Good news- New job. With Benefits. Hour lunches, even. Pay: about 16 or 17K more than I’m currently making.
Bad news- New job dress requirements: Dress professional. A shirt and…Ack! a tie? WTF? Oh shit!
I’m really happy that 4 years of searching has yielded me a job I’ll probably love and that pays, too. I’ll no longer just be scraping by(after I buy a new fucking wardrobe, that is), but a SHIRT AND TIE??? :eek:
AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhh!
Ok, I’ll shut up now.
Sam
May I suggest you invest in several white shirts? Ties you can get on sale fairly reasonably. When I need to dress for work (most of the time it’s business casual) I like white shirts. Never a worry about whether they’ll go with a certain jacket or suit. Ties can be fun stuff and used to jazz up the dark suit/white shirt uniform.
Good luck in the new job!
Have you talked to your boss? Maybe you could get away with just the tie?
Now’s your chance – you can be that one weird guy in the office who only wears bow-ties!
Ties can be your friend. They can be a great method of self-expression. No, really. Go tie shopping, you will find many wonderful selections. Behold the tie with little cigars on it. The Looney Toons ties (one of the boxmen where I work has a Marvin the Martian tie). The one with elegant dragons stenciled on. Assorted classical paintings (if you find one with E. Munch’s The Scream, let me know so I can pick one up for the aforementioned boxman.) The Jerry Garcia Collection.
No, wearing a tie isn’t the horror it once was. Ties now can be colorful, fun, sarcastic…
It won’t be so bad really.
I work a tie and shirt job, and though it seems like pain at first, it’s actually nice because you don’t have to worry about what to wear. Throw on dark colored slacks, white shirt, non-offensive tie, bam, you’re done. You don’t even have to worry about what the fuck “snappy casual” is.
I recommend checking out J. Ferrar slacks, that’s what I stocked up with when I had to change my wardrobe and I’ve been very satisfied with them.
Hooray, Sam!! Congrats. Sorry 'bout the whole tie thing. If you need to stock up, I have a coupon for Bay Area Macy’s, 50% off. Send me an email, I’ll forward it.
San Jose, CA (From Wikipedia)
At your 3 month review, if you’ve become a valuable asset to the company, tell your boss/supervisor you’ll continue wearing the tie as acknowledgement of that hefty raise they’re going to be putting in your paycheck. Either that, or tell them you’ll be coming in that following Monday wearing half a dress.
I’m actually a pretty stylish guy, so I’m not worried about that, but I just don’t, errm, aaah, shit I dunno. It seems so…stuffy? Responsible? Adultlike? Christ, it’s a huge change.
I like classy ties, not expressive ties. I’m a very(hate the term), “power-tie” kind of guy. White shirts are too plain, and besides I inherited my mothers bad lunchtime aim and tend to ruin light colored shirts. :mad:
Oh well, I just wanted to whine about how constrained I feel right now.
Sam
Please do the world a favor by not buying short-sleeved shirts.
This may or may not make you feel better, but I work in a biz-casual office, but I’ve actually started wearing a suit occasionally, on my own volition. Though, in my case, never with a tie–instead, I wear either a turtleneck or various shirts that are somewhat like T-shirts, but are meant to be worn as outer clothing and look good under a suit. I actually find it feels good to dress up a bit, even though I really dress down on the other days. Let’s face it, the whole khaki pants thing is about the blandest “style” ever to come along. If I could not squeak by with dark jeans, as I do a couple of days every week, I would actually prefer to wear suits more than I would khakis.
Anyway, you might enquire if it will suffice to wear the various types of shirts I described above, or perhaps a Mandarin collared shirt. (Do those exist anymore?)
And, if you don’t mind my asking, what kind of a job is it?
If you’ve got to wear a tie, make sure you buy your shirts with a neck size 1/2 to 1 size too big. That way even when it’s buttoned you’ll still be able to breathe, won’t overheat, can move, etc.
To me, nothing is more uncomfortable than a tight collar. Ugh.
Unless you’re an aerospace engineer and it’s 1983.
Another word of advice. This may be hard for you to evaluate until you’ve been on the new job for a few days, but obviously you want to pick out suits that are appropriate to the “climate” of your workspace. Does it tend to be cold? Then you want something thicker. On the other hand, if it’s warm in your office, go for a light wool or something similar. The one I’m wearing now is just that type and it feels so natural to me now it’s almost as comfortable as anything else I own.
Thank you Maureen! I really appreciate it. I will definitely take you up on that offer.
I was thinking of actually buying a bunch of them, just to punish them for their dress policy. Knowing how awful it would look, I refuse to do it. I really just can’t bring myself to do it.
Spectre- Mandarin-collars…are those the same as “chinese” collars, or “Preacher” collars?
The job is really cool, IMO. I will be doing tech support for an in-house software for a non-profit. I am really looking forward to it. I was never cut out for an administrative position like I am working right now-especially one with low pay, no bennies and other crappy “features” it has.
Sam
P.S.- Thanks for the tip lieu. I’ll keep that in mind while shopping.
Nothing witty to say here, just CONGRATS! on the new job.
[sub]Perhaps you’ll now have enough to donate a few cents to our Brutus re-education fund.[/sub]
Unless this is Chippendale’s I don’t think that’ll work.
And unless I lose 10% of my bodyfat and turn 250 pounds of bulk muscle into 220 pounds of pretty muscle overnight, I don’t think it will work either. Oh, and my wife might even have a problem with it, but as long as I’m getting paid she might be able to ignore it :eek:
Sam
Thanks Worldy! But on that Brutus re-education fund, I’m not sure that’s a sound investment. I’ll talk to the Catholic wife and ask her to get me a candle of the Patron Saint of Lost Causes. A wing and a prayer is much better than flushing our precious dollars in times like these when we’re lucky enough to have ANYTHING.
Sam
