Except when it actually is whining.
One question for all those “fight the power” folks. You people content as to your lot in life? Are you in an interesting and challenging career you enjoy or are you basically in miserable, low level jobs where everyone tells you what to do? If all that’s working out for you, by all means, keep up the attitude.
Hey at least you didn’t “sell out” (whatever the heck that means).
Uniforms are necessary. If not for the Red Shirt uniforms, how will the evil aliens in Star Trek know whom to kill? Without the Red Shirt uniforms, the individual members of any landing party won’t know if they’ll survive the next encounter.
For the most part, my sympathies lie against the OP. As has been noted several times, the company is offering a wide range of styles and colors from which to choose. What’s more, they’re paying for the shirts. I’d cheerfully wear most anything if the company paid for it. Spending less of my money on clothes for work = spending more of my money on stuff I want/like.
However, one nagging memory prevents me from setting my phaser to “kill” in regards to the OP. When I was a teenager, I worked for a privately owned, local tourist attraction. We had a uniform we had to wear while on duty (khaki slacks or shorts, blue Oxford button-down shirt, nametag … all of which we had to buy ourselves, incidentally). Each year, this tourist attraction would host an Indian Dance Festival, in which various Indian tribes would perform some of their ritual dances. A few thousand people would usually attend this Festival.
One year, the owner of the tourist attraction decided that all employees would add one item to their official uniform for the duration of the Indian Dance Festival – a faux-leather headband across our brows, with a dyed feather in the back. That’s right – the stereotypical (and historically inaccurate) Hollywood headgear for an “Indian brave.”
He announced this during the staff meeting the morning of the Festival. For some reason I don’t remember, I wasn’t at the staff meeting; I was elsewhere on the grounds doing something. I learned about the headgear deal when I saw one of the other employees sporting the look. She filled me in.
I refused to wear one.
Several things led to my refusal. First, we had just studied the tribes of Native Americans that lived in Alabama in school, and I knew none of them wore said headgear. Second, I tend to sweat a bit if I’m walking around in the hot sun (as I would have to do all weekend long), and I knew the “leather” would exacerbate that problem. Finally, my job was in no way related to the dance performances of the local tribes, and I felt silly (and a bit self-conscious) wearing something that could potentially insult one or more members of said tribes.
I didn’t see the owner on Saturday, but Sunday he and I crossed paths just before noon. We sized each other up. Our shadows pooled around our feet in the blazing sun. A hush fell over the crowd, and people scurried for cover. In the silence, a crow took flight, cawing raucously. A wizened old man near the saloon said “They’s gon’ be a shootout!”
The owner broke the silence. “You’re not wearing the feather.”
I said, “That’s right.”
He said, “Be careful, or you’ll get scalped!” and laughed. (This should give you some idea of the cultural sensitivity of the man.) I laughed along with him. And went on my merry way. No repercussions were ever heaped upon my head for my brazen defiance of The Man.
I’m sure that when I started typing this post, I had some point to prove by relaying that story. By now, though, I’ve long since forgotten it.
I’m still thinking the whole “refusing to wear the shirt” thing is pointless. I understand living your life by a set of personal principals, but this one is hardly up there with “First do no harm.”
And I’m seriously considering wearing a feathered headband to work tomorrow. Just for the hell of it.
msmith537, I had a feeling you would counter my argument. I’m just going to repeat that I have mixed feelings about this. I’ve thought some more about this and still come to the same conclusion, but perhaps with one additional point. Now, the company I work for has logo shirts which I’d be happy to wear, partly because they don’t force us to wear them, and partly because I feel great about the company I work for and am happy in my job. If they forced us to wear the shirt, I’d do it, because as I said it’s not that huge a deal…but I’d also be looking for another job.
I just can’t see it. Uniforms, in my view, simply aren’t appropriate in most professional jobs. Nurses, doctors, and Navy SEALS, it’s true have to wear uniforms because there’s a traditionally expected outfit which is part of the prestige of the position. But for most office jobs it’s demeaning. Neat attire yes, uniforms no.
Oh, and as to the company that required uniform shirts, and gave you only one clean shirt to wear through a week of shifts, that’s just plain wrong. Disgusting, is what it is.
I don’t know where msmith gets off assuming that everyone who opposes uniforms is a low-level person. I’ve been a low-level person, but I’ve also been at the top level in my field. But just because I am no longer in any great danger of wearing a uniform, that doesn’t make forcing people to wear uniforms, especially unnecessarily, right.
I also think the notion that workers must never question management decisions, and if they do so they are whining, is so stupid it’s laughable.
Good point. But as a management person you have to make all kinds of morally skiffy decisions, this is just one of them. Frex, managers sometimes have to lay off decent, hardworking people for reasons that having nothing to do with their job performance. Sometimes it simply has to be done, but let’s not anybody pretend it’s a good thing for the people involved.
I dunno…whenever I see msmith’s posts it I always kinda want to say “Aww, shut up, msmith,” but I kind of vaguely agree with some of the points he’s driving at.
Uniforms…sigh. I remember working seasonal at a Halloween store. We could wear most anything we wanted, but we were encouraged to wear a store T-shirt (which we had to pay for and was unattractive, save for the one redeeming feature that it was BLACK and not white) and one year they tried to make us wear the stupid damn green visor things made of some appalling foam rubber.
The shirt I would buy and wear, reluctantly. The little lanyard I would wear. The visor…helllll, no. Pimple factory waiting to happen.
I, like Boyo, swore I would never work for a company that required me to have my name on my chest. I do have one T-shirt with my name on my chest, but that one’s special, and an honor. And if I had to do it or starve, I’d wear the damn nametag, but I’d rather be on unemployment, and I have this knee-jerk hatred of any public assistance.
Oh, and to answer your question, msmith, I am currently in a job I love for a company I love. I am going places and may be working my actual Dream Job in under a year.
So neener. 
Because most professionals do not wear uniforms unless it is for safty reasons or they are a policeman, fireman, etc. where it is necessary to imediately identify them.
Because people have said they work for maintenance and technical jobs which are considered “low level”.
Because every job that I can think of outside of doctor/soldier/police where complaining about having a uniform would be ridiculous is a low level job - cashier, maintenance worker, fast food clerk, and so on.
It’s ok to question management decesions but there’s an appropriate way to do it. I’ve heard some really bizare and stupid decisions in my time, mostly because the manager had no clue what they are doing. Managers are people to though and they aren’t omnicient. There is such a thing as “managing your manager”, which basically means if they make an order you don’t understand or is blantantly wrong, you can find a way to address it that does not make them feel awkward or undermines their authority.
Well, that’s just the problem. The OP is an AV/tech guy. He’s not in the type of position you mention here. His job might be low level in the sense that he doesn’t have anyone reporting to him, but it doesn’t mean his job isn’t at least mid level in terms of skills and perhaps pay. I’m not a boss either, but I definitely wouldn’t call my position a low level job either.
My job’s got a high technical aspect. I do a small number of lectures, and I’m a systems administrator, so I do end up moving around computers and other computer equipment, pulling new cable if we have to add a drop since we’ve already exceeded the 50% we expected the network to grow in the last year, that sort of thing. It’s a ‘technical job’, but it’s far from ‘low-level’ both in terms of skill and in terms of heirarchy because I have three people who report directly to me, and I was just given an intern.
I would resent like hell being told to wear a uniform. It’s not appropriate for my job, and it’s the kind of micromanaging bullshit that makes for a very unpleasant work place. It’s like being told that I can’t have coffee in my office because there are servers and switches and things on the other side of the room from my desk where I want to drink coffee. Honestly, the SA should be the last person to worry about having coffee in the same room as a computer, but my boss is a micromanager.
It’s not just about a shirt, it’s about bosses that are intrusive micromanagers and institute bullshit rules simply so that they can have more ‘control’. I’m not working the counter at McDonalds, I am not cleaning hotel rooms, I’m not trooping through the desert needing camouflage as I just shoot other soldiers. I am a highly skilled professional person entrusted with using my judgment to keep all of the computer systems and data at a college safe, but if I can’t be trusted to pick out my own shirt or drink a cup of coffee, my boss better trust that I will find a new job.
Ah, but you see, the OP is being trusted to pick out his own shirt, which will then have a logo sewn on it. He’s just refusing to pick out the damn shirt (and probably holding up the order for the whole damn department in the process) because picking out his own shirt would constitute “a uniform.” :rolleyes:
Master Wang-Ka wrote
For the record, actually, I said that I support Boyo Jim in his decision. Specifically, I wrote
It’s not appropriate for most jobs. The purpose of a uniform is to identify the wearer as an employee of a company. I can see this being useful in service positions or janitorial/maintenance positions where you have strangers roaming room to room in a building.
I guess I just don’t see the big deal of wearing a polo shirt with the logo on it. My company tells me to wear a suit, I wear a suit. They say corporate casual is ok, its chinos and an oxford. I did work for one company though where the project manager made the last person to the morning meeting wear an 18" wall clock like Flavor Flav from Public Enemy. I think that’s demeaning and unprofessional and when I was supposed to wear it I told her so (I think my exact words were "phhtttt…yeah…right… :rolleyes: "). I was the first person in months to refuse. I guess everyone has their line of what they consider “acceptible”.
You’ve GOT to be kidding me. :eek:
It’s an amusing joke if you are. I mean, I can see a sort of why they’d do it, but…but…yeah, I’d be up there with the “you’ve GOT to be kidding me” crowd.
You mean if they were late for the morning meeting and holding everyone else up, right? Please tell me they weren’t doing this to people who were on time. Please.
Am I wrong, or do I detect an attitude change from these posts:
to this post
I suppose you must feel terribly conflicted if by our own admission anyone who hires YOU is an incompetent idiot:
Still, as I mull over these responses I have come to realize that there is a lot more behind my attitude than just a visceral hatred of unforms and a college pledge. I have relationships outside of work with several of my co-workers, including my boss. I’m the friend that fixes people jigh-tech home problems. I reinstall software, reconfigure modems wire up home theaters for lots of people I know. I don’t charge for it, but I get a lot of free meals, drinks, and party invitations. With my boss, it’s her home town community swim team, and the PA system at the community swimming pool. I’m gonna think some more about this before I rant on.
FWIW I’m quite sure your boss was never given a choice, or probably even a voice, in this decision. Which doesn’t absolve her for not defining the exact rules, but there it is. Speaking as an official, card-carrying Management Slime, it can be remarkably difficult to impose the latest insanity from the TPTB with a neutral face, especially when you know perfectly well how stupid it is. It’s unprofessional to bad mouth or sabotage it, but it’s soul-destroying to actually try to be rah-rah over it.
If it’s any comfort–and there’s absolutely no reason it would be beside misery loving company–my city recently undertook a prolonged, expensive logo change, right in the middle of layoffs, service reductions and a budget that’s sucking air and no relief in sight. Expensive snotty consultants, plenty of banal, pathetic designs, public derision and impassioned debates over colors, etc. Yeah, yeah, we management types got the stuff about branding and identication. We also, to a person, thought it was deeply stupid, not remotely justifying the costs of remarking the entire vehicle fleet, signage on building and streets, not to mention employee uniforms, all letterhead, forms, etc. It was imposed despite our opposition. Shit and oh well. When my staff–justifiably–complains about it, the most I can muster is “Hmmm, well we have to do it anyway.” It sucks.
I sympathize, Boyo Jim, but can’t really offer you any realistic hope of success in flat resistence. I too question the ROI aspect of this shirt thing, especially since employees already sport ID tags. Sad to say, it’s all too possible TPTB may cluelessly regard this as an employee morale builder. “Let’s give 'em shirts! They’ll feel like a team!” Yeah, I know. And how many moons does their planet have? I’m not faulting your personal distaste, btw, but then again it’s not my trigger. My library created it’s own unique variation of the logo–the Design Standards Manual bedamned–for clothing. I paid the initial set-up charges with Land’s End and employees have a ball choosing–and paying for–their own stuff, if they want to. We have fun with it…but it was our choice, which probably made all the difference. A slightly subversive, and possibly pointless, response but one which TPTB, equally cluelessly, took as “employee enthusiasm.”
Hmmmm. (Again.) Sometimes applied sideways thinking can make the ridiculous at least palatable.
Best of luck to you no matter what, though, Boyo Jim.
Veb