Dress to Impress
It's Monday, start of the workweek (again). So ... how do you dress for work?
Full-on suit (gold pocketwatch & chain optional)?
Shirt & tie (or whatever the female equivalent is)?
Business casual? Slacks (no jeans) and a dress shirt (or polo)?
Even casual? T-shirt and jeans and sneakers?
Sloppy? As in shorts and sandals, weather permitting?
There's always the professionalism vs comfort tradeoff in every workplace; some will permit more casual, others less. There's also that certain balance between what the officeplace will dictate, and what you can get away with.
I used to come to work in shirt&tie all the time, mostly because the other managers (including mine) had that. Lasted two weeks, and I started to notice that I could get away with just a shirt and slacks. And then golf shirts with cords were seemingly okay (ie. no reprimands from above). I kept pushing it, but have never crossed the jeans-as-everyday-wear line -- maybe Thursday and Friday, or any days I have to do grub work, but that's about it. And that's my limit at this company.
But you aren't born with that knowledge; and it's not the same at every company. So I get a kick out of watching "the new guy" in a shirt-n-tie on the Monday, and then realize that none of the other engineers are like that. It makes it really easy to spot him/her out. It only takes that one day to see this: come Tuesday, he's in the mainstream shirts and jeans.
8 comments:
I'm glad we are in uniform. It does safe a lot of money and head aid in the morning. I do enjoy the dress down day which is NEVER. The only time I dress down is when I go for training at City Hall. I think tie and T-shirt is back and dressing down is no longer a trend in the office. The only complain that I have with uniform is the material of the shirts, it doesn’t breath. Well, it’s FREE, can’t expect too much. Hee hee!
My answers are up =)
http://www.livejournal.com/~bride/503163.html
academic environment with little contact with outsiders=anything goes: shorts, dresses, jeans, etc.
i tend to blend with the student masses. on days where i have meetings, i do dress up. yes, i've been guilty, if not accidentally, wearing my pj (tops) to work.
though on occasions, i do miss the corporate life of nice power suits! ;p
the key is to have your own sense of style and acceptable comfort level.
- aliasa
> i do miss the corporate life of nice power suits!
Haha, do you do the "freak out management by making them think you're interviewing elsewhere by showing up in a power suit" thing? XD
bride: yes! on occasions, i dress up for that purpose! :p
- aliasa
I've gotten more lax about my dress code in recent quarters. Golf shirts, sometimes even shirts with no collar have been the norm for me; I just don't care enough to dress up.
But since last week, I have a new hire under me, and I feel like I have the obligation to upkeep a professional work environment, so it's been back to dress shirts for at least the first half of the week.
Bride, that Candybar Doll maker thing is really cool, but too bad they didn't have a guy version. Otherwise, I could try to make one of me. :-P
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