Worrying Professionally
Back to worrying about the concept of “professionalism” today. What is it? How does one know one is displaying “professional” behaviour, and how is it different to those behaviors that I was raised with?
Neat, tidy, organized -- I can get my head around those. It's the others I'm still trying to work out. Particularly those relating to dress.

A recent article (from mycareer.com.au) was talking about the increasing conservatism in dress for those working in an office. Apparently after the dot-com “boom” of the 90s, when raiment in the office setting was just as likely to be jeans and a tie-less shirt as something more conventional, office workers are returning to raiment of a style more reminiscent of their grandparents in some ways. Though I defy anyone to admit they wore a tie back then of puce, pink and purple paisley - like the one I saw today!

In some ways blokes have it easier than birds in that arranging for a couple of decent pairs of trousers, half a dozen plain shirts and a selection of ties is really all they need. But what do I wear?
My most comfortable outfit involves a pair of slacks and a shirt. In the last six months I think I have worn a skirt four or five times - and I've nearly always ended the day feeling really glad to get out of it. There in lies the rub, you see . . . for some reason in this neo-conservative office dress code, I am increasingly of the impression that “ladies“ are expected to wear skirts. Now this could be just my sense of paranoia and low self-esteem biting me in the neck, but I am not sure...

The other thing that bothers me is that clothes that are bought seem to be held in higher esteem (i.e. higher cost seems to equate with higher position?) than those that are created individually. Is that because there is a perception that creativity and business don’t go together? I have a problem there because my body shape is a bit “non-standard” so that the better fitting of my clothes tend to be those I’ve made myself … but sometimes I feel that I collect a strange look or two because I admit that I created the embellished garment I am wearing. Yet if I said I had purchased it, I have often wondered if the reception would be different.

Personally I will continue to wear smart slacks and a shirt as, given that one of the tasks of somebody in a library tends to involve climbing ladders and humping stuff around, a pair of slacks is actually more modest than a skirt in those situations. But that is just my opinion. What puzzles me is why some business dress codes seem to insist on a gendered allocation of ‘who wears the pants’?
Doesn’t seem to have much to do with ‘professionalism’ to my mind, but a lot more to do with ‘social roles’. But since I’ve been denting my brain case trying to understand those for much of my life, I think I will keep wearing slacks/trousers/pants to work and be comfortable.