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Gaffes That Keep IT Geeks From the Boardroom
buzzardsbay writes "Yes, it's all in good fun to point out the mismatched belt and shoes and the atrocious hairstyles, but honestly, I'm committing three of these errors right now! Is that why I can't get a key to the executive washroom? Or is it my rebellious attitude and pungent man-scent that's keeping me down? The shocker in here was pigtails on women... I love pigtails on women!"
Trying to get first post is a classic sign
-1 not first post
Who cares about the pay, once you are earning above a certain amount, being happy with what you do is far more important than earning more money. programming sounds far more fun than managing things and people. Give me t-shirts and jeans, screw wearing shirts, ties, suits and overpriced uncomfortable stuff like that.
I am embarrassed to say a couple of those got me - but since I work at a university, it's pretty obvious I gave up on the corporate ladder long ago...
But seriously - do corporate IT folks really wear ties at all? Or is it just the managers (the "I like to pretend I'm a tech guy, but really I'm clueless" folks)?
#DeleteChrome
Maybe that is the reason why. Schoolgirl outfits and pigtails go hand in hand. It may be sexist, I won't deny it, but women who do this probably remind the men too much of a strip club and they need all that concentration on how best to screw the consumer
Let's not even touch men with pigtails either
I thought the title said Bedroom for like 2 minutes.
How we know is more important than what we know.
is a major cause of slow-downs in innovation, one has to wonder if we're not looking at the problem in reverse.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
People base a hell of a lot on first impressions.. Although in theory this isn't the best approach, unless we have a new enlightenment one would be wise to "overdress", always.
Why the hell did you link to a slideshow? That site's slow as hell for me(rest of the net's fine), and the images weren't even loaded by the time it decided it was time to switch slides. The net isn't meant to be like a powerpoint presentation. Worse was the fact that adblock caught the "pause" button.
www.isoHunt.com
I have the answer! You can't get into the board room because you're too busy fixing the CEO's computer that he broke again while he's in the meeting. I think we all know that's the real reason.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
I'm in my mid-40s here in the UK, I've been a techie in telecoms and security for 25+ years now, I'm now a consultant earning a good salary as does my wife. Admittedly we've no kids but we've got our own home as well as two holiday homes overseas (not time-shares, fully ours) and I couldn't want for a better life. I work a 37.5 hour week and at 5:30pm I can pretty much forget about work until the following morning, but whilst I'm at work, I do work hard.
So quite frankly, you can stuff your boardroom job, flashy cars, Armani suits, the endless travelling and hotel rooms, and the sixteen hour days because I'm not interested. I earn enough to live very comfortably provided that I'm careful but my life of "three thirds" is going great - one third work, one third sleep and one third pleasure...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Everyone knows only the devil wears Prada.
I got excited.... I thought it read....
Gaffes That Keep IT Geeks From the Bedroom
I'm so lonely...
... people that think it's more important to judge people by their looks than by what they can contribute to the job. Sure, if the job is is to look pretty or whatever, then you better be able to do that well. But if the job is to make the database perform well, or keep the network secure, or debug the company application product, then those skills are how a person should be judged ... not on their T-shirt color, length of dread-locks, wearing of sandals even in winter, etc.
OK, bathing every day is good.
Choice of after hours sport might affect things, but it should only be because of who is at the same sporting place at the same time. One group might congregate at the golf course, while another is at the skating rink, and yet another is at the shooting range.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
The real gaffe: getting your fashion advice from Slashdot...
If being a respectably-paid techie means I can wear a Hawaiian shirt and shorts on a hot sticky summer day, I'll take that over some high-paid exec sweating bullets in his black suit when its 90+ degrees out. Hell, if it's 100+ I'll go Kilting because I can. That's the kind of freedom over stuffy board rooms and sweating suits, and plust the fact that I love the work I do I'll keep that "lower" position thankyouverymuch.
The author of the linked article seems to know all about being a "board"-whatever, but isn't able to make a decent presentation (the page is updated too quick for me to read the text). Sort of fits together...
Board memebers most precious ability is to talk and eat bullcrap straight faced. if a geek hears something he thinks is total crap, they aren't able to not say something. I know i can't, i just have to point out the flaws in a bad idea.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Gaffes Keeping Geeks Out of the Board Room
1. Mismatching Shoes and Belt
2. Tie and Short Sleeve Shirt
3. The One Binary Watch
4. Tight Black Jeans
5. Oversized Hawaiian Shirts
6. Socks and Sandals
7. Alternative Hairstyles
8. Concert T-shirts
9. A Closet of Vendor and Trade Show Gear
10. Stains
It's really testament to the shallowness of the boardroom that these are actually taken seriously by those with the ability to promote people. Your plan for upgrading the servers using well-reasoned arguments backed with meticulous research data to save the company megamoney in maintenance well be passed over because they are concentrating on your mismatched belt and shoes instead. >sigh
First of, wearing a tie or not has nothing to do with your actual competence. Neither is all of IT about tech. Corporate IT is far more then "just" the programmers and the managers. Some of the best people I have met over the years were not all that hot on the tech site but still good IT workers because they could bridge the gaps between the tech guys and the customer.
I am a bit suspicious of either extreme when it comes to dress code. Some people just don't fit in suits (I am one of them) while others only competence is to look good in one. I had this situation years ago when I worked for a small company and didn't have my driving license. I would be sent to the customer with a guy who drove me, that was really all he was good for IT wise, he just didn't have a clue, but he sure did look good in a suit. It was pretty common for us to arrive at the customer and for them to mistake him as the "boss" and me as the helper. I couldn't blame them but it did proof to me that people look at the tie first, competence second (if you are lucky).
However those cases were ALWAYS when the good looking people had screwed up and I had to come in to clean up, so this helped to make me acceptablebecause by this time the bosses were screaming and most bosses are rather down to earth and don't give a shit what the person who shovels the shit away looks like just as long as he is fast. But that doesn't make it any easier to get hired in the first place or to get the "easy" projects, we had a number of customers were I would only go under escort by sales because they had to provide a shield as it were of being dressed right to keep up appearances. A large customer dealing with real estate was one of them, everyone was in suits there, I looked like I was coming to pick up the trash, so thinking back to it we sorta send in the sales guy first to blind them with his outfit so I could do the tech work. For a lot of corporate IT SELLING your tech skills by putting it in a nice package is just as important as having the skills in the first place.
If you are detached somewhere where a full suit and tie is the regular dresscode they are going to have to be sold on your expensive contract by someone they can relate too. If you are REALLY good then a competent sales guy can sell your sandals but you better be REALLY good and you have to accept that for jobs were a really good guy ain't needed, they prefer to sell the guy who is easier on the eyes.
Mind you, there some far nastier versions of this. Females whose skills are sold disguised behind a male because tech guys can't possibly have tits. Don't even get me started on race issues.
Looks matter in the business world where everyone is always trying to sell you something. Goverment and education are different, goverment typically is run by people who just stuck with it for decades and education is were everyone who is to weird ends up, but in "business" it is everyone for themselves and you constantly have to sell yourselve.
So do you have to wear a tie? Well it all depends on what role you have. When you are coding at home or your own office, who cares. When you go to implement it, well, it isn't very comfortable. At the launch party? People should know how good you are by now. But when it is time to sell yourselve, then yes, it is just polite to dress up a bit. In sales, you dress up and if you are unlucky enough to have to be part of the selling of your skills, then looking right helps. A good IT company will help the hopeless with that. I simply arranged at one company that they dressed the worsed offenders of us. Because while going in jeans and a t-shirt is bad, it is even worse if you force these guys to buy a suit because they will screw it up. Send them out shopping at a good store that helps them pick the right outfit and have the company pay for it, keep it at the office and let the secretary handle keeping it clean. Let the people with a clue to dresscode handle the dressing, it might sound childish but it does work and offcourse in plenty of
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
But the communication and social skills (or lack of) from 'techies'. You're not gonna get invited to the table if they can't friggin understand what your bashing about.
Alternative Hairstyle: Guilty. However, I think in my case the real reason has more to do with statements such as, "Greg, you would do well not to turn this into a matter of honor."
Although, "If you knew what you were doing, I wouldn't be here. Why don't you make yourself useful and go get me a cup of coffee. Black," probably runs a close second.
Yep: they tell us you can be in charge, but only if you conform and obey. And the person who is above you - he (yep, it is more likely to be a he) got there by conforming and obeying. And all they way up the chain the same rules apply. Except, the geek wonders, what happens at the top? Reduction ad absurdam, guys - who does the top person obey and conform to? Lord Xenu? Some Darth Vader guy who allows himself alone to wear the cool black cape, and everyone else has to wear the regulation grey? Som being of pure energy that is unable to support a tie, and yet can insist on it on others?
Actually, no. I have seen clothing standards spontaneously appear. A clean room was set up. The people who worked in it got to chose the colour of their clean room gowns and shoes. Noboday wanted the white. The people who worked in there went for the light blue. People like me who had occasional buisness there, and needed to use the electron microscope used the deep blue ones. We had white ones for visitors. After about a month, I found I was getting ticked off for wearing the wrong colour gown, even though the gowns didn't actually belong to anybody in particular.
The Scientific Civil Serivce in the UK used to start at jacket and tie, then go to light suits (meaning you didn't do anything too messy or chemical, and could go double jeopardy with matching trousers and jacket. The further up you went, the darker the suit got. However, I could not go and get a perfectly black suit and become King - the system enforced the dress, not the other way around. In the Foreign office things were the other way around - going from dark suites, via light suits, to jacket and trousers, perhaps implying you spent your time in Jakarta, Bejing, Hawaii, and Bongo-Bongo-land, and you are only popping through London. I bet the Queen would rather wear almost anything on her head other than the Regulation Shiny Hat that her office requires for one or two state occasions.
The ancient Romans thought the toga was silly and impractical, but it was traditional, and it was status. The tale of the 47 Ronin was all started by someone being advised to wear the wrong colour of trousers at court. Year yellow stockings cross-gartered at the knee, and you were a fool in Shakespere's day. Come the Revolution, we shall all be wearing Mao suits. if the fashionistas say silly long middle-ages shoes, or ruffs, or bustles, you jump, or you fall behind. Is there truly no escape?
Let me qualify that last cry: is there no escape, that also allows us power, influence, and a decent wage?
Seriously, why is it that if an artist dresses like a tramp and snarls at anyone who tries to distract him (or her) while working, that's just how talent operates, but when it's engineers or programmers, that just shows how dysfunctional they are? I think Toby Young had a handle on it in an article last weekend. "Management types" are often not too bright, therefore they want people to perceive factors other than intelligence as important in the workplace. You can be as thick as two bricks, but given enough money you can wear expensive suits and haircuts and drive a Porsche. So hey, suits and haircuts and expensive cars are evidence of managerial talent. Of course, you can have all those things and be a good manager, but the correlation, to my mind, does not imply causation.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The general problem with "low level" employees is not that they aren't bright enough, or hard working enough to be management. The problem is that they only care about themselves.
You get paid at work because you're useful to someone else. But "low level" employees do their tasks, and that's it. "High quality" employees succeed by figuring out how to constantly be more useful to their boss. Don't confuse this as "sucking up" - creating efficiencies, new opportunities, and helping your boss achieve his tasks means your organization is making more money, and some of that money will get directed to the source if it can be found.
Lower management takes objectives and organizes the people to accomplish them for the middle management. A middle manager strives to hit the benchmarks for the upper management. The upper management strives to keep the profits growing for the CEO. The CEO is redirecting the company and dealing with the board of directors and everyone who wants his ear as the figurehead. Every step is about serving someone else - the CEO is a slave to the Board, who are slaves to the investors, who need the stock price to go up to pay for their retirement or their kids' tuition.
If you want to be paid more, just keep trying to keep the end customer happy.
http://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Serious question. I'm from Hawaii. Everybody wears Aloha (Hawaiian) shirts -- even in the board room. If your wearing a tie, your either a lawyer or going to a funeral or something.
Anyway, we're about to do a little tour on the mainland to talk about some of our software. This isn't commercial (shrinkwrap) stuff. Our clients know us so when we show up in Aloha shirts, I don't think they care, but generally, how are Hawaiian shirts perceived on the mainland? I assume its not ghetto, but is it casual? Nice? Gaudy?
You might be too young to remember, but in 1968 there was a big movement about changing society, authority, ditching old values etc. Today's revolutionaries are pretty tame compared to the the generation of 68. So what became of those revolutionaries and non-conformists? Today, they sit in suits and ties and are exactly those dinosaur managers you accuse of being the establishment incarnate. With Gen X and Gen Y - whatever those may be - exactly the same will happen and fresh approaches to things will be discarded like before.
No, you got it wrong. For them life is to short waste time to figure out if that moron who can't even dress properly has other redeeming values.
More generally speaking, clothes and appearance are the cues you give other people what to think about you. So if you dress like a techie, people will treat you like a techie (which is in short: Fix this and begone). This is perfectly fine, as long as you want that. However if you want to be treated differently (eg being taken seriously by people with decision power) you'll have a hard time. The easiest way to overcome this is send other signals. (eg dress in a cheap ill fitting suit with an atrocious tie for the used car salesman treatment). The extremes in this area are con men, who make it an art to appear a lot more than they are.
Clothes are just a communication protocol: Learn the spec and use it when appropriate.
I'll take that over some high-paid exec sweating bullets in his black suit when its 90+ degrees out.
You know, since we're on the subject of fashion, I want to err the gripe I have about the black suit. It has been making a comeback in business attire, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.
First, the social argument against the black suit. Traditionally, black suits were the province of the help or the dead (i.e., butlers and funerals). Black dye was cheap, and the suit color looked austere which is why they perfect for funerals and the help since it never drew attention. In fact black was so verboten, famous clothier Brooks Brothers did not even offer an off the rack black suit until the 1990s, because Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in one. Source. Why, given its history, that its come back in fashion I do not understand.
Second, the practical argument. You are completely right in that black suits are absolutely miserable to wear in the summer. They also tend to get noticably washed out faster from dry cleaning. They also are show absolutely no originality or as Office Space would say, "flare." A black suit, IMO, shows that a person put less thought into getting dressed than a person who wears sock/sandals and a big Hawaiian shirt. At least those things exhibit character.
I've had this rant building in me for a while, so it feels good to get it out, but if I had one piece of fashion advice to give to fellow geeks its: DON'T WHERE A BLACK SUIT! A simple navy, charcoal, or sharkskin suit will do much to set you apart from bland tasteless masses that insist on only wearing black.
The sun beams down on a brand new day, No more welfare tax to pay, Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light...
that proves the point in tfa. It's just vice versa. However, I've seen a number of highly skilled programmers stumble over their lack of social skills.
Idha khatabahum lijahiluna qalu salaman
I barely managed to read the first page; but there is a grain of thruth in there. Every group of people has its own 'culture' and norms, and if you don't fit in, you will find it hard to be accepted as part of the group. Part of that is the way you look - if you want to be accepted amongst upper management, you have to look the part. The same is true for engineers - after all, would you trust a programmer wearing an impeccable suit and tie?
But much more important than the clothes you wear is the person you are. Are you reliable? Are you life-competent? In all groups it is important to contribute to the group, not just professionally, but also socially. You can fit into a group even if you break a lot of the norms, if you are seen to make important contributions to the group. A bit like the messy old grandpa who seems to be from another planet, but who none the less resolves a lot of family conflicts with his understanding and wisdom.
Huh, and I thought geeks usually prided themselves on not caring about appearances. ~shrug~
That's fine, because it rarely matters what you think of me so long as you do your job. As your consultant my job is to help make you successful--I find coming in with that kind of attitude (instead of demanding you kowtow because I have on a tie) defuses most of the friction you might expect when the customer has your attitude, and then we can collaborate to the extent required to get the job done.
This is perhaps an example of those "great social skills," but some might call it "social intelligence." I'm hardly a social butterfly--actually, something of an introvert--but I know how to handle surly know-it-all geeks and this is why I keep getting hired again and again.
The key to your employment, on the other hand, is your technical skills. You picked a field that fits you, which is great...A little social skill would probably help out but it doesn't need to be your bread & butter. We occupy differ niches, is all.
Scientifically speaking, vision (inputs from our eyes) form 80% of our total sensory input (compared to 10% for a Dog).
Hence visually appealing is a battle won 3/4 of the way.
People generally don't place much emphasis on what you speak, if your appearence is Michael jackson or Janet Jackson with wardrobe malfunction. (unless you are proven to be so good like Einstein, but he too had to wear a Tux to make his peers take him seriously).
Which is why some people still love jessica simpson on stage or even Jessica Alba (even though their acting skill would give hiccups to Spielberg).
Probably what we wear does not matter to a dog (which gets 50% of its input from smell, 40% from hearing and 10% visual), since it sees by smell.
But then dogs do not run boardrooms (literally speaking that is).
Satisfied with a scientific answer?
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
... he won't even admit he's jealous!
... it's crap.
Anyway, I concur with your opinion of the article
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
There was this one guy at my old work who's keyboard smelt like KFC because I guess he didn't find it finger licking good, another gaffe.
On another note I'm an Oracle DBA but I ain't dressing like this?! http://www.dba-oracle.com/dress_code.htm ; The sad thing is I think he's serious.
Any tech who thinks that they can cut the best code and will one day make it to the top because of the awesome code they've been writing, or problems they've been fixing is living in a fantasy land unless they drastically change something.
The management world is a world away from rational scientific thinking where fortunately/unfortunately some techies live. Management makes decisions based on money and sometimes pride. If you're a techie fixing a problem chances are the senior types are thinking 'hurry up and fix it fatso' but saying to you 'How are you? We really need this fixed, if you could work on it and give me an ETA that would be greeeaat'. If you really want to be "in", you have to start throwing around management mumbo jumbo and acting like a prick to people. Kiss some arse at a few out of work functions, start staying back late and soon you'll be delegating that code cutting to some other 'fatso'.
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
... but there really is no excuse for bad hygiene.
+++ATH0
Someday I hope to see articles written by clueless hack journalists aimed at the MBA types asking them to wear pocket protectors to impress their came-from-the-IT CEO.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Well, I will have to make sure I wear my brown belt more often (I only own one pair of office-quality shoes, and they're black).
I don't want to be management. I like being a programmer and sysadmin, and I'm good at it. I don't think I'd be that good at management.
And since I have the ear of the person who is, for all intents and purposes, the IT Manager, I have a good amount of say in what goes on (when I want to) anyway ;-)
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Actually, men who have some kind of aversion to suits probably have never had a properly fitted one.
A suit should be as comfortable as a pair of pajamas.
Of course, this means getting properly fitted by a tailor, especially the shirt. If you think about shirts, they can't possibly fit every body perfectly. Some people probably should have custom tailored shirts. It's expensive, but as in many things having to do with clothing, men have it a lot better than women. Men only need two pairs of quality dress shoes in their adult life (if they get them re-soled). You can get by with three suits and maybe ten shirts, even if you wear them every day (you hae to get them cleaned every week). You then accessorize with ties; even a guy who wears a suit a couple times a year seemingly can't avoid amassing a collection of ties.
So, the issue isn't suits. Suits are symbolic of something else: of being judged on superficial grounds. More broadly, suits are symbolic of BS in general.
I've known many, many engineers in my life, and the one thing they all have in common is that they want to be judged on objective grounds, found deserving, then be rewarded and taken care of as an extremely valuable contributor. An aversion to BS means that suit or no suit, there are only so many places where they can combine ego success with business success. The business world is awash in BS, from block headed, intransigent customers to crafty and unscrupulous vendors, with ruthless, backstabbing colleagues standing in between.
Engineers tend to be puritanical; they'd rather make a sale by having a better product than making a sale on a shoeshine and a firm handshake. In the end, business means swimming in an ocean of BS, while engineering is more like standing on a tiny island in that ocean. While the intellectual skills of an engineer are highly useful in upper management, the reason that more engineers don't head that way is that they aren't interested in taking the plunge.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Correct. The IRS requires your withholdings from bonuses be at the maximum tax rate and not your "normal" tax withholdings. If I recall right, that would be 42% of your bonus will be withheld for fed taxes. I assume everyone here knows the difference between withholdings and the actual tax amount you pay...
So, in real terms, it is 6 one way and half a dozen the other. ie: there is no benefit one way or the other.
You just have to wait until you file taxes to get that "extra withholdings" back. But you do get some back (assuming your tax rate is less than 42%). They do this to make sure people don't get some large bonus, go spend it, and then not be able to pay the tax on that bonus when it is due next April 15th. Makes sense but I, personally, don't like giving the government interest free loans so I tend to offset my bonus withholdings by decreasing the withholdings on my monthly paycheck.
One of the ongoing sources of fights in my marriage was that my wife wanted me to pay more attention to what I wore. I tried, some, but my heart wasn't in it, and frankly, my three year old has a better sense of what matches than I do.
After many years, we hit on a solution. She took complete charge of my clothing - she picks out and buys everything, and throws stuff away. And she occasionally tells me to change my shirt (there's something wrong with wearing linen in the winter for some reason...). As a result, I don't have to worry about my clothes. She gets to see me looking nice. And we don't argue about it anymore.
The point is, she has to look at me a lot more than I do, so why shouldn't she want me to look nice? She didn't think any less of me when I dressed like a slob (she married me, after all) - but she likes the way I look when I'm better dressed.
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
Uhh, how long does it take to notice that someone is wearing something? It's not particularly hard or time consuming. With all the IQ points available to people who often make statements like that, one would figure that a half-second of processing in your head would be OK.
It can even be beneficial to morale to notice when a co-worker, especially those who take the time to present themselves nicely, changes something or has something particularly nice. This, however, can lead also to sexual harassment claims. Your mileage and tact may very.
Fashion exists as a method of self-expression. Sometimes there are people who really don't care about themselves in that context. Fine. Some people do care. Some people care too much. All are fine, but simply saying there are "far more important things" indicates that your priorities are different and over-rule other people. (I would consider providing people with clean drinking water more important than my job, or probably the anon poster here, for example.) As pleasing to your ego as that might be, it's not necessarily true.
Particularly for males, fashion isn't that difficult to do properly, just take the few minutes to do so. Women's fashion is a whole other animal. Fortunately or not; I haven't decided.
Of course, I forgot to comb my hair this morning. So what do I know?
Dan
You never know when making a good impression on someone will help you later in life.
Several years ago I was working in a job I didn't intend to keep for long. I made a good impression on one of the guys on my team there.
Flash forward to a few years later and I'm working somewhere else at a job I hated. Long story short, I was lied to in a bad way during the interview process and the job was completely unlike the answers I had gotten to my questions while interviewing. Out of the blue I was offered a much better job because of the guy at the first job.
My story is more about quality of work than matching belts, but it never hurts to make a better impression when you can.
Bonuses are taxed just like all other income. Taxes are determined by taking your compensation amount and multiplying it by (1/period over which that pay is earned) to get an effective annual rate. If your bonus comes through on your paycheck in a 2 week period, it gets taxes as if you're making that totalx26, and taxes are taken accordingly. If your accounting department was nice, they'd take your quarterly bonus and enter the payperiod as the 3 months, which would then be multiplied by 4 to get the "equivalent" annual rate.
Of course, it's somewhat moot, as it's all made even at tax filing time, but I'd rather have the money now and owe a couple extra dollars next April than get $1000 tax refund.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It is said that Einstein had 7 identical suits and just picked the next one each day.
I have 30 identical pairs of black socks. All purchased on the same day from the same store. When I grab two socks out of the drawer they ALWAYS match. They will all be faded and lose their elasticity around the same time. They will all be brought to Goodwill at the same time, and I will buy 30 new pairs at that time. Enough on socks.
I have 15 pairs of dark pants. A few black, a few navy and mostly various shades of gray. All the pants can go with basically any of my shirts (mostly).
I have 20 long sleeve, button up shirts. Almost all solid colors. The only acceptably pattern is vertical pin stripes. Always wear a v-neck undershirt.
Two pair of simple, polished black shoes and a couple of black belts.
There you have it. You do not have to do wash for two weeks at a time. You never have to "match socks". You never have to match shirts to pants. You always look good and feel good without having to put forth mental effort.
Hey, programmers are elite. Those other "artists" dress in jeans one day and silk suits the next. I just wanna look good and get a little respect. Management is for people who do not know how to code anyway.
- I live the greatest adventure anyone could possibly desire. - Tosk the Hunted
So, in reading the "dos and do nots" of the list, I was struck by how many of them the TLC show "What Not To Wear" addressed very differently. Many of the fashion no-nos on this list are merely dependent on the rest of your outfit. Shoes and belt don't match? Not really that big of a problem, as long as your overall color scheme fits in - ie if you want to wear a brown belt with black shoes, then you should pick out a shirt and pants that are also in the brown/black spectrum so the entire outfit flows. Want to wear short sleeves and a tie? Go a bit "preppy" and throw a sweater-vest over the top. It is all in how you pull the look together, not in how well you follow the "rules" of fashion.
Incidentally, both my fashion and my husbands (who is a programmer) have improved by leaps and bounds from watching this show. It helps teach you little tricks to make an outfit presentable and how not to make it look awful so that you can make a good impression. For those unfamiliar with the show, they take someone who is seriously fashion-challenged (and just seeing some of the faux pas that these people commit might make you realize that your own pigtails are not so serious an infraction) and nominated by friends and family to New York for a week long fashion-therapy session. They go through the person's entire wardrobe and toss out anything that is too small, too large, stained, ripped or just in general poorly suited for the person's body and then give them $5,000 and teach them what kind of colors/shapes would look best on them. Then they let them go shopping in the city for two days and get an entirely new wardrobe (supervised, of course, to help them break bad fashion habits). Then they get their hair done and skin care (for the men)/makeup (for the girls) and show off their new look. The amazing thing is how they manage to make everyone feel really good about themselves - they tell you that you dress poorly, but the whole time they're building up your self-esteem about your body and self and encouraging you to show what a great person you are and to show off all the good things about your body with your clothes. It's pretty amazing to watch the people's transformations as they realize how good they look with just little changes to their wardrobes.
Gods, now I sound like a commercial! But, anyway, I think that this list oversimplifies the issue - which isn't that you should follow these rules, but that you should in general take care of and pay attention to the impression you are giving off with your attire and personal hygiene. And if you need a little help with the wardrobe part, maybe watching the show on TLC would help.
"Does bouncing count?" - Silk, Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
First, let me say, be very cautious about fashion advice on Slashdot.
Second, your post is 100% spot on, if this was 1965. These days, not so much.
In all fairness, I think that's pretty common. It's becoming an old joke that the fastest way to get promoted is to get a job at another company -- and then have your old company hire you back at a higher salary. Yet it's not really joke: It happens over and over again.
I am willing to bet what you consider a "management" position is really a low-level mid-management position where you would not be making decisions, but rather herding other programmers or acting as a project manager.Well, sure. He's trying to sound impressive. But, let's be honest: All you did in this paragraph was replace "management" with some mostly-synonyms that just happen to have negative connotations. I think that's called spin. Because management is a lot of people-herding.
You mistake looking professional and impressing one's boss with sucking up and being a yes-man. One does not imply or require the other.Indeed you are correct. In fact, challenging your boss at the right times (in a diplomatic manner) can earn his respect. Which, if I were clever, I could turn around and use to deconstruct the whole GP's post (But I won't. Derrida was obnoxious.)
Apparently, you are either a dumbass, a liar, or both.He's exaggerating, sure. But your style won't do you too much good either. Let's be civil, a'ight?
Peace.
If they were, board members would have to acknowledge the real structure of power in a company.
:)
From Top to Bottom:
1. Facilities. They control the master electrical switch. Without them, not much will happen. They also have the ability to change every lock in the building.
2. IT. IT can turn off the servers, computers, and expose whatever illicit affairs are reveled by the board member's email and other data.
We never figured it out farther than that, but it seemed to fit rather well as our Facilities and IT departments are regularly the most satisfied departments according to the employee surveys.
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.