On Monday, 11 August 2014 at 16:29:10 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
On 8/9/2014 10:57 AM, Dicebot wrote:
actually avoided learning anything out of the default comfort
zone and
called that _professional attitude_.
People have some truly bizarre ideas about what constitutes
professionalism. At a previous job I had, at one particular
developer's meeting with one of the brass (it was a weekly
meeting that primarily served to make this particular
manager/co-owner feel like she was being useful - not that she
ever was - by sticking her fingers where they didn't belong),
by pure chance all the developers happened to be wearing shirts
with collars. The manager made a big point about how happy she
was to see that because (paraphrasing here) "shirt collars are
professional".
Yea, forget competence, skill, ability, work ethic,
demeanor...no, apparently "professionalism" involves..."shirt
collars". Idiot.
That's not the only example of clothing-based naivety I've seen
among people who *should* know better: It's truly disturbing
how many businesspeople can be trivially fooled into thinking
any old random con artist is a trustworthy professional, simply
by the con artist walking into any dept store and buying a suit
to wear. "Oh, I see he's wearing a suit. That means he must be
very professional!"
People are morons.
The sad reality is that your physical appearance - including your
clothing - can have a big impact on how people perceive you, so
in many situations, wearing nicer clothing can have a definite
impact. This is particularly true when dealing with stuff like
sales where you're constantly having to deal with new people.
That's not to say that clothing makes the man, but impressions
like that can matter, even if it seems like they shouldn't. So,
it makes a lot of sense for some folks to wear nicer clothes - or
"professional" clothes - as part of their job. However, for
engineers, it's ridiculous. We shouldn't normally be interacting
with anyone where it would matter. So, attire like t-shirt and
jeans should be fine. Our clothing should have little impact on
our job. And in most cases, if an engineering manager is pushing
for that sort of thing, I think that it's a very bad sign.
- Jonathan M Davis
