Is a stone soft?
Jun. 7th, 2019 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyFriday! I am usually alone in the office on Friday, so I have declared (to myself) that it is Casual Friday every week. Such decadence.
My first job was in an accounting firm, and it did not do Casual Friday. Suits for the accountants and only slightly less formal for the support staff. At one stage the partners were talking about getting uniform blazers for anyone who wasn’t a partner to wear, but they never went ahead with that, fortunately. Also fortunately, they weren’t quite as formal as some other accounting firms: the City by the Sea’s biggest accounting firm (allegedly) insisted on skirts and makeup for all women. How they must have envied those of us in a boutique accounting firm, able to go around bare-faced and be-trousered if we wanted.
After that, I worked in the local council’s business incubator, which was based in an old factory. I still had all these suits to wear, but because the incubator was far more casual I used them as separates for mixing. And then I spent twelve years at Old Job, which was the very definition of Business Casual. Per Old Boss, who often wore shorts to work in summer: no suits, because suits are for funerals; no jeans and t-shirts, because we have some standards; other than that, we could do what we liked. And we didn’t do Casual Friday, because it wouldn’t be all that different any other day.
So I’ve got twelve years’ worth of Business Casual to wear, and now I’m at New Job, I’m close to being over-dressed. We have a lot of manual workers, so they’re in hi-vis and overalls; volunteers wear logo t-shirts; all the office workers never see anyone, so they wear anything they want. Which I like, I should say, but it has meant that I have had to think carefully about what I wear. Me, whose style could best be described as nondescript. Here is my dilemma: I occasionally have to go out and do things in public or have teleconferences with our big boss in Canberra, so I need to look professional; on the other hand, I don’t want to look so formal that I don’t seem to belong. So I’ve decided to stick with Business Casual, or, as I think of it, Would I Wear This To Old Job?
Which brings me back to today being my own personal Casual Friday, and I wore jeans, ankle boots and a new striped top. I looked presentable on a teleconference with my counterpart in another state; I didn’t look out of place when I went to the warehouse to pick up some stuff; I was comfortable enough that I didn’t have to get changed as soon as I got home. And now it’s a long weekend, so I don’t need to think about work clothes for three whole days.
My first job was in an accounting firm, and it did not do Casual Friday. Suits for the accountants and only slightly less formal for the support staff. At one stage the partners were talking about getting uniform blazers for anyone who wasn’t a partner to wear, but they never went ahead with that, fortunately. Also fortunately, they weren’t quite as formal as some other accounting firms: the City by the Sea’s biggest accounting firm (allegedly) insisted on skirts and makeup for all women. How they must have envied those of us in a boutique accounting firm, able to go around bare-faced and be-trousered if we wanted.
After that, I worked in the local council’s business incubator, which was based in an old factory. I still had all these suits to wear, but because the incubator was far more casual I used them as separates for mixing. And then I spent twelve years at Old Job, which was the very definition of Business Casual. Per Old Boss, who often wore shorts to work in summer: no suits, because suits are for funerals; no jeans and t-shirts, because we have some standards; other than that, we could do what we liked. And we didn’t do Casual Friday, because it wouldn’t be all that different any other day.
So I’ve got twelve years’ worth of Business Casual to wear, and now I’m at New Job, I’m close to being over-dressed. We have a lot of manual workers, so they’re in hi-vis and overalls; volunteers wear logo t-shirts; all the office workers never see anyone, so they wear anything they want. Which I like, I should say, but it has meant that I have had to think carefully about what I wear. Me, whose style could best be described as nondescript. Here is my dilemma: I occasionally have to go out and do things in public or have teleconferences with our big boss in Canberra, so I need to look professional; on the other hand, I don’t want to look so formal that I don’t seem to belong. So I’ve decided to stick with Business Casual, or, as I think of it, Would I Wear This To Old Job?
Which brings me back to today being my own personal Casual Friday, and I wore jeans, ankle boots and a new striped top. I looked presentable on a teleconference with my counterpart in another state; I didn’t look out of place when I went to the warehouse to pick up some stuff; I was comfortable enough that I didn’t have to get changed as soon as I got home. And now it’s a long weekend, so I don’t need to think about work clothes for three whole days.