My comfort level in offices is black jeans and a polo shirt. If someone else is happier in a navy suit, white shirt, blue-and-white diagonally-striped tie, that's fine too. And that's fine with me too - if it gets the job done. But if you're in a job where that's not going to get the job done, or where that image is going to foster an environment that is less than professional enough to keep the office where it needs to be mentally, I'd expect you to be professional enough to put the needs of the job ahead of your desire to express your unique individual tastes - or else to take a hike. It's no less than I'd do myself.

If I wear a tie or a suit to work, does that say I am a mindless drone who has no creativity or originality about me ? Nah, if done properly, it says I am a Corporate Stealth Goth and nobody knows it except for me and the other Corporate Stealth Goths . Thus whispereth ye Mother Goth Brain.

Albatross < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it wrote I noted early on in this process of toning down of any individual _expression_. Not only in dress, or in the way that personal space was, first slightly then later overtly, sanitized, but also in the willingness people had to speak their mind. (snip the rest) And personally, I have to say that anyone who can't discern the difference between wearing a tie and telling a straight, no-bullshit truth You know, quoting a sentence making a disjunction between those two things isn't helping your case here. Matthew Matthew-King

Going to a club or to the opera is about dressing up. Going to work in an office is about playing a role is someone else's performance. Why is it someone else's performance ?  That's why THE WORKERS SHOULD OWN THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION

Naturally there are bounds to this way of thinking. There are matters of courtesy, and there are employees dealing in the world at large where expectations exist that are not within your realm on influence. Another thing held over the heads of workers.  Thing is, most people out in the world *really don't mind* by now; we're bending over backwards essentially for the 1 out of 20 people who care.  I mean, it's the 21st Century

I know plenty of ass-kissing, conformist green-hairs with the integrity of Jim Bakker and plenty of people who wear suits but will speak their minds and go their own way to be true to themselves when it counts. I'm surprised that someone your age and with your intelligence and maturity would fall for such an old and shopworn counter-cultural myth. But how does the general tendency run?  From what I can tell, *Albatross* is more right about the attitudes most people have, largely due to the fact that most (or at least too many ) of us have to live our lives in accordance with *your* precepts in order to live decently on a material level.