Yesterday afternoon, my company sent out yet another reminder for everyone to dress up. Ya know, throw on a nice(r) shirt, if ya can wear a tie. We had prospective clients coming by, and we wanted to impress them. Fine. Needless to say, I deleted the email and went on about my life. A co-worker asks me if I was going to dress up. I said no, and scoffed at the idea. I went on to propose that they would not bring these clients by the development area.
So, the next day I get up and dress as usual: khakis, a plaid/square pattern shirt. The usual rubbish. I walk into the building, and guess who I see coming out of the elevator? The CEO. He is a good 30 steps from me. Of course, within those 30 steps, he gives my outfit a quick once-over. He was clearly not please. Considering the many emails over the past 2-3 weeks, I can understand his disappointment. Ok, so the CEO saw me, and will assume that I am A) a Jerk, B) a Bastard, or C) all of the above (AKA: a Jerk Bastard).
Ok, so i jump into the elevator thinking, that’s the end of that. He saw me, and wasn’t pleased. Well, it wasn’t. Later that day, maybe two hours later, the CEO walks over to the freaking develoment area. Now, I think, no problem; just don’t make eye contact. Umm, well that would be nice if he was just stopping over to visually scold me, or punch me. No, it was more like he was walking through w/ the clients, and for some outrageous reason, they stopped. to make matters worse, they were all on my side of the area, and I happened to be the only person sitting on that side at the time. So basically, the clients see 99.9% of the rest of the company wearing suit jackets and ties, and this one Jerk Bastard.
Not a great start to the day, but interesting nonetheless. I would like to say lesson learned… but, umm, yeah, I wont.
An old team lead of mine said the day someone told her to go home and change she would quit. I hold to that philosophy. What you wear makes no comment on the quality of your work. A client is not going to come to your office and think “these guys wear jeans and tee shirts! I should use that other company where all their employees wear suits!” If it’s really an issue, tell them they don’t pay you enough to buy a suit.
Quality of my work… Yeah, I’d rather not talk about that.
I think they should just be grateful you showed up before noon.
Matt – where did Jerk Bastard (JB?) say that he was there before noon?
JB clearly does not state when he gets to work.
I get in around 6:30 AM everyday, and leave around 10 PM. I’m just that good. 😐