At my first professional job, I tried wearing skirts and dresses at first, but my screwdrivers kept ripping out the pockets, and I was required to climb under people's desks. So I switched to casual techie wear.
At my next job, which sucked, I got called into the CIO's office. "Jadelennox," he began. "You're wearing a lot of t-shirts with words on them, and running around the office barefoot. This has to stop."
"Oh, thank goodness," I replied. "There's a dress code? That will make my life so much easier. What's the dress code?"
"You use common sense!" said the CIO. "No t-shirts with words on them, for example."
I was confused. "But you're wearing a t-shirt with words on it right now," I said, nodding at his tech freebie polo.
He made a why me, god? face, and said "Look, just dress like the person with the job you aspire to have."
"But the shlubby t-shirts and bare feet is my dressing like the job I aspire to have," I said, as a mid-tier systems administrator.
"What?" he replied. "But [female middle manager 1] and [female middle manager 2] wear suits."
"Right," I said. "I dress like [male lead technical architect, who usually wore shorts and was barefoot in the office]."
And we stared at each other, at a loss.
So unfortunately, depending on the field, dressing how the LW wants could backfire. Maybe LW is a graphic designer or a programmer, and wearing dresses to the office will make people direct her to management or sales. Maybe it will make her male colleagues treat her as the dumb one. (Which in the office of my story above, happened to my prettier and thinner female colleagues.)
We can't win, in other words, and it's very difficult to get right.
agreed
At my first professional job, I tried wearing skirts and dresses at first, but my screwdrivers kept ripping out the pockets, and I was required to climb under people's desks. So I switched to casual techie wear.
At my next job, which sucked, I got called into the CIO's office. "Jadelennox," he began. "You're wearing a lot of t-shirts with words on them, and running around the office barefoot. This has to stop."
"Oh, thank goodness," I replied. "There's a dress code? That will make my life so much easier. What's the dress code?"
"You use common sense!" said the CIO. "No t-shirts with words on them, for example."
I was confused. "But you're wearing a t-shirt with words on it right now," I said, nodding at his tech freebie polo.
He made a why me, god? face, and said "Look, just dress like the person with the job you aspire to have."
"But the shlubby t-shirts and bare feet is my dressing like the job I aspire to have," I said, as a mid-tier systems administrator.
"What?" he replied. "But [female middle manager 1] and [female middle manager 2] wear suits."
"Right," I said. "I dress like [male lead technical architect, who usually wore shorts and was barefoot in the office]."
And we stared at each other, at a loss.
So unfortunately, depending on the field, dressing how the LW wants could backfire. Maybe LW is a graphic designer or a programmer, and wearing dresses to the office will make people direct her to management or sales. Maybe it will make her male colleagues treat her as the dumb one. (Which in the office of my story above, happened to my prettier and thinner female colleagues.)
We can't win, in other words, and it's very difficult to get right.