2015-06-22

About 15 years ago, I worked for a small software company*, and I persuaded the boss that suits were only necessary for sales people. And that what with the awesome dotcom boom we were living in, developers shouldn't be business-like, they should be _cyber_.

Okay, maybe not. But I did persuade him that programmers could wear t-shirts.

Sadly, a year later I ended up as an IT Manager in an NGO, and hating myself with a fiery passion, while also wearing a suit/tie.

And then I moved over to a large financial company**, and it was suits and ties for a few years, with mounting pressure until ties vanished.

Once that was done, there was a long, slow, pressure on the company. Every so often a wave would crest, and the company would say "No, not this year. Business dress is important." and the wave would slowly recede again.

Until, a couple of months ago, the wave rose again, and the company decided that the important thing was what you were doing that day. That the clothes should match your actions, and fit your responsibilities.

And so today I arrived back from India***, and wandered into the office. And the first three people I saw were all wearing suits and ties, and I had a small moment of panic that I'd misunderstood the change in policy.

And then I turned the corner and saw that there were people wearing clothes that made them comfortable. Some in suits, some in ties, some in shirts, and some in jeans.

And it was pretty damned awesome.

And then I went to my desk, got caught up on about 350 emails, and diagnosed why an email server going wrong caused our overnight builds to time out****.

*Like, eight people. Of which two were testers, one was a secretary, and two were in sales.
**Well, several thousand employees. So not _small_.
***Which I had to buy three new shirts for, after months of avoiding buying shirts because I was 90% sure this was coming.
****You don't want to know.

2015-06-22

Interesting Links for 22-06-2015

I didn't wear a shirt to work on a Monday, for the first time in 15 years.