personaly i wear a suit to work. its expected of me, and you know, it has made my job a heck of a lot easier
people notice that i know my shit and not just dismiss me as a lackey cable monkey, its sad but true, but the last laugh was allways mine.
for example, medical section is the most gradist section i have ever encountered
as its an aukward job i am assigned rollout team leader. so i don a shirt and suit (no tie though... old habits from a machine shop and an accident in the shop i qualified at).
top of the self imagined roost of importance were the MD's personal secretaries
so as usual, being fairly knowlagable and good at simplifying things for the non literate i go in and start organising thier files and requirements for the move to the GSI system, and aranging stability and security tests on thier little bits of unique software. as i have come to the team knowlagable and volonteered for testing duties and dry runs (pigging awful duties of fail), the rest of the team often sought out advice on things and procedures, reinforcing thier belief that i was quite high ranking.
they really didnt know how to react when they asked me thier job outside the GSI, lowest level worker, document ferret. they couldnt stop all chatter to me as they had excepted me as one of them
but they realy didnt want to talk to a groundfeeder either. i chuckled. the last laugh was very much mine. i never seen someone squirm so much sitting perfectly still.
i had long hair
i wore outlandish clothes. i never had a job or promotion when i did that. so i wear my corporate face for 8 hours a day, talk the tlk walk the walk, and you know. i'm actually afording to be able to visit my wife more than i expected, i enjoy the trust and responsibility set in me to be given discression to my casework.
unlike the long haired metal/goth/emo button pushers that are still stuck in document ferreting for years.
i know i am me. i need not advertise it, because i couldnt care less, i have beathovens 9th on loop in my head and smile to myself every time i see something that wakes my very odd sense of humour. i have inner reinforced to my individuality, i need to external reinforcement that might encroach on other peoples teritorial perogative. and my life is simpler for it leaving me the freedom to swim with the sharks and living the life i choose for the other 16 hours i am not in the office, even in the office i admit sometimes my thoughts turn inside on great music, plans for the next trip to detroit, my life outside of work, so its not 8 hours of denial of oneself. just 8 hours of alone "me time" to ponder things, just as if i were resting in my smoking jaket and pith helmet at night with a copy of the beano and a cup of hot co-co