Suits

Tomorrow we're having a meeting at work. It's a big deal. People come in from all over the country and it lasts all day. It happens once a year. I'm not involved with any of the organization. All I have to do is show up and fill a seat, take good notes and not ask stupid questions.

There is the matter of showing up appropriately. We tend not to wear suits at work. There really isn't much point. If you wear suit, you tend to get asked if you have a job interview that day. So no one wears suits.

This consensus of no-suit wearing works, as long as everyone understands the circumstances when a suit is necessary. Last year, no one had explained that the annual meeting was a suit wearing occasion. It just wasn't billed that way. So a colleague and I showed up in our normal work wear - which is perfectly suitable for work, it just ain't for a suit wearing meeting. To our initial amazement which soon turned to horror, everyone else was wearing a suit.

This year we were prepared. At our last group meeting before the big day, my colleague clarified the situation. "Are we wearing suits on Monday?" There was a pause as we all looked round the table at each other. My manager shook his head slowly, "I think that would be appropriate." We had a consensus. We were all going to be suits for the day.

We were not the only ones to be worried. I met another colleague in the elevator who was carrying a bag from a local shoe store. She volunteered the information that she had bought new shoes to wear with the suit she's going to wear on Monday. I know for a fact she's going to be sitting down the entire time she gives her presentation. But suit panic knows no bounds. This year we'll all be prepared.