As a supervisor for 10 or more years, I was in on numerous conversations about Dress Down Fridays. While the "too-lazy-to-do-laundry" side of me loved the idea, the professional me figured it wouldn't kill a paid office worker to look the part.
"I wanna wear jeans" didn't qualify as a mitigating circumstance.
"I'm out of clean dress-up clothes," didn't either, although I had to laugh when a job applicant in jeans and a sweatshirt said he didn't have any "big-boy clothes."
But, this morning, I gained a wider perspective when I had an orthopaedic appointment about one of my mildly arthritic knees and discovered there's something to be said for a dress-down medical office.
I didn't notice the transformation immediately, just the jeans -- on a tall guy behind the glass-enclosed registration desk, talking to the receptionist. For a split second, fuddy-duddy me wondered if he'd just come in from shoveling. But as he walked away, the scent of his coffee (hazelnut, if my nose knows) lasted longer than any thought of his attire.
Five to 10 minutes later, I was in the exam room when the doctor walked in (really!), wearing jeans. And it hit me. I felt more relaxed and at ease than doctors who wield knives for a living usually make me.
Getting out of an orthopaedist's office in a half hour or so might have had something to do with my bliss. But, the jeans were the bigger thing.
Maybe casual clothes communicate confidence.
Or maybe they communicate that you won't be rushed.
Whatever it is, I liked it.
And, by the way, the "snow-shoveler"? I met up with him again -- when he X-rayed my knees.
Oops.
I don't know which momism that channels faster: You only get to make a first impression once OR Don't judge a book by its cover?
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