Another Week in Which Clothes are Worn to Work: Part 1

As I think I've mentioned before, I don't like to talk too much about the specifics of my job or (especially) my organization on this (hopefully anonymous) blog.  So there will be some potentially unsatisfying vagueness when I talk below about my colleagues at the training I took.  Who are these people? you might wonder.  Well, I think my regular readers either know or can easily determine from FB who my employer is, so if you consider what role is by far the most numerous at my organization -- not at my administration building, but out providing direct services to our "customers" across the city -- that's who I'm talking about.  I'm just trying to avoid using the obvious word on this blog.  Capisce?

Not Even Dressing in the Dark -- Monday, 5/12/14

Monday and Tuesday of this week, I had an off-site training course (taught and attended only by people employed by my organization, though I was one of a very few people from the administration/headquarters building).  The instructor was someone I had done a data analysis for a couple weeks earlier, so at the beginning of the day, when we were raising hands to indicate our affiliations with various parts of the organization, he looked at me with sudden recognition and said, "Oh right, you're the new data analyst!  The work you did for me on [topic] was great."  I admit, I liked starting off my week with a public compliment.

It was a cooler, rainy day so I went with a skirt and tall boots combo.  (I had worn this skirt and scarf together before and loved it, so I just switched to a different sweater, added boots, and I was done.)  It wasn't until afternoon that I realized I had put on navy blue rather than dark grey tights -- it looked OK (the scarf has hints of blue that tie it in) but I felt kind of dumb.  I couldn't even use the excuse I was dressing in the dark because I picked out the items the night before.  Well, I knew the lighting in my bedroom isn't great in the evenings, and here's yet more proof.

By wearing this outfit, I was more dressed up than anyone else in the room, other than the instructor (a man in a suit), by far.  The most common outfit was jeans, sweatshirt, and tennis shoes.

Fuschia/grey skirt, thrifted
Grey cardigan, thrifted
Fuschia/grey scarf from Target
Navy blue tights from Kohl's
Tall black boots by Fitzwell

Wearing Jeans to Work -- Tuesday, 5/13/14

After seeing how casually everyone dressed on Monday, I decided to wear jeans on Day 2 of our training.  It was somewhat warmer than the previous day, and people dressed even more casually, so there were several women wearing t-shirts, yoga/exercise pants, and plastic flip-flops.  I did not note anyone who I feel 90%+ confident was wearing actual pajamas, but they might as well have been.  Not everyone dressed this casually or this sloppily (or with less clothing overall than seemed would be comfortable for the A/C conference center we were in) -- for instance, on Day 2, one woman wore dark skinny jeans, dark ballet flats, a striped long-sleeved knit shirt, and a wonderful lightweight turquoise scarf with big black bicycles that made me think of the best kind of "American tourist in Paris stopping for a brioche and a coffee in the afternoon" look -- but it was perhaps a good thing we did not have a Day 3 to this training because I cannot imagine how much further the group could sink.  Visible sports bras?  Stained t-shirts?  Ripped sweat pants?

OK, this sounds a lot snarkier than I really mean -- I was just mostly surprised to see people in a work setting (not doing a physical/dirty job like cleaning carpets or whatever) dressed so casually.  Working in the parks/wildlife world, I was not surprised to see people who worked outside the headquarters wearing more casual clothes, but that tended toward hiking boots, cargo shorts, and t-shirts at the most casual end (and of course a lot of people in our parks wore uniforms), not "threw on clothes to drive to the convenience store for a cup of coffee and a newspaper on Sunday morning" outfits.  I asked my officemate about it later (the very casual dress, the wearing of flip-flops), and she said that many of these people work in buildings without air-conditioning.  When I combine that (the horror) with the fact that a lot of them spend their days chasing after a roomful of children, I guess it's not surprising that their local workwear culture places comfort over "professionalism" or style.

I wore this outfit with my lightweight black moto jacket but within a couple of hours, I had taken it off.  It was a cloudy but warmer day.  (Still too cool inside for flip-flops and sleeveless t-shirts, though!)

Oh, and the training itself was great.

Light blue/black striped pullover (old)
Aqua blue paisley scarf from Target
Jeans from Kohl's
*Bright aqua socks from Target
Black mary janes

My scarf is not as cool as the one with the bicycles on it, but I was pleased by how well it coordinated with this top -- picking up the darker turquoise stripe and mirroring the black and hints of yellow.  Matchy-matchy good times, people.