dress for success and the eye of the beholder
Because I was on the road, I missed these when they first posted- the Washington Post has a blog called “On Balance” that I read pretty regularly- it’s work-life balance issues for mothers. I don’t tend to post a lot about that topic due to my complete lack of experience with it- but as a woman, it’s an issue I find interesting nonetheless.
Anyway, they have a couple of posts up that might be entertaining for you MagicPotHeads: employee horror stories and Boss horror stories.
I’m amused at how many of the employee posts have to do with work attire. Since most of my clients are developer/creative types who spend lots of time coding, or IT managers who spend a lot of time crawling around the floor unplugging things in server closets, I find that I actually lose credibility by wearing suits.
Having worked in IT myself, and having observed how my clients interact with their coworkers, I’ve noticed that the perception is very much that the person in the suit doesn’t understand what you do, and more often than not is there to make your life more difficult and will probably screw you over somehow. It may be an unfair perception, but a lot of technical people don’t think “Dilbert” and Office Space are that much of an exaggeration. So I tend to err on the side of “business casual.” I wear skirts, but they’re skirts that would allow me to get down on the floor and unplug servers myself if I had to. My clients are more relaxed around me and open up more as a result. I’m still dressed to show respect for the process, but not so dressed up as to make them- and me- uncomfortable in the presence of their jeans and t-shirts.