Please guys, the highwater look is not becoming.

The BBQ Pit
21

It’s only part of your job to look professional if that’s what the job is about, and very few of them are. The percentage of people who should dress “professionally” (read: the exact correct number of mm material in their pant legs), even when dealing with the public, is very, very low. Think about all the people you interacted today doing your daily routine and if you even noticed if they were wearing pants let alone the tailoring. I can honestly only assume the guy behind the counter of the gas station was dressed from the waist down when I paid for my gas yesterday. And anyone who gets paid is a professional, whether they look like it or not. You’d be surprised how many cancer researchers and police detectives wear jeans.

Not many promotions come by way of dressing better than your competition, unless that’s your job. It’s incredibly rare for “all things to be equal” and for the decision to come down to something like that… in fact I’ve never heard of happening at all. I didn’t get passed over for the accounting job because my tailoring was not perfect, I missed it because the other guy was either a better accountant, knew the boss, or simply had more experience than me - and that’s the way it is in most any industry 99.999% of the time. It’d make so much more sense to work on doing your job better than worrying about looking better during coffee break.

I believe the exact fit of someone’s clothes is a very petty thing to hold against them. Realistically, if someone is 20lbs overweight that should speak volumes more negatively about them on a much more relevant and personal level: uncaring or ignorant about health, foolish food choice decisions, inability to control their basic urges, indiference for their future well-being, inactive lifestyle, probably lazyness as well, and so on. Now if I were to actually believe these things to be true just from looking at someone who’s butt is too big and start complaining about them, I’d become pretty unpopular very fast and rightly so (FTR I don’t make any such assumptions).

I guess a person really has to be sitting in a pretty luxurious position if they can can judge someone’s worthyness and pick and choose who to deal with based on the cut of their pants. To me such tastes are fine but ought to be left in the realm of the mind and seldom if ever brought into the real world in decision-making. I sure wouldn’t pass on medical treatment while laying in a hospital bed because the doc’s socks show when he walks… nor would I pass up a good mortgage rate being offered to me if the guy has an extra 1" of clearance above his shoes. Hell, I wouldn’t even care if my 20 year-old waiter’s pants aren’t quite right; it doesn’t affect his ability to take my order or refill my drink, does it?

22

It`s a place where potential costumers are constantly touring the building and the facilities in general. Many of the offenders are the desk job geek computer nerd type. However, no distinction is made by location of cubicle, or nametag, or other means. So, in effect, no-one touring the place would know the difference between the VP and the male secretary, or the top engineer and the
data entry guys, or the computer tech and the phone installer.
There are also frequent group department meetings where almost everyone in the place will attend sooner or later. There are about 800 people working here.

A point worthy of note;
The lower end workers (about two-hundred guy/gals) that work out on the assembly floor have a much lower offense rate than the higher paid office type workers.

Zsofia, exactly.

mikee, would you feel the same way about the initial job interview?
I say that whatever about your appearance you were trying to impress upon the boss that got you hired should be maintained throughout the course of employment.

23

I sang an opera gala the other night, and I spent the entire time wondering if anyone in the audience was staring at my high-water tux pants. It’s really time to get those let out…

24

No, it just means he didn’t care. I realize that some people make a virtue out of not giving a crap, but call me old-fashioned. I’m not saying that means he dosen’t care about not spitting in your drink or making sure to shake the dead roach out of the cup first, I know it just means he didn’t care about his pants. But that matters. He didn’t take his professional appearance seriously.

25

Personally, it never really bothered me. In the case of the waiter, I might notice it and think, “Hey, his pants are too short.” But, that’s it. It wouldn’t bother me that he didn’t care about his pants as long as he cared about my meal.

whuckfistle - I’ve worked in the IT field for a dozen years now. I’ve worked with the computer geeks, I’ve worked with customers, I’ve lead teams, etc…

This is just my observation. But, pants are pretty low on the average computer geek’s list of priorities. Wearing pants is a must, beyond that he (assuming male) is pretty much lost in most cases on the finer points of pants. Some of the finest, most brilliant minds I’ve ever worked with have looked like slobs.

I worked in one company where a lady in upper management was upset about the whole “pants issue”. She had a list of ways the computer geeks did not “look proffesional”. She was worried of what customers thought when they toured the building.

The company brought in a rather nice lady to give all the computer geeks a talk about the finer points of how to dress like a professional. Pants, shoes, shirt, hair, nails, even down to telling the largely male crowd to put lotion on their elbows so they wouldn’t look rough. It was largely implied that company was ashamed and embaressed by their appearance.

3 computer geeks quit that day. Not enough code was written that week to fill a gnat’s navel. It was an outright revolt by the geeks. Their feelings were deeply hurt. They were offended. They were used to being put down, but as one guy confided to me, “I thought I left that behind in high school.”

How did it end? The lady in upper management got a stern talking to by the CEO and sent on the road for a few weeks. She returned with the admission, “Their computer geeks dress just like ours.” The whole customers on a tour issue? Solved by not lingering long in the high-water, computer geek area in most cases. In the end it just wasn’t worth the uproar, hurt feelings, etc to try and make them wear longer pants.

26

Strange story: when I interviewed for my current job (in IT at a Fortune 500 company), I wore a suit, tie, and new wingtips. My manager-to-be wore black jeans, a Polo shirt, a cardigan, and Doc Maartens. During the course of my company tour, I met the VP to whom our department heads reported. This guy was dressed in too-low-waisted casual pants, a too-big oxford shirt, a faux-Members-Only jacket, and tennis shoes.

At the end of the tour, my manager came right out and told me I was WAY over-dressed and that I should feel free to go casual once I started working there. After a few months, I saw the most vivid demonstration of my company’s sartorial laxness. I was attending a meeting in the “big executive conference room”. My team arrived early, in time to catch the company founder and CEO cleaning up loose papers and rearranging chairs.

The CEO was just finishing up hosting a meeting with his staff – all while wearing a flannel shirt, blue jeans, and boots. I learned later that he saved his suits for press conferences, board meetings, and stockholder meetings.

Sometimes, you just to do as the Romans.

27

Every situation is different. I cant speak to every one elses conditions of employment or dress codes thats why I worded my statement to mikee the way I did (“I say that whatever about your appearance you were trying to impress upon the boss that got you hired should be maintained throughout the course of employment.”). It was intended to mean that if you took pride in your attire during the interview and you think that it reflected positively on you as a person that you should try to maintain that level of care in your everyday dress. Not that you should have to wear the same quality and price level of clothing that got you hired, but an attempt should be made not to stray too far from that what impressed the boss from the get-go. Just a conscious effort at awareness.

28

Not being expected to wear clothes to someone else’s specifications is a perquisite just like good health insurance and other benefits.

If you’re an employer and you honestly expect me to wear a tie, figure that it lops off about $15,000 worth of annual salary from your offer. If I don’t have to wear a tie but I’m not allowed to wear blue jeans and a t shirt, maybe $5000.

They pay me a lot of money to design these databases. I could get more money if I did not so highly value a lot of freedom of motion, personal style, and whatnot, but I’m sitting here in blue jeans, reading the Straight Dope, listening to my own music, and not having to write reams of stupid reports on what I do and intend to do and how I did it, and no one says anything about me wandering in at 9:45 instead of 9, or taking care of 2 hours’ worth of personal business and calling it “lunch”, when work is light, as long as the programming gets done quickly and effectively when it’s there to be done.

That means a lot to me.
Oh, and if you care about how people look, have everyone dress in jeans. People look good in jeans. People do not look good in clothes that are not jeans.

29

LOL … you might well be a few cubes over from me.

:smiley:

30

As rants go, I’d only give it 3.5, but it’s still a rant.
Off to The BBQ Pit we go, then.

31

But are these highwater types wearing white socks?

:smiley:

32

Frequently.

(Yah!! the PIT, this should take off like a rocket now :frowning: )

33

In that case, maybe highwater pants are a good thing.

34

sigh I guess I won’t be able to dress very casually when I’m a teacher. Oh well…

35

I worked in a place with uniforms. Admittedly, we were working with the public. Even with uniforms, there were people who took extreme pride in their appearance, and others who dressed to cover their bodies.

You could be damn sure that the ladies who wore the very sheer black nylons (the kind that run in at least two spots each day) were preferred over the ladies who wore the cheap nylons (the kind you could get two or three days’ worth). The guys who made sure their tuxedo shirts were pressed were shown preference over the guys who showed up with tuxedo shirts fresh out of the dryer. Even with uniforms, employers notice this kind of thing.

If you think it doesn’t affect your job/carreer, then I hope you like the job/salary you’re at now. If you’re looking to advance/get bigger projects/get a nice raise, then sucks as it might, you have to conform. Your bad appearance is perceived as laziness, carelessness, and lack of respect for your job. Hate to break the news to you guys, but COMPUTER GEEKS now come a dime a dozen. There’s nothing you know now that is irreplaceable.

Now let’s talk about the weekend/leisure time. You probably want a mate. If you have one, certainly you want them to be attracted to you. If you don’t want one, you certainly want to give the appearance that you respect yourself. I’m not talking designer clothes straight from the runways. I’m talking about showing that you CARE about yourself. If you don’t care, why bother taking a shower? In the spirit of why you don’t want to wear jeans to the store with ketchup stains on them, you don’t want to wear clothes just to cover up. TRY to match. Wear clothes that FIT. As for comfort, GO FOR IT! But you can’t tell me you’re comfortable when you look in the mirror and see this kind of thing.

Special mention goes to:

~ men who wear black socks with sandals
~ men who wear knee socks with shorts
~ men who wear black socks with white running shoes
~ men who wear white socks with dress pants
~ men who insist on wearing socks while having sex
( :wally WTF are you thinking?)

ONE EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE: Going to home improvement stores (such as Home Depot). I have no problem going into those stores, in the middle of a ‘job’, looking like shit. Paint on my jeans, ratty tshirt, sweaty hair in a clip, etc. It shows that “you mean business”. I’ve even found that when asking for help, you get much less basic advice when sporting this look.

But even then, I always wear a bra! :wink:

Paging: Queer Eye For The Straight Guy & What Not To Wear

36

You know, the world is divided into two kinds of people. Those who care about fashion and those who don’t.

Personally, if given the choice between someone who wears their pants a little short, and someone who mocks said shorty-pants I’d take the shorty-pants any day of the week. Life is too short to sweat such stupid petty details.

And can we also throw in the fact that clothes are expensive? Not everyone can afford to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe because the old one shrunk a bit or got a little worn. My newest item of clothing (excluding the dress my mom got me for Xmas) is at least three years old. I choose to spend my small disposable income on things I actually care about and, frankly, clothes ain’t it.

37

Are you mocking me? :smiley:

You can wear anything you want when youre not at work, but try to respect the profession (and your employer) you are in while you are there. I dont mock anyone, I simply cant entertain the thought that someone would be oblivious to their work attire to the point that they will wear pants that obviously dont fit.
I`m sure that nine out of ten employers would have “dress” on their top five list.
For anyone to completely disregard their appearance says a lot about their character and probably translates somewhat to their overall attitude. Some positivley and some negatively, moreso negatively.
For you to call your appearance at work a petty and stupid detail says a lot about the manner in which you represent your employer.

38

Buying clothes that are the right size doesn’t cost an extra penny. Once you stop growing, there’s no excuse for buying clothes that are the wrong size.

39

See, this is where we disagree. I don’t think an extra inch of sock showing even comes close to “completely disregarding” your appearence.

I know you were talking about work dress only, but many of the responses have extended that to day-to-day wear and that was partly what I was responding to. However, I’ve always been under the impression that I best represented my employer by doing thorough, quality work–regardless of whether or not I was wearing hose while I did it.

And Cheesesteak–People get fat and clothes shrink. Therefore clothes that fit well when purchased might become a tad ill-fitting before they’ve become worn out. I know I myself have gone up a full cupsize since my last baby. My shirts fit a little tighter now, but I simply can’t afford to replace items that are still serviceable because other people think they look less than ideal.

40

I’ll cut you some slack for things that are a bit too loose or too tight. Pant legs too short? Unless you’ve grown an inch or two, it’s either because you bought the wrong size, or couldn’t be bothered to launder them correctly.