Business Attire

I don't really mean for this to be a group of rants, or an angry diatribe. It is really far from that. Sometimes I aim to point out the ludicrous and insane things we come across in day to day business life. Perhaps by pointing things out, we can learn from the situation and not make the same mistakes as others. I always aim for that myself, I don't have to commit the same mistake in order to learn from the situation or figure out a way I could do it better. I even stop and think while I am at a restaurant of improvements and the like.

Last week it was emphasized that an upper VP would be visiting our building on Tuesday. We were to wear proper clothes, business casual or better. They wanted the workplace to come off as more professional. Now, I completely agree that places of business should have a professional atmosphere. Doing good at whatever it is that we do is very important, and being dressed right, or even smiling properly is a step in the right direction.

I'm sorry, but to make this particular workplace come off in a better light we would have to improve in so many ways that it is unfathomable. If it were me I would have passed judgment on the place before I even stepped foot in the building. I have a problem when I see 50 people in front of a building smoking, sitting on top of picnic benches, littering and the like. We put our logo on a building to represent, but having things like this go on outside the building does not paint a very good picture. For some, if you think about it, they would think that whatever is going on within the building is so stressful that the employees have to smoke outside, it is creating stressed out people.

There is so much more that the workplace represents, that simply requiring people wear proper attire on Tuesday is laughable. Half the employees would have trouble spelling attire. This is not an affront on stupid people. Upon review of their work product you see simple spelling errors. Regularly we see information from other parts of the company and you cant, but stop and think of what we are viewed as. There is so many elements of our day to day business life that illustrate what type of employee we are. Our ability to communicate is first and foremost. Yes, attire does communicate, but there are many many things that communicate for us that we fail to control and it reflects quite poorly.

Now, here is the kicker. We are supposed to dress properly for this bigwig. We don't even know his or her name! I would be more offended that I couldn't be recognized properly than someone wearing an improper pair of shoes. If the place of business was serious about what they were doing, things like this would not occur. We are to dress properly to show respect, but I would think that not knowing the person's name is the utmost in disrespect. To even think that other important people visit, and we are unable to pay them proper respect is not exactly good.

My point that I hope I made, is that we need to pay attention to details, all of them in fact. They all paint a picture of what you do and what you represent. If a company truly cared, those smokers would not be at the front door. The grounds would be immaculate, and there would be a sense of pride that drove the workplace to be professional, rather than being asked on Tuesday to wear the right shirt.