building's fire code and accessibility rules, plus what tends to cause trouble in a shared office:
- Walkways, door handles and emergency exits stay clear and usable.
- Lights are battery-operated, and nothing hangs over a power strip or a heater.
- Removable adhesive only, so doors, walls and fabric panels survive January.
- No open food left on a desk overnight.
- Nothing blocks a sprinkler head or a smoke detector. Ask facilities if unsure.
- No sound, strobing or strong scent that the neighbors have to work next to.
Define what is being judged
Decide up front what counts as the entry. The guide suggests spelling out whether "the cubicle" means walls, desk surface and surrounding floor. For doors, my suggestion is the door and its frame, with nothing spilling into the hallway. Shared areas such as a reception desk or kitchen get a second class, since a one-person cubicle and a team pod are hard to compare on one scale.
Categories and awards
Several prizes let more people feel recognized. The guide's examples are Most Creative, Best Use of Office Supplies, Merriest Theme and Funniest Cubicle. A set that works for December and Halloween (my suggestion):
- Best overall
- The highest total on the 100-point sheet.
- Most creative
- The idea nobody else had. The entry with the top creativity score wins it, and the total breaks a tie.
- Best use of office supplies
- Staplers, folders, sticky notes and printer paper turned into something else. A good budget class.
- Funniest
- A pun or a gag that works without an explanation from the owner.
- Best team entry
- A door or pod decorated by a group, with a single number and a single score.
- Spookiest or most festive
- The mood prize. At Halloween, judge the scare; in December, the cozy factor.
One award per entry keeps a single desk from collecting every ribbon.
Remote and hybrid staff
- Home desks and doors: let remote staff enter their own door, desk or video background. Ask for one wide photo and two detail photos, taken in daylight, by voting day (my suggestion).
- Photo order: post photos or a short slideshow in number order, with the entry's number on each slide instead of a name.
- Office walk-through: a 3-minute phone video filmed in number order gives remote voters the same view as the people in the hallway (my suggestion).
- Same ballot: everyone, in the office or at home, uses the same link.
Judging panel or everyone votes
The guide describes three formats: peer voting, a management panel and anonymous ballots. My take: peer voting includes everyone in a small office, a panel is more structured, and anonymous ballots take some social pressure off. My suggested mix: a panel of three scores Best overall on paper with the sheet above, and everyone else votes on their phones for a people's choice. Judges skip their own team's entry.
A voting day that takes 15 minutes
- Decorating ends on a set day at noon. The guide allows at least a week to decorate and another for voting; a single afternoon is enough for a small floor (my suggestion).
- Give each door or cubicle a number, taped to the entry or shown on its photo. The organizer keeps the name list.
- Create the scorecard with the entries in number order and share the link in chat. A QR code on the break room screen helps people in the office.
- Voters walk the floor and rate each entry from 1 to 5. Skipping an entry is fine, which helps anyone who is out that day.
- Close voting after a few hours, read the ranking and announce the winners with names.
Two doors level after the vote? The panel walks back to both and re-scores creativity only. How ties work on the phone vote.
How the phone vote works
Type the entries in the order of their numbers. Guests open one link, see Entry 1, Entry 2 and so on, and rate each from 1 to 5. The ranking appears with the names when you close voting. A paper sheet suits a judging panel, and the link suits a people's choice vote.
Start an office decorating contest scorecard. The title is filled in; add the doors or cubicles by number and share the link.
Create a scorecard