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January 11, 2006

The Unofficial Microsoft Marketing Guy Uniform (tm)

I get asked a lot about "dress code" at work, usually along the lines of, "What do people wear at Microsoft?"

My answer, as usual, is "it depends."

Microsoft has a "dress casually and comfortably" policy, which basically means you can wear whatever you want when you come to work. The ostensible reason for this policy is that it allows people to focus more on their projects, and less on trivial things like, you know, the appropriateness of the slogan on their t-shirt.

As you might imagine, some abuse does occur.

No, it's not as bad as the Dilbert cartoon ("Casual Day Has Gone Too Far"), but certainly I've observed what I call "clothing as a statement of self-importance" behavior. This is where you see someone who comes to work in clothing that's plainly inappropriate, but does so as a way of telegraphing how critical/key/important/vital/essential they are. In other words, the fact that they're not tossed out of the building on their ear ("...and don't come back until you've got pants!") proves that their IQ is really, really high ("See this shirt? The fact that I'm wearing it means my manager values my thinking more than he values your social norms. Punk.").

It's really pretty funny.

On the other end of the spectrum, you've got those of us who work in, or around, the black Satanic art of marketing. In the marketing discipline, it's important to look good (you never know when you'll have a customer come through, or a surprise interview loop), but nobody is really crazy about wearing anything too formal (especially - God forbid - a suit).

The culture seems to have evolved a logical compromise in the following:

• Jeans (preferably nicer, designer ones);
• White t-shirt;
• Belt;
• Nicer dress shirt, worn untucked, tails out, over said t-shirt;
• Nicer dress shoes (preferably black).

This outfit gives the marketing dude (or dudette) something casual (jeans!) while also being a step above a "No, I will not fix your computer" or "Snakes on a plane" t-shirt.

What's funny, though, is that virtually everyone seems to have deduced this logical clothing compromise on their own. This results in a kind of dress code - the Unofficial Microsoft Marketing Guy Uniform. Get a group of marketing guys and gals together in one room, and hoo, boy - it's like a Banana Republic ad.

(Underscoring this point, we Planners have a Wall Of Shame, featuring a series of photos where two (or more!) Planners happened to come to work one day dressed exactly the same way. Everyone on the team - including yours truly - is represented. )

Repeat after me: "you are all individuals!"

Posted by Gavin Shearer at January 11, 2006 9:13 PM. Posted to MSFT.

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