[Jun 28, 08:19]Brian Everyone would always joke about how Epic's dress code stated "On days when customers are in the building, you must wear clothes."
I remember the first time I had to wear a suit. We were going to do an installation at a customer site. We found out three days before we were supposed to leave that they were having a business meeting when we arrived, and that everyone would be wearing suits. So, we ran frantically down to JCPenney and bought me a suit, and had to track down a woman who does alterations in her home, because JCPenney can't do suit alterations in less than a week.
You can imagine how unhappy I was when we showed up to the business meeting and saw everyone wearing polo shirts and jeans. Apparently, the person who told us it was a business formal meeting forgot to inform us that they later decided that since Epic is known for being very casual, they didn't want us to feel awkward if they were all wearing suits and we weren't.
We certainly met the company's "dress at least as well as the customer when visiting their site" rule, at least.
[Jun 28, 21:05]Maryanne [e-mail] Now here is a question...would you still feel the same a few months ago? You've been exposed to the dark and light side of WPS
There is much to be said about business casual and "Casual Day". Some at WPS don't know much of a difference. There are too many midriffs and short skirts to qualify it as business casual (call me conservative)...Although I have to agree that the performance and demeanor goes much deeper than the dress code at WPS.
Quite the subject today....I think I'll get off the soapbox before it's too late...
Have fun in Cali...must be nice to get away from the hellhole..=)
[Jun 28, 21:35]Luke [e-mail] The first problem at WPS is that "business casual" there doesn't mean what it means in most places. I mean, most places don't consider an untucked long sleeve t-shirt and jeans (but not blue jeans!) "business casual". The rules are pretty tame, and they aren't followed very closely.
In some ways I'd say dress can be a reflection of your attitude at your job, but I don't think making someone dress up more is going to help their attitude.
WPS has much bigger problems than people dressing like slobs. A lot of the jobs don't require that much skill, which means a lot of people come from jobs that don't involve an "office". Add that to the union situation (I think in many cases supervisors are afraid to do anything about poor conduct for fear that the union is going to get involved) and you've got an atmosphere of mediocrity.
Of course, there's a fine line between keeping the riff-raff in line and being an overbearing manager. Same with "how casual is too casual?" What if someone wears something that's technically against the dress code but looks nice anyway? You damn well know that somebody would run to the union and complain that Sally got to wear "tennis shoes" when nobody else can.
I can't believe you haven't got out of bargaining yet!
[Jun 30, 22:25]Maryanne [e-mail] Point or points very well made...
As far as jobs requiring skill...yes, most of the barganing jobs don't require skill although in CS you have to at least have common sense and a some sort of ability of a coherent thought process...ok, I've been trying to be "nice" here but one can only skirt around the issue for so long, so in stead of the rambling here's the deal point blank: some people just can't make that mark, they lack the previous mentioned....as if WPS puts on their ads and marketing material "All who lack common sense PLEASE apply here, we will hire you"
So, really the issue isn't the dress code as it turns out...
It's not like I haven't tried to come over to the lighter side...perhaps someday someone won't fuck something up and my referral will go as it should..
*sigh* ....and I'd like to thank the little people that made my life a living hell at WPS..Thank you, Thank you =)