Office Politics

The microcosm that is an office has the ability to depict all of human emotion an behaviour over the course of a single day. I always have my notebook to hand, jotting down the days events. 

Six months ago I took a reality check and realised that my job was going nowhere. Many of us have these career revelations and it can be incredibly difficult to crowbar ourselves out of a comfortable position that we've held for years. Allowing comfort to take the place of progression can be a dangerous substitute, and so I took a huge risk by handing in my notice before I'd even found another job. Turns out that my risk paid off; I found another job quite soon after penning my resignation, and now six months into my new position I've found my feet doing something different.For me changing career has also meant a change in environment; moving from classroom to office. The change hasn't been without it's learning curves, some of which are steeper than others, but I have enjoyed almost every moment. Email etiquette, or rather the lack of it. Endless jargon and three letter acronyms. The occasional complete disregard for hygiene in the toilets... There have been many things I've encountered for the first time, one of which has made quite an impression. The 'Mood Hoover' has been quite a revelation to me, and possibly the largest 'learning curve' I've had to adapt to.

   Mood Hoover :Someone who sucks all the good feelings out a room. They are obsessed with doom and gloom and that is where there conversations are focued.Oh no, here comes the mood hoover to share his misery.

One of these personalise can be hazardous to deal with, as no matter how optimism you throw their way, the mood hover will suck up and destroy all the positivity you create. It is this exact nature which makes them so dangerous to the working environment. Continuous negativity blocks change, a vital ingredient to the working environment. Working with a mood hoover not only affects your mental well being, but impedes team progression. And when managers struggle to get processes changed for the better, everyone suffers - employees and service users. But who's to blame for these deleterious attitudes? The assumption bad management is at play is all to easy an assumption, passing the buck is a trait of the mood hoover personality that should be handled with caution. In fact the causes of stagnant growth lay closer to home, and prove why people who perpetuate negativity are more than just frustrating.

Happy people are more intelligent, energetic, creative and productive.

An emerging area of study looking at our happiness and the affect it has on our working lives has shown some surprisingly obvious home truths. Happy people are much better employees. Let's go one step further, happy people make much better friends. Thats not to suggest we aren't allowed a down day, but if you surround yourself with positive, optimistic friends, our lives become more positive and optimistic. So if happy workers make better work, and mood hovers are the polar opposite of this, who's to blame for the mood hoover's way? Well... They are. Studies show that only 10% of our long term happiness is predicted by our environment. The other 90%, the overwhelming amount of our happiness, is predicted by how our brains perceive the world.

Viewing problems in life is a sure fire way to lead you into misery. It will most definitely make you a less productive and uncreative employee. I strive to look at life as a series of opportunities. Tasks that need solutions, puzzles that need to be solved. I know I'm not convincing anyone when I say 'don't view life in terms of problems'. Life is a series of problems, strung together by attempting to find solutions. If, however, we focus on the appearance of those problems we resign ourselves to a lifetime of obstacles. Instead see the opportunity to make things better,  see the change to change things the way you want them to be changed

Why I refuse to wear a suit to work...

The working environment brings many challenges; office politics, hectic schedules, colleague competition. I have had my eyes opened to a new way of living, embarking on a career within an office, however I am surprised most by the attitudes towards clothing than I am compared to anything else.

"I look like your boss... You look like and intern"

The phrase which instigated my interest and investigation into the phenomenon of men in suits. Why do men still wear suits to work? An immediate, and unarguable, sense of authority? Sure, that may have been what originally drew the line between business man and pauper, and I don't deny that a suit still has those abilities. But in our current working climate, where casually attired app designers and scruffy artists are making big bucks in the world of business, perhaps the CEO's out of touch in their corporate three piece.

The gender ratio in my building is heavily weighted towards women, and being one of only three men in my department of fourteen makes it easy to juxtapose my personal approach to dressing to my male counterparts traditionally formal suit.

I have no qualms slipping my legs into black jeans or chinos, with plain t-shirt, roll neck, or jumper. There is most definitely no formal shirt and tie combinations in my work wardrobe! First and foremost they they are incredibly uncomfortable; I would spend most the day squirming around, loosening then tightening the tie over and over until a can't take the neck strangulation anymore. There is, however, a reason closer to my heart which explains why I don’t conform to this social stereotype. I know full well that my clothes bare no reflection on my ability to complete tasks. I do my job well, wearing a suit would not have any more of a positive affect on my competency. 

The remark from my male colleague, "I look like your boss... You look like and intern”, I’m sure was an attempt at asserting authority, not just an opportunity to remind me how he feels more superior in his (frankly terrible) striped shirt and matching tie. Fortunately I have a strong head for fashion, and have spent many years deciding what my personal style is. I have confidence in my ability and even more confidence in my fashion, and (I think) that's evident in the way I work and hold myself as a person when wearing clothes I'm comfortable in.

According to Princeton psychologist Janine Willis (Link) it takes a tenth of a second to form a first impression; using this to our advantage makes business sense. I understand that my opinions go against the grain of social norms, and in fact wearing a suit does undeniably give the impression of power and ability, so wearing a suit to an interview for example would be a good idea. So much of a good idea that I did just that, and in fact got the job I was hoping for. I even extended this courtesy to my first day in the office, but from then on I chose my clothes without such formality.

Am I a hypocrite? I certainly hope not. However I am using social ideas to try and get ahead of the competition in the working world. 

Do we really still judge the ability of men in the office by the clothes they wear to work?

Silvia Bellezza, of Harvard Buisness School, has been studying the link between accomplishment and informality. ‘The red sneaker effect’ published in the Journal of Consumer Research, explains how high flyers such as Facebook’s Marc Zuckerberg, Apple’s Steve Jobs and Google’s Sergey Brin have defied the norm and managed to maintain high powered jobs in jeans and a t-shirt. In certain circumstances nonconformity is seen as a sign of higher status, noting that academics who dressed down for a conference had stronger research records. Furthermore students perceived casual tutors as being more respectable and of higher status, reflecting that the confidence to break social norms has a surprising effect on those we work with. Perhaps there is just as much reason to dress down as there is to dress up.

These examples are just the forefront of men who are taking their career and image into their own hands, casting aside the assumption that successful men wear suits. Something I hope continues to gain publicity.

There is definitely a time and a place for suit, but this place, I feel, should be less associated with work. Allowing guys the same freedom and comfort of expression through dress that women are granted.

On my morning commute to work I look down the platform and see a sea of ties, shirts and pin stripe trousers. A collection of the worst leather ‘work shoes’ shuffle on to the carriage and I’m squeezed in like a sardine, jostled about by suit jackets to the left and briefcases to the right. If I’m not completely invisible to the working masses I bet they think I am an intern, or a student. But I won’t be turned. 

My colleague continues to slip in cutting remarks about my ‘casual attire’, cunningly disguised as jokes and ‘banter’, but I feel confident in my clothes, boosted by a comment once made by my manager;

"I liked the way you dressed at your interview, you looked different, you stood out, and that matters"

Month One...

As my first month of wardrobe restructure comes to a close I have learnt two things.

Purposefully changing the way you dress is much harder than I previously thought. I gave little contemplation to the process of getting changed in the morning. Simply approach the wardrobe, pick out something you feel fits the weather, looks good, and is clean! Off I would trot to work without a second glance at the rack of clothes from which I had to make my decision.
I confess, the first week or two I cheated once or twice. I settled for a pair of grey trousers or a navy shirt. Seeing that block of black staring back at you in the mirror is an odd sight, with no colour to break things up I had to readjust to seeing a different fashion covered body attached to my head.
So I packed away my colour and my pattern, everything that didn't fit the strict rules went away and out of sight. With a set of only plain black t-shirts, plain white t-shirts, and a couple of plain white shirts (for when work requires me to be a little more formal) restricting my ability to choose anything else was set to be the only way to stay on track.

My time spent in the shadow of the wardrobe shortened until all that was needed was a hand for my black jeans and the other for a top. And off I would trot. I spent next to no time thinking about how I looked, I barely needed to look in the mirror for how I looked was exactly the same as the day before, and the day before that.
To say I began to feel my creative urges weaken at the lack of changing style would be ridiculous, but not entirely wrong. I love clothes and the way I dress does fuel creativity, but taking that away didn't remove part of my personality, more likely just made me think that way. A week went by when I had fully embraced the project but felt like my individuality had been sucked away, I appeared as boring as my plain black T.

The second thing I learned was much of an inspiration. Wearing just black made me take much more notice of the texture of the fabrics I had on. I had bulked out my wardrobe with cheap black T-shirts, the fabric of which was pretty poor. Next to my jeans I noticed how the nylon in the fabric gave a strange shine. Or how the thickness of a flannel shirt will really stand out next to such thinner, cheaper layers.

The Experiment...

Over the last few months I have been becoming more and more disappointed in fashion. Men's fashion in particular.

Shops don't seem to be pushing boundaries any more, for fear of loosing customers the high street has resorted to selling exactly what all the other stores are selling. With the main difference being price, Primark has clothes similar to selfridges, which has clothes similar to Topshop; just for differing budgets.

Going shopping had become a dull and boring, for everywhere I looked the same clothes were on offer. There was nothing new or exciting to interest my fashion tastebuds.
Although my definition of style develops over time, my sense of style remains unchanged. I want clothes that are unique and interesting, I don't want to look exactly like everyone else. There is nothing worse than going out and seeing someone wearing exactly the same outfit as you... Equally there is quite the buzz to getting dressed up and knowing that you look like an individual.

For some time I'd been adverse to major brands, with a personal choice not to wear clothes that have any kind of visible brand name on them. Why? Because fashion for me is not about brand, or label. Fashion is a means of expression, like painting or singing. The desire to wear certain types of clothes, particular colours or patterns is internally driven, like which music you prefer or what food you want to eat. Fashion, for me, is not about looking a particular way, or being cool/trendy, but expressing a sense of self.

I decided it was time to try something new...

I had heard of Sheena Matheiken who in 2009 began a project to wear one black dress for an entire year. A statement on sustainable fashion, Sheena created the Uniform Project which utilised the design of one dress of which she made several copies (not the same dress for 365 days thankfully!). Diarising her experience on her website and finally in a TED talk,  I think she stumbled upon something really fascinating.

Going against the tidal wave of 'fast fashion' and wearing a very limited wardrobe can have some really profound results.

And so my own fashion experiment had started to take real shape, with only one specific rule;

• Wear only plain black or white.

Street art

STOP > THINK > CREATE

Does street art ever add to the local environment and enrich our surroundings? ... Or does it just compound to the degradation that already exists?

 

I spend so much time in a particular community, and everyday I'm faced with the same dilapidated surroundings. No one seems to care about the environment - Vomit, feces, spit, and rubbish (including molding food and litter) line the pavement. I hop-scotch between them, trying desperately not to dirty my shoes.

The houses are falling apart, with old mattresses and furniture in the front gardens and driveways. The people themselves are unwashed and shabbily dressed, which is not an irritation in itself, but the attitude of these inhabitants is just constantly rude and unwilling to change.

I believe passionately in the power our environment has on our mood, thoughts, emotions, attitudes - almost every part of our life.

Would it make a difference if I were to do something about it, in one of the only ways I know how... Through art.
If I were to create a piece of street art in this environment, would it change the way I viewed these surroundings? Would it change the way other people viewed these surroundings?


Would anyone use this as inspiration stop, think, and create a piece of art of their own ?

a few beautiful pieces of street art I would love to see everyday...