Am I too 'unconventional' to work in an office??

Bit of a double hitter here!

The last two places I’ve worked at and are working at at the moment have been offices for large companies. (Not physically that big offices though).

I’ve also been the sole designer working in office environments of office workers. Now I don’t mind wearing ‘not jeans and a t-shirt’ to work, but find it a bit tiring that they expect me to dress etc as people whose jobs it is to wear a shirt and tie and deal with clients etc. So what if I wear smart trainer shoes instead of shoes! Does that mean I don’t work as well if I don’t adhere to a dress code developed for someone’s else’s role!

The other issue that these places have is that someone would go against the grain and ‘gasp’ cycle to work and wear cycle clothing to ride a bike and then walk into the office in it and expect to have some where to put all this clothing when they change!

Anyone else feel the same way? Should I find a job where people aren’t so stuffy? Will I die?

I’ve also been the sole designer working in office environments of office workers.

So you work in office.
With lots of “office workers”

You are an office worker too right ?

Bonkers.

It’s not that people are stuffy; it’s because they lack imagination. It’s your job to help them break out.

No, you’re absolutely right – you’re a designer, so you should wear little square glasses and black turtlenecks, it’s the law.

No, no you are right, you are a wild-eyed loner standing at the gates of Oblivion. You need to hitch a ride on the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City. Either that or just grow up.

I work in the UK head office of a top-5 FTSE100 company. A few thousand people on our site.

The CEO wears jeans, when he can. I wear jeans, t-shirt and trainers pretty much every day. People take the mick if I’m in a shirt. Most of the rest of the board wear jeans too, when they aren’t entertaining visitors from more dressed-up companies. I’m in the same building/same floor as most of them.

I’ve been known to wander around the office at the start/end of the day in full euro-roadie lycra too.

Our dress code is “wear what’s appropriate”, so people out visiting customers or hosting them on site will tend to dress how the customer dresses – mainly in suits.

You just need to find the right company.

Are you Colin Hunt?

The other issue that these places have is that someone would go against the grain and ‘gasp’ cycle to work and wear cycle clothing to ride a bike and then walk into the office in it and expect to have some where to put all this clothing when they change!

I work for an accountants and that’s the same here. A lot of people drive 2 miles to work, some less than that!
We are trying for ISO14001 (accreditation for being enviromentally friendly) and suggestions were asked for. Mine idea of removing parking spaces for anyone living closer than 10 miles was not taken up…
Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with being the ‘odd’ one in the office, I’m used to it and it’s fine, as long as they see you as an eccentric and not a wierdo. I work with poeple who think getting to the top of the stairs is a big undertaking, they can’t quite comprehend riding 8 miles to work, never mind 24hr races!

Ladders, earlier.

If you don’t already, you need to drive a SAAB

Oh, one guy I know likes to wear a kilt and a funny hat, to go with his entertaining facial hair and piercings. He’s very good at his job.

(EDIT – and we have reasonable covered bike parking, showers, lockers/big drawers and I get paid not to have a parking space)

No, but judging by your post you may be too pretentious and full of yourself to work with others.

No, no you are right, you are a wild-eyed loner standing at the gates of Oblivion. You need to hitch a ride on the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City. Either that or just grow up.

Made me chuckle.
Top work, sir!

If anyone has a problem with it just say ” I’m my own man, I do what I want when I want. If you don’t like it swivel on this bitch” then light up a cigarette blow smoke in his/her face and just walk the hell out of there.

I’m not an employment law expert.

Either that or just grow up.

+1

I work in an office full of designers. Well I say designers, I mean engineers, we make stuff that actualy works 😛

I think, why would I not want to wear a suit, suits look great? If I wanted to wear jeans, trainers and a t-shirt I’d have failed my GCSE’s and become a bin man. I didn’t, so I get to buy nice suits.

Our office is pretty much wear what you like, but that goes with a “be sensible” rule for when other people are about. Most people adhere to that quite well, upgrading to business casual when people are around, or suits if visiting customers.

Another datapoint for my “Don’t be a cock” law…

No, but judging by your post you may be too pretentious and full of yourself to work with others.

He did say he was a designer in the first post…

I think, why would I not want to wear a suit, suits look great? If I wanted to wear jeans, trainers and a t-shirt I’d have failed my GCSE’s and become a bin man. I didn’t, so I get to buy nice suits.

How loathsome.

As long as you stroll into the office every morning with a Costa Latte, then spend your days stroking your chin while staring intently into a Macbook Pro….. Oh…. and always fix everyone else you work with with a look of utter withering, almost pitying, contempt when they comment on your work, then whats the problem?

You’re fulfilling your role with pride

I hear trashbat.co.ck are looking for a new self-facilitating media node.

Oh… and not forgetting to have the odd massive, nuclear-scale strop from time to time – proper toys-out-of-the-pram stuff – over someone requesting you use Comic Sans, or something equally trivial. I always find its whats really expected of the ‘creatives’. It gives everyone else something to talk about 😉

What’s your dress code actually say? Surely as a designer you have the creativity to come up with a wardrobe that reflects the dress code whilst differing from everyone else’s attire? Surely you appreciate the asthetic of a well fitting suit?
Or are you just lazy? 😉

Am I too ‘unconventional’ to work in an office??

No, but I think you may be too immature.

Conform and surrender to the man you freak. Or leave. You chose.

Whatever you do don’t strut around the office in lycra and smuggling a banana. That is not acceptable in any work place.

dres codes are not always rational – you must have known that was the dress code when you took the job. i’m lucky to have no dress code – wear whatevers appropriate, maybe flip flops & board shorts maybe a suit.

cycling in, i’m sure some people think i’m mental at work- even though cycling in is pretty popular. Some people there are so boring i think the most interesting thing that happens on their weekend is when i tell them what i did monday morning. 😯

worry less what they think.

Depends if you’re client facing, or you’re in an office location where clients might see you…in that case you should dress appropriately – shirt and trousers with shoes, suit preferably.

If you’re a techy and you work in the basement, wear a tutu if you want.

Me and my team are client facing, I also have some programmers who have wanted to become consultants and now work in my team. Some of them dress like scruffs and I have a quiet word to tell them to dress smartly. If I need someone to go see a client on short notice (i.e. in a few hours), I cant send some scruffy oik in jeans and a t-shirt with “I See Dumb People” written on it.

you use Comic Sans, or something equally trivial.

There is nothing “trivial” about being asked to use Comic Sans… Using Comic Sans for anything is never appropriate. Come the revolution all those requesting or using Comic Sans will be lined up against a wall and…

Turn up in a mankini, that’ll broaden their minds.

Conform to the dress code, or leave.

No lycra in the office.

Our full time designer was the only smartly dressed person in a company of scruff bags (engineers)…..

jamj1974 – thats my point. I should have said ‘seemingly trivial’. People have asked me to use it, or something equally hideous, and then they act all surprised that I’ve picked up a fire extinguisher and I’m now being physically restrained from coving their skull in with it. Entirely proportional in my view 😉

You’re right, you will work just as well in a tutu or kilt or mankini or whatever you want to wear.

However your colleagues’ perception of your performace may be affected, and instead of reviewing our mate Ted’s work, they may be reviewing “that tosser in the corner”‘s work, and they’ll think it’s scruffy because you are. Sorry, that’s the way of some offices.

Shape up or ship out, in other words

Suits or smart business wear is great for the office it means you can have a defined break from work when you change back into proper casual stuff.

If I’m in my suit I’m at work if not, I’m not, and I pity anyone who tries to talk work to me when I’m not suited & booted.

If it was jeans & tees all the time there would be no boundaries.

Either that or just grow up.

**** that! What’s so grown up about wearing clothes you don’t feel comfortable in, it surprises me that there are still organisations and managers so lacking in ability and imagination that they are more concerned with whether a person wears polished brogues than they are about what he may actually do to contribute to the organisation’s actual real goals.

I’ve used to be a suit in ad agencies and loved working with creatives. They all loved to push boundaries and were naturally unconventional – that’s why they came up with great ideas.
Try and suppress people like that and put them in a conventional environment with ‘rules’ and you stifle them…

I’ve worked in large corporate clients and small ad agencies and I know which is most fun way to spend a working week. I don’t like large corporate either – Ricky Gervais was spot on with his observations. It simply doesn’t suit some people to fit in with the group. Nothing wrong with that IMO. Life would be boring if we all followed the crowd.

to the OP, my recommendation is if you don’t like large corporate then go and work for a small, owner-managed company, it’s much more fun being yourself and working with like-minded people

Er, move to an IT company.

Presently I cycle to work daily and enter the office in my cycle gear. I also when I get to work change into t-shirt and jeans, sometimes I bother with shoes and sometimes I don’t.

No one here wears a collar and tie.

Wrong type of company by the sounds of it.

Er, move to an IT company.

It depends on the company. Plenty of IT companies have smart dress codes.

I work at home. Sometimes I stay in a dressing gown until lunchtime.

jamj1974 – thats my point. I should have said ‘seemingly trivial’. People have asked me to use it, or something equally hideous, and then they act all surprised that I’ve picked up a fire extinguisher and I’m now being physically restrained from coving their skull in with it. Entirely proportional in my view

Binners, anytime you need some help with that extinguisher – I am just a post away…