Getting slightly annoyed with new job. The number of complaints I’m hearing about the dress code is a bit worrisome. Oh well: Year contract. I can deal for a year unless it gets really weird.
Your dress? Other people dressing badly? Or is it just to strict, or lenient?
It’s actually surprising to me how many coworkers have complained about the policy. It’s the usual ‘big office’ stuff: Men have to be in relatively generic pants and button-down shirts, women have… Well, to be honest women get the ugly end of the stick on dress codes as, common with most things involving women’s clothes, the rules for women look much more complex than the guy’s. There’s even a dedicated ‘warm weather’ addendum.
Part of it is apparently the Big Cheese is temporarily located in the building I work in, so the eyes of the Owner and CEO are upon us.
Most of the IT people would definitely prefer losing dress pants in favor of jeans, and probably wearing more comfortable shoes, too. I’m OK with banning ripped garments, “party ware” and similar, but this seems a little over the top.
If I was king, I would probably move to a much looser policy. I don’t think T-shirts are professional (at least not printed ones) but I think it’s possible to go too far. At least ties aren’t mandatory. I got asked to change shoes (overnight, not mid-day) because my clean, solid-color (light grey) sneakers were annoying someone. Wearing uncomfortable dress shoes until I can get replacements.
So far, this is making me thinking I’ll do my year contract for the experience and look elsewhere when it’s done. Leave on good terms, as the coworkers are good people. I’m wishing I had been able to get into a more ‘relaxed’ position. I guess my dream job would be hands-on telecom for a company that has a strong ‘creative’ side and is pretty relaxed. This is possibly unrealistic.
This is because not many men attempt to call some of the things women wear business casual. I’ve always thought men get the bad end of the stick on dress codes. Slacks, button-ups and polos, where women have a wide variety of clothing that they can wear, including things that I would consider pajamas.
We have a warm weather addendum as well, which allows sandals for women, but not men, and basically restricts things like short shorts and lingerie. The funny part is some of the definitions of T-shirt and flip flops that get played with. Apparently if you have rolled hems on the collar, it’s a blouse, not a t-shirt, and if you have bangles on the flip flops it’s a sandal. I have occasionally gotten away with a colored t-shirt with khakis and dress shoes, pockets on the shirt seem to help.
Shoes can be an issue, but there are lots of shoes in the middle of the road that are quite comfortable. Things that look like loafers on the outside but feel like tennis shoes on the inside. I have a couple pairs of Sketchers that are awesome.
I wear loafers most days as I’ve found them the perfect compromise. They can be smart enough to wear with a suit when with clients, yet comfortable enough I can spend all day, and most of the evening, in them without issue.
I’m going to give some dressy “work shoes” that are basically boots a try. The policy is vague, and my direct manager is cool and basically said even black sneakers might have been OK.
I worked for a company that had the dress code from hell. Everyone had to wear suits. Men had to wear wool suits, women got the choice of wool or silk. The dress code manual was about 50 pages, and included fabric swatches of what was acceptable. Women had to wear pumps, with a minimum heel height.
Yes, I was expected to wear a $300+ skirt suit to sling boxes in the mail room. The IT person was expected to wear a straight skirt and heels while she crawled around under desks. I made a whopping $17K/year at that awful, awful place.
Thankfully, we have no dress code here… although, sometimes I wish we did.
Like the overweight, hirsute gent who liked shorts, tank tops, and Birkies.
< shudder> Ewwww. < /shudder >
At $oldjob, IT lost casual Fridays because a few uptight people disliked the way one or two women in the department dressed on those days.
The rest of the company with whom we shared office space, kept casual Fridays. I often saw sprayed-on jeans & low-cut tops, maybe one notch more modest than club wear. I also saw people wearing sweatshirts I’d be embarrassed to wear into Wal-Mart at 2 AM on a Saturday.
Several versions of the forum software ago, we had a member in Florida (whose name I can’t recall) who had to deal with the same thing. She was crawling around under desks and in server closets all day, and had to wear what you’re describing.
Karanne, or something like that?
I sued to work with developers that would wear the ‘Target-Hip’ T-shirts in the office. You know, whatever memes/faux-vintage/ironic/etc. shirts they’re selling from month to month in Target stores? They’re a bit less profession than my tastes, but not terrible, I guess. I ahve a couple fo those shirts (got a nice retro-NASA one a couple weeks back)
I’d kind of like to get into a ‘creative industry’ support gig where I could pull out the gamer/geek humor shirts once or twice a week, at least. My own sense of professionalism would probably say don’t wear them when there’s a vendor meet or similar, but some days I really don’t care.
Karanne is right… although we might be missing the spelling a tad.
Nope, you got the spelling right.
Saturday the 30th April Father in law passed away due to kidney failure (and two strokes).
So the outlaw sister offered to pay for our tickets to Port Elizabeth and back again. Because it was so short notice, we were able to procure seats for the family on an aeroplane.
First time the family was on aeroplane, quite an experience for them.
For the return trip, we have booked train tickets. Looking forward to that as well.
Yesterday I got a call from a headhunter, and we had a little chat. Unfortunately the cellular reception was not stellar, but we managed.
This morning she phoned back, but I was unavailable, due to myself playing with the kids on the beach. Doesn’t make sense to take a phablet to meet the sea.
Anyways, she informed me that somebody is interested in meeting me for an interview. I booked the interview for next week Wednesday morning as I will be back in Pretoria by then.
So, it do look good, the prospective employer is very impressed with my CV.
Will post updates etc.
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That’s awesome, except for the death that is.
It would be nice for you to work somewhere where it doesn’t seem like the whole place is about to collapse.
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Doing “work” type stuff while on holiday is kind of a bizarre feeling, isn’t it? 4 years ago, I spent a day or so at the beach getting the mortgage lined up for our house. It felt like oddest thing, being hundreds of miles from home, yet still being able to collect all the data & paperwork needed, on the phone w/ lenders, submitting everything via email, etc. Like…shouldn’t I be chained to my desk at home to do all this?
Between that event and my recent discovery of the iPad, I’ve finally come to the realization of “holy crap, I can literally be anywhere and get stuff done.”
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Hunh, that must be the productive version of " I can fuck around anywhere"
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Well, not for “paying job” purposes. But for my other 2 part-time volunteer jobs, yes. With Google Docs on iPad in a restaurant, I finally figured out why people love the things.
Update : CV and assorted papperwork (certificates etc) was sent in.
Interview will be followed by two exams, a practical and a theoretical.
So glad it’s booked for wednesday, I can prepare myself on the train journey back.
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Interview went well.
There were one or two sticky questions, but all in all it went well.
Definitely a company I want to work for.
Now we wait for next week Wednesday.
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