Going toe-to-toe on office etiquette

[malkin767]

Even though he was never given a dress code, rising Syracuse University junior Michael Swartz knew enough not to turn up on the first day of his summer internship on the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette design desk wearing sandals and iPod earbuds. Yet by the second week the sandals were on and the earbuds were in - and no one seemed to mind

Comments

[bluehenboy]

Wow, that's so true about a lot of things.

It's odd, because I've encountered this where I work. I'm an intern for a company, and I wear birkenstock clogs for shoes, khaki pants, and a polo shirt. On dressier days I'll still wear something more flashy that could easily be woren to a night club if I wanted to. I constantly wear my iPod, and in between projects I'll be texting on my cell phone.

No one comments on it, well, one person said something about my birks. But, the company seems pretty young and understanding and doesn't get upset about it.

Actually, I end my internship this week and I've been invited back for both a winter and summer internship- so I must be doing something right, and the iPod/casual clothing can't be that bad I guess.

[bluehenboy]

About hours too....I work from 7am-5pm Monday through Thursday, and 7am-1pm on Fridays. The other intern got off Fridays alltogether.

So pretty much, everything in that article is true, and i'm living proof I guess

I guess its also funny to note...i'm at work right now as I type this.

[rimrunner]

Where you're working makes a difference, I think. In my comment below I noted that I dress up for work. However, before graduate school I worked in the PR department of an events promotion company, and there everything was a lot more casual. It's just not really possible to be dressy when you're staging an arts event that attracts a quarter of a million people. And the company culture was a lot more casual, too; the top managers dressed up, but no one else did.

No iPod for me at work-but this is a library, after all. And at that we allow cell phones on the first floor.

[madnesspassing]

i've seen a few people at work in my library tethered to their ipods. it doesn't bother me in the morning before we open, but that's extremely rude during business hours. part of working on the floor of the library is answering questions and helping people find things. you can't do that if you're blaring music in your headphones.

when i worked tech services for a university library, music was a must... however, everyone was stuck in their own cube and there were no patrons on the TS floor. that's a little bit different than working in a mid-sized public library.

sorry, ranting. it's just one of the little things that's been bugging me the past few weeks.

Everything old is new again

[rimrunner]

I'm not sure what year my copy of Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior is from, but there's some discussion in it about workplace dress. I think she ends up advising a manager who despairs of enforcing a workplace dress code to promote those who dress well to positions of greater responsibility (presuming their qualifications in other respects, of course).

As a librarian I make an effort to not only dress well, but distinctively so; however, that's part of my one-woman crusade to render our reputation for frumpiness obsolete. Spaghetti-strap tank tops are not in it.

(And I have to admit that as much as I love Seattle in other ways, my east-coast sensibilities are still mildly stunned by the tendency to wear jeans to the symphony. I can understand not dressing up if you can't afford to, but personally I'm very fond of marking special occasions with nice clothes. Plus, it shows respect to the performers.)

Re: Everything old is new again

[lucertola]

I'm very fond of marking special occasions with nice clothes. Plus, it shows respect to the performersI tend to feel the same way. When I saw my first play on Broadway I dressed up even though my relatives said it wasn't necessary. When we arrived I understood-blue jeans everywhere

Re: Everything old is new again

[rimrunner]

Well, I make my S.O. dress up for my sake-he'd live in jeans and t-shirts if he could, but when he dresses up he looks damn good.

Ahem. *cough*

"Does it really matter?" is kind of a tricky question-you can start with formal wear and end up at things like art, religion, and rule of law if you're not careful. Sure, no babies will die if you wear jeans to the opera instead of slacks, but I do think that dress goes a long way toward giving an event a sense of occasion. And I wouldn't wear flip-flops to meet the President, no matter what I thought of him.

Not that my motives are purely altruistic. As a junior faculty member in particular, I find it helps me be taken seriously by my colleagues and the students (particularly since I'm still young enough to be mistaken for one of them) if I put a little effort into what I'm wearing. OTOH, academia is pretty slow to change its ways, and I'd expect this to be no different.

[robynchick]

I find that amusing as I work in a particularly casual office (my boss wears jeans and tank tops regularly) with many people twice my age and I am always the most dressed. I always wear dress casual attire of some sort and keep my shoulders covered. It's like the reverse of that article really.

[tymothytoastman]

The irony is that in my own workplace, dress codes have severely tightened over the past four years. I work retail for Apple, and was recently told I need to dye my hair back to brown (from blue). The reason? There's a difference between the "Apple brand" and the "Apple culture," and we need to be representing the brand. We even may be switching from our tshirt uniforms to something more formal.

I just hope I don't end up dressed like the guys at cell phone kiosks.

[lionsangel]

I read this article about the Generation Y with excitement. It seems to me they have their priorities straight, and I betcha they won't have the problem with depression like the generation previously