Dressed For Success

Dressed For Success

After weeks of iffy cool rainy weather, summer has decided to show up today. But looking around at the crowd at the commuter rail stop you’d never know that. The woman next to me is wearing a coat and a scarf and over there a young girl is actually wearing boots, thick tights and a mini skirt. I look down at my toes peaking out from my sandals and wonder if maybe I’m the crazy one. Maybe the weather forecaster was a joking?

But then I get off at the Back Bay station and see everyone dressed for summer, so maybe it’s just the usual case of perspective. We all have our ideas of what is appropriate to wear on any given occasion. That has been brought home to me whenever I see what people at the Community Center are wearing.

The place where I work is very casual and I love that. Employees do double duty, working both in the office and out on the playground with the kids. You can’t go to work dressed in a skirt and heels if you’re going to be playing basketball later in the day or taking a group on a field trip. One of my bosses, Keith, embodies the center’s attitude towards “proper” dress. One day he comes in dressed in a suit and eye popping tie looking like a model for Armani, the next he’s in his office in jeans and a t-shirt. And it makes sense since on any given day he can be meeting with BCYF officials or moving furniture at the center. We all had a good laugh the other day when we read the city’s summer dress code directive.

During July and August the center turns into a summer camp offering arts and crafts, swimming, basketball and field trips throughout the city. So reading that t-shirts, shorts and sandals are not professional attire makes us laugh. I’d love to see whoever wrote that come out here in her business attire on a hot, sweaty August morning and make it through the day in her very proper outfit.

Except for Keith I’m usually the most dressed up of the staff. As the head of the GED school, I believe that I have to be a professional role model for the students. My appearance tells them that this is the way you should look if you’re serious about your studies and applying for a job. If I’m going to be lecturing them on what to wear when they go out on job interviews, I’d better put my outfit where my mouth is, especially since most of them have no idea what to wear for an interview.

Last week one of my students told me that she had a job interview the next day. I asked her what the job was and if she had a resume.

“It’s for sales and yeah I have a resume. I’m cool.”
“Okay then I’d like to see it. Maybe we can polish it up a little.”
“No, no it’s fine. I’m fine.”

I tried to explain to her that the school had a great piece of software that turned out dynamite resumes, but she insisted that she didn’t need it. I finally gave up then asked her what she would be wearing.

“What do you mean what am I wearing?” she asked getting angry with me. “I’ve had jobs before. I’ll wear what I always wear!”

I looked at her t-shirt and jeans and my heart sank. I suggested to her that she might like to change things up and wear a skirt. She looked at me as if I were completely crazy. She told me that she didn’t even own a skirt.
“Well then how about a nice pair of dress pants, a blouse with a collar and shoes not sneakers?” I asked. She thought about it for a minute then told me that she’d think about it. When I saw her afterwards she told me that she didn’t get the job then agreed to stay after school so that we could talk about “job stuff”.

When I hear myself insisting that my students dress differently, present a certain kind of resume and even sit and talk in a certain way, I feel awful. I ask myself why we all have to cram ourselves into the same mold to achieve some part of success. Why should this one way be considered socially correct and another wrong. But then I realize that as a teacher though I can work to try and change the system until that change comes I have to guide my students through the maze that is our social job network. So I tell my students that it’s all a game and I will help them play it to get what they want.

So we turn out the resume that looks impressive even for someone who has no GED and we practice interviewing. And I tell them to lose the silver hoop earrings that spell, SEXY, ditch the 5 inch red stilettos and fuchsia v-neck blouses that announce way too much. And they go out dressed like correct, business-like, drab mannequins. Like peacocks into sparrows. And I hope that I’m doing the right thing, because they can’t help but lose a huge part of their vibrance, brilliance and originality. And I’m not so sure that that’s a good thing.