Armour on

This morning as I slipped my jacket on and adjusted my tie in the mirror, my wife said to me ‘Ah, you’ve got your armour on’ and I guess she was right.  By putting on my suit I had changed from my home life to my work life and the clothes that I had chosen were going to protect me from the slings and arrows that I was setting out to face in another working day.  My work is mostly office based in a fairly traditional organisation and so a shirt and tie is the order of the day.  (At this point I must add that I have noted a decrease in the wearing of ties but so far this has had a very limited take up, or take off, where I work.  Perhaps we are too far out of the city to be slick enough to wear an open shirt collar).  I’ve always worn a jacket and tie ever since I started work, partly because it makes me feel more comfortable, more work like but also because I am representing the organisation I work for and I have wanted to set a good example.  I have been lucky enough to have the kind of job which allows me to not get dirty and by wearing my suit I am at work and when I take it off I am not, it’s that simple.  Needless to say I don’t wear a suit at the weekend. 

So when I slipped into my jacket this morning I had been transformed from a husband into a manager just in the same way as when a policeman puts on his uniform or a nurse puts on her blues or a painter and decorator zips up his paint daubed overalls they are transformed into their own professions.  My suit is a tool of my trade, my mobile office with keys and money in my trouser pockets, pens in the inside left pocket of my jacket, phone in my inside right pocket and my glasses, a must have these days, securely in my breast pocket.  I have the ubiquitous security pass dangling from my belt.  It is my armour and like the maidens of St Trinian’s I am girding it on, ready for anything that work can throw at me.  

But why do I feel such an attachment to my work clothes and do they really make a difference?  On several occasions I have been asked if we can relax the dress code at work, especially for those people who stay in the office all day or for events such as a dress down Friday.  What I wear is my own choice.   I certainly didn’t come to work to be the arbiter of sartorial taste and I find myself remembering how a friend of mine put a dress code very succinctly when he said ‘You should wear what your customers expect you to wear’.   

This is such a simple but effective guide.  My customers are fairly traditional and expect me to wear a jacket and tie, so I do.   When you need a policeman or a nurse you expect them to be in uniform and if you are a decorator you’re not going to get much work wearing a jacket and tie.