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Somebody's watchin' you

I love watching people. What they wear, their mannerisms, habits, nervous twitches. And even more amazing is how people act when they think no one is watching. This is when you see the nose pickers, face makers, eye rollers, nail biters, and on and on.

Today I encountered another breed of it. The casual from the waist down people.

I work in an office where the vast majority of us spend our time sitting behind desks, typing, talking on phones and shuffling papers. The dress code is business casual, which leaves a lot open for interpretation.

At one point today I was running around and noticed that not only are there those who push the "casual" part of "business casual" but there are also those who look great from the waist up, and the bottom half looks like they got dressed out of the hamper in the dark.

It's like the clothing version of the mullet.

This extends all the way down to the shoes (despite there being rules on footwear as well). Dirty gym shoes, flip flops, crocs.... In one trip through two floors I saw just about every shoe monstrosity that's out there, and none of which are in the dress code. There may have even been some new ones committed that I was too horrified to remember.

I understand that running papers around or chasing down the mail guy is hard in a pair of heels, but that doesn't mean you should look like you're getting ready to run a marathon with a button down on.

Just because you sit at a desk doesn't mean you can't ever come out from behind it. Minimally you'll have to be free of the atrocity-hiding desk and computer to leave at the end of the day (assuming you don't eat or use the bathroom all day), and people will see you. And they will judge you.

Always dress and act like someone is watching. They may be.

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