Most of us when we are not working be it at home or elsewhere are more relaxed when we are not wearing a tie or jacket( disallowing for cold temperatures). Yet so many of us in white collar jobs still go to work with the totally useless tie when we are more comfortable without one. Why? Do you feel more comfortable working WITH a tie on all day? And if so,tell me why? I personally think this “tradition” should be abated. Your thoughts, please.
Can’t stand ties. Never have, probably never will. However, wearing a tie is about the only way a guy can stand apart from other guys when it comes to wardrobe in the workplace.
I figure that if I am going to have to wear a tie, make it a good one. I go for ties that either have something to do with my interests (basketball, various cartoons) or have a unique look to them that still works well in corporate America.
But, when I open my own company, every day will be casual day.
Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling.
You answered your own question, tradition. Haven’t you ever seen Fiddler on the Roof? Tradition is a very important thing to some people. Not everyone wants to be an iconoclast.
The company I work for now is pretty conservative, and has only had casual Friday and summer dress codes (polo shirt, chinos, etc.) for a couple of years. The CEO once told us in a meeting that if it were up to him we wouldn’t even have that. He retires next year and I expect things to loosen up slightly under his successor. Before I came here I worked at Biosphere 2 which had evolved into a college campus atmosphere. I didn’t even bother to wear long pants most of the time. The downside to that is that if you do dress up for work everyone knows you’re interviewing for a new job.
I’m more comfortable in casual dress but I can’t say I really mind wearing a coat and tie to work. I don’t often wear them to purely social occasions but it’s nice to have decent clothes on once in a while.
Basketball and cartoon ties Mullinator? I think we work in the same office. Stand up in your cubicle so I can wave at you.
I like creative ties too though I take a different path. I’d die before I owned an ivy league or club tie. My favorites are the Jerry Garcia ties, but none with a skull on them.
I used to work for Big Blue, and a manager told us that studies were done that proved that people worked harder when dressed in traditional, conservative attire. I don’t know who did the study, but coming from a company that did not recognize anything but white shirts and no facial hair, methinks the study was tainted. Personally, I like a really sharp looking suit and tie look (although I hate cartoon ties with a passion – unless you work at a record store or something), but then I don’t have to wear than noose all day.
Here are some pretty useless/marginally accurate numbers I cooked up.
Assume ten minutes a day are spent on one’s tie. This would include everything from picking it out in the morning to hanging it up at night.
10 minutes per day * 5 workdays per week
= 50 minutes per week
- 50 workweeks per year (assuming 2 weeks vacation per year)
= 2500 minutes per year - 40 years in the professional work world
= 100,000 minutes of your life
/ 60 minuets per hour
= 1,666 hours of your life
/ 24 hours per day
**= 70 days of your life, doing nothing more than tying one’s tie. **
Padeye when did you work for the Biosphere? I studied there for a semester and have done some side work for them.
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…
Rhythmdvl, I left the Biodome just a little over two years ago and was there almost seven years. I was the Oracle database admin before I left.
Time for me to chime in:
Yep, I wear a suit and tie to work everyday at my job, and I’d have to agree that I feel more productive when I am in casual dress. After all, how productive can I possibly be if I am screwing around on this message board rather than working on my latest report here at the office right now?
Gee, it only takes me a minute to put my tie on, and I do it while sitting at a stop light on my morning commute. Do I get the 70 days back? 