Inappropriate attire for work

[Firefight]

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However (but!) the important thing to remember when you're on a client's site is you're representing your employer, not yourself, so what you think or feel doesn't matter. I always bear that in mind, regardless of personal feelings.[/QUOTE]





not debating the right or wrong of this, but yes this is a very valid point

and should be considered.


F/F

[scracha]

Really. Some people do have a personal perception issue.

They're the paying customer. If they expect you to turn up wearing a suit, tie and dress shoes instead of a leather jacket and boots (or even request you turn up in a clown outfit) then that's their prerogative. If you don't want to meet their requirements or simply can't then its your prerogative. What's the problem?

Apologise, get a set of Givi hard panniers or arrive at this customer in a car and you'd be sorted. Remember to charge them a hell of a lot extra travelling & parking time though. Otherwise if you've got shitloads of happy customers, then indeed thank this customer for their time and suggest they get themselves another suit wearing monkey.

I kinda take your point about perception though. Sometimes I find this country very conservative with a 1980's view of motorcyclists though.



ps. dunno what IT you do but I carry an SUV load of $hit with me and still find I've not got the parts I need half the time.

[Mom]

He fixed your sight and you can now see how ugly he is

Not quite. He has always been a challenge for me on the attractiveness scale

It was more about his attitude to a good client, in fact I actually said to him something along the lines of, well *name removed* please disregard my letter informing you the reasons I have taken my business elsewhere, I only wrote it so you knew what your staff were saying to your clients. It is your business afterall. If they are telling you it never happened and you believe what they are saying, that makes me the liar. Good luck to you!

Simple fact for sucess no matter whether you are an employee trying to impress your boss, or a business owner wanting to retain his customers, or a boss that wants to keep good staff, or a....

Exceed peoples expectations, dont simply say...."get fucked" I am doing it this way/wearing what I like. Earn a bit of respect and then bend them rules

[caseye]

p-dath, I can't remember the time I've actually agreed with something you've posted, but this time I do.
I've travelled the entire North Island representing the few companies I've worked for, I too used to take the bike ( way back in the dark ages, 1980's) naturally with my employers permission and blessing as back then it definitely cost far less to operate a bike than the co car.
I never once encountered this sort of attitude and in fact constantly got told, what a great idea.
It is the attitude that needs to change, you were/are doing your emplyers a favour and if they'd only acknowledge it your clients. You are there faster, sooner and better mentally able to deal with their problems.
I can say confidently that had I encountered such an attitude I'd have deal't with it pretty much the same way knowing my employers would back my call.
Course I was a relatively good salesman and could afford to lose the odd oddball client.
While it is always advisable to try to please/placate your clients on occassion their whinging can be less than tolerable.
I'm in the camp of, if they don't like it, call someone else.

[sunhuntin]

I
However (but!) the important thing to remember when you're on a client's site is you're representing your employer, not yourself, so what you think or feel doesn't matter. I always bear that in mind, regardless of personal feelings.

same goes for work uniforms. i refuse to ride showing my uniform simply for the fact that i will then be representing the business, and some of my actions while riding may come back to bite me on the ass. i can count on one hand the number of times i have ridden in uniform, and all times were while at bp and commuting between sites for whatever reason.

[ynot slow]

I went for an interview in Napier today,had been organised,and she who needs to be obeyed had her appointment with car.So on with leathers and take the bike,not the best attire for management position granted.When I arrived I explained my attire,HR lady said no problem,glad you made the effort from Palmy.And also asked how the ride went,and a nice day to cruise.She said clothes to her mean "jack shit"it's how you present your ideas,obviously when you work with us we expect proper clothes under riding gear,or change at work.

[TerminalAddict]

role on summer when we bust out the board shorts and singlets in our office. (I must work for a different type of IT )

Had a guy today (loud shirt day) wear his fluffy purple three piece suit, with walking cane and high top shoes, and a purple top hat.

I wore my electronic "wifi" t-shirt

[mynameis]

Well tell them to pay your Taxi fare or shut up, problem solved.

[Drunken Monkey]

Yes, interesting position. As an IT team/operations manager, my (and the co. I work for) policy is effectively "wear the co. uniform OR at least dress to the standard of the customer". This means the co. shirt and/or co. polo and plain business trouser (I cheat and wear cargos) at a minimum. We have some accountant and lawyer customers to which we wear (and I enforce) this standard, as opposed to shirt + tie or suit (which would be that customer's standard). No complaints there. Most of my accounts are in construction, manufacturing or transport/logistics, so even our minimum is fine. Wear jeans regularly, as do most of my customers, but again, that's because it's acceptable for them, rather than specifically for us as an outsourcer.

If I were your manager, I'd probably pass a word to the customer it's in their best interest to let it slide, being a (former) biker myself, but other managers wouldn't be so lenient. In saying that, 2 years ago we were so busy we were telling troublesome customers to find new vendors, these days we take what we can get, to the point that the sales team are bringing on customers I'd normally tell to (proverbially) fuck off, so who knows, the GM might override my leniency on you and enforce a different clothing standard.

Erm, did any of that make sense? I think I've had too much to drink...

[Mystic13]

lol. You think that's bad. I have a business that distributes product for another business (Business A). A new manager arrives from New Plymouth at business A and is disgusted by the attire of the his own delivery people. Neatly dressed with dress shirts and pants. Completely unacceptable. He insists they all wear ties. They were all upset and explained they'd never heard of delivery people wearing ties.

This character insists that's the way it's done in New Plymouth and the rest of NZ and he needed to deal with this Auckland attitude. New ties appeared all round and slowly disappeared over the next 12 months. The twat also dropped his tie.

The winner for me was when even though I own my business and employ people he advised me that he felt my hair length was inappropriate and he felt that I too should wear a tie when calling into his business because he didn't want his delivery people getting the wrong idea.

My first thought was he was joking but no New Plymouth man was deadly serious. My second thought is "what?, are you going to ensure every person your delivery people come into contact with are sanitised to the New Plymouth model."

I doubt this is a New Plymouth thing just a twat trying to stamp his authority in a ludicrous manner.

There are some nutters out there. But in your case. These people are the clients. So the decision is do you want them or not.

You could always de-gear outside or a bit back from the building. Throw it in a black plastic bag and cart that in. I would check what they have a problem with. They may not appreciate your gear dropped in a corner.

Here's me thinking they would be more focused on whether you did the job well or not.

[Mumbles]

I work in the IT field,

You said it all in that first sentence.... I’m Living in Palmy and from what I've seen of the IT guys around here your whole arguments mute…. You see IT and respectable/professional dress just don’t work for me!
IT and dress codes however do … IT guy wearing trench coats long haired no time for a shower slight BO with morning Red-bull breath being the the dress code… cause I’ve been playing online with my buddys in _____ (insert their country here)
Ok I went off what I was thinking but the long and the short of it has sort of been along the lines of... most Co don’t care what you look like, what you smell like as long as YOU fix my fkcun computer! Find my lost files and most importantly show me how to protect or backup all of my porn! If you doing your job right treating the customer as what they are, important to your job security (lets face it if we didn’t do this sort of stupid stuff that’s real easy/hard to fix then you’d more than likely be out of a job.
Ok its late what was I thinking…. Yeah man don’t over think it that’s their job!
(P.S this isn’t a dig as such just an observation and yes I can’t wait for all the Palmy Jokes to roll in)

[mstriumph]

i'm doing some work for a family company at the moment

they are exclusive brethren

i have to wear a long skirt, cover my arms and be demure ...

not me, true - but they are paying me and, as far as i'm concerned, if they want to impose a workplace dress code they have a right to do so...

just as i have a right to accept it or walk away

[Askelon]

man thats funny shit.. I run around on my bike for IT work all day, every day.. Never once had a complaint - I dont exactly dress to impress, but I dont dress like a slob either.. Oh and I have long hair to boot. Then again I try not to get the stuffy up themselves type customers - advantage to being your own boss, dont like a customer, give them the phone number for an idiot down the road that charges half the price..

[sinfull]

Did he go to bed ????

[SMOKEU]

Tell them to get fucked mate, there is no need for this kind of discrimination. Those people can't tell you what you can and can't wear, you can show up wearing a turban on your head if you want. Arabs choose to wear turbans because of their beliefs, and bikers choose to wear leathers for our beliefs. It's not really and different is it?