By nature I am scruffy, very, very scruffy. To quote Terry Pratchett “He just seemed to generate an internal scruffiness field. The man could rumple a helmet.”
But when it comes to work, I find that I have actually started to dress up more and more, full ironed shirt and tie, even when I have no calls. Not for the traditional reasons such as: Your work outfit is a uniform or to give you authority or things like that.
No!, I have found that it’s actually mentally good for you. It acts as a demarcation between work and your social life, particularly as working remotely is basically here to stay. Putting on a shirt to work means I find that I can turn my brain off when I stop working. Also I talked to a friend who works in the service industry and when you put on your badge and your company t-shirt you’ve put on armour, what people say just for effect no longer hurts, because its no longer a personal attack, its now about the corporation you represent. I’m finding a similar thing is happening with a shirt and tie at the project level 1.
The more formal I get, the better the armour, the better the amour the more hits I can take to win the battle.
- Particularly with permy work, if I’m still working as a contractor its not the same[↩]