(Again, I cheat a little. I wrote this for the newspaper I work for and it appeared yesterday. But I like sharing, so....)
How to look good and impress people has always been a bestseller, be it as a book, an advice column or a television show – the latest in that series being two loud-mouthed and aggressive British women who invade people’s homes, lives and wardrobes to give them a makeover that doesn’t always make everyone made-over happy, especially during the process. But the very fact that shows like this work is indicative of more than just a voyeuristic tendency in audiences at large, be they readers or viewers. It displays a consciousness of the truism that how you look matters to more people than just yourself. And the workplace is where it all comes home to roost…and make that vital difference.
A job today is not just a way of taking home the bacon, or even the paneer tikkas. It is about being ahead of the pack, of succeeding, of going from strength to strength via increments and promotions and doing better than the person you sit next to in the office. It is also about attracting the attention of the boss enough to make appraisals sweeter and the take-home more taxable. It speaks of efficiency, initiative and all those wonderful attributes that are so highly rated by the HR department in the company profile sales pitch to prospective employees. And, what they don’t tell you is, it is all about looking good, too, well shaped, well dressed, well presented.
While an hourglass figure for a woman may be favoured by a male boss with a chauvinistic bias and a lecherously appreciative eye, a generally ‘fit’ shape is the preferred norm in most places, since the first impression still has more impact than an in-depth analysis that unearths talent and experience. But whether this is based on the underlying reality that obesity related health and stress management issues can hamper performance or an inevitable instinctive inexplicable discrimination against those who are not ‘beautiful people’ is not clear. Health professionals in India see weight gain as a problem that is increasing, especially in urban areas, ironically as a result of doing well at work, earning more and thus being able to include all sorts of fattening foods in the daily diet.
But fatness is not all in this context. The way a professional is dressed makes all the difference these days. A list was recently compiled with information gathered in a monster.com poll, which listed tank tops, visible innerwear and flip-flops – aka rubber chappals – as the fashion faux pas to end all from a professional point of view. This is not the rule, unfortunately, especially in a creative field, so there is no yardstick that one can measure up to. I, for instance, went to my first job interview dressed in a – hold your breath – housecoat and spike heels. It was not a deliberate style choice, but the simple fact that I was on my way from a photo-shoot to my home when I was dragged willy-nilly into an interview situation and had to sit there answering questions, trying to look intelligent and egg-headed with pancake on my face and eyelashes that threatened to unpeel themselves from my heavily shadowed eyelids. I got the job, but for years afterwards my then-boss would look warily at me whenever we spoke.
I would not do the same today, insisting on the time I needed to transform into a more suitably clad and more work-worthy avatar. After all, dress for success is the reiterated mantra. And a body that is premium in shape and low on fat content is highest on the assessment scale. But the clothing itself is not the mover and shaker of the salary scale; employers want to know how seriously a prospective employee takes herself, and where she rates herself apropos maturity, self-image, responsibility and reliability. Strange as it may sound, all this is evident from the way the person is dressed, from the prints on a shirt to the length of a skirt to the frivolity of the shoes.
So, keeping this in mind, how does one dress for work? Obviously, a miniskirt and camisole are non grata. So are wild prints, four-inch stilettos, sequinned saris, sparkly hairbands and op-deco earrings, unless it is a fashion forward job or a post in a teeny-bopper discotheque. Men, too, have their framework to fit into, nude women on ties and knuckle-duster rings being examples of no-nos. Experts advise restraint, dignity, chic rather than outré as a fashion statement and focus as a style mantra instead of the kitchen-sink approach of more is always less. Let the quirks of personality, attitude and wardrobe dawn on a would-be boss gradually, it is suggested, once performance has been proved. Most of the time, that works. Never mind the calorie count.
No comments:
Post a Comment