Darla Gehres writes:
"My question to you is this, why do you feel wearing a business suit is a
costume?"
I took a peek into Webster which defines costume as: 1) the prevailing
fashion in coiffure, jewelry, and apparel of a period, country, or class,
2) a suit or dress characteristic of a period, country, or class, 3) a
person's ensemble of outer garments.
So why don't I want to wear a costume to work? This discussion is helping
me to understand that there are probably many reasons for it. First, I
find this particular costume, the business suit, to be very uncomfortable.
Second, wearing different costumes for each of the various activities in
my life also requires that I spend a lot of money and time in the shopping
mall on something that isn't important to me. Third, as pointed out by
others in the group, our clothes communicate something about us. They
communicate how much we know and care about clothes. I believe that our
clothes and other external features, skin color, physical attractiveness,
gender, etc. cause important mis-communications because of biases and
false assumptions that most of us have and make.
Years ago I was working as a compensation manager in a large corporate
setting. The job of Human Resources VP was open. One day the C.E.O.
stopped by to tell me that he had two great candidates for the job, both
of whom were over six feet tall. He was impressed by their height! Of
course they both were white and male as well. Later when one of these men
was hired, I told him of the incident. He topped my story. At his
previous employer, the regular practice for all high level job finalists,
what a walk down executive row so each of the VPs could give a thumb's up
or down based on the candidate's appearance.
I have found that focusing on the appearance of a person often distracts
from full appreciation of what is in the person's mind and heart. Every
minute I spend trying to LOOK good is a minute I'm not spending on BEING
good.
--Roxanne Abbas mailto:rabbas@comp-web.com http://www.comp-web.com
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>