The phallic neck-tie is an outdated symbol of white male rule

[240PP]

When my thyroid was bad, ties or anything around the neck were uncomfortable.

I had one contract where I turned up in a suit and an open top button and was told that I needed to be wearing a tie. I've not worn a tie outside of hatchings, matchings or despatchings since.

I had a similar experience at an interview with Computacentre, many years ago. Not a client facing position.

I walked out.

You walked out of a job interview because you didn’t want to wear a tie?

[Rich B]

When my thyroid was bad, ties or anything around the neck were uncomfortable.

I had one contract where I turned up in a suit and an open top button and was told that I needed to be wearing a tie. I've not worn a tie outside of hatchings, matchings or despatchings since.

I had a similar experience at an interview with Computacentre, many years ago. Not a client facing position.

I walked out.

You walked out of a job interview because you didn’t want to wear a tie?

i wouldn't work for a company that insisted on ties in an office either tbh - if that's the sort of pointless crap they insist on then it's clearly not going to work. I usually wear a shirt for pitches, but other than that it's whatever I want.

[Simon]

Oh my god that's two threads in a row. Again, Rich (and Beany) are correct. If they insist on ties in the office then what other pointless shit are they gonna insist on?


Ties are horrible. I threw almost all of mine out. I kept my wedding tie and a couple of others. I'll wear one to an interview but that's it. I won't wear them to a client, regardless of who it is. I won't even wear one to a funeral.

[Beany]

To be clear, I walked out after I queried the dress code, and full suit and tie and troos was expected at all times.

For a purely remote support position....

These days I'd not wear one for an interview honestly - if that's the hill they are prepared to die on at interview stage then they're doing me a favour by not hiring me. Interviews do cut both ways, remember.

Important to bear in mind however that almost all my work, without exception, is back-back office - that is, be working 'for' the office staff who might conceivably see clients - so why should i spend all day in a suit when there's a good chance that at the drop of a hat I might need to be squeezing behind a comms rack or three? And that's before you consider ESD work when fiddling with electronics.

So I have the excuse to be a bit more militant about it. I can swing a short sleeved shirt and black jeans happily though

[mik]

When I was in a band - quite a few years ago - the lead singer used the lyric “I’d rather die than wear a shirt and tie”.

2 years later he left Teacher Training college and started wearing a tie every day.

He’s not dead yet.

[240PP]

I had a similar experience at an interview with Computacentre, many years ago. Not a client facing position.

I walked out.

You walked out of a job interview because you didn’t want to wear a tie?

i wouldn't work for a company that insisted on ties in an office either tbh - if that's the sort of pointless crap they insist on then it's clearly not going to work. I usually wear a shirt for pitches, but other than that it's whatever I want.

Just seems a bit short-sighted. They're a huge company (of bellends, tbf) and the experience could have been useful later on. He did say it was a long time ago.

I've worked in IT for twenty years and never worn a tie. I think MS banned them around 2000. The closest I get is a suit and no tie if I'm doing a presentation.

We had one guy turn up on his first day fully suited and booted. He was told that it was pretty relaxed and to wear whatever he feels comfortable in. He arrived the next morning head to toe in black leather, black eye makeup, black nail paint, everywhere that could be pierced was... Actually, Beany would have fit right in.

[McSwede]

I had a similar experience at an interview with Computacentre, many years ago. Not a client facing position.

I walked out.

You walked out of a job interview because you didn’t want to wear a tie?

i wouldn't work for a company that insisted on ties in an office either tbh - if that's the sort of pointless crap they insist on then it's clearly not going to work. I usually wear a shirt for pitches, but other than that it's whatever I want.

I'm generally in Chinos and a shirt with nice shoes for most meetings. I may wear a nice jacket as a step up or even trouser and a jacket depending upon the level of person I'm meeting.

I do find that at lower level meetings, people are generally a little more relaxed if your appearance is a little more smart casual than smart.

[Gavin]

There are ways to dress smartly without a tie.

Personally I’m more interested in whether someone I’m talking to is good at what they do than whether they’re wearing a tie or not.

Yes, but not everyone thinks that way

True, most of the company reps I meet wear suit and tie and end up looking a bit uncomfortable in an office full of goths

I do remember having a conversation with my Sales manager when I worked for Pyramid and he was implying that as a rep, rather than a self employed agent, I should possibly wear a tie and a suit. I pointed out that if I rocked up at Forbidden Planet or a piercing studio, indy record shop etc I would feel and look a bit of a tit, especially if I had to muck in building a stand or whatever! I think I did wear one when I had a formal meeting with a huge Zavvi where the manager was moaning about stock not arriving and what not. I had photos of boxes of stock they had sitting and then a few weeks later she got fired for using petty cash to but coke for a staff party!

[ZedLeg]

Where was your patch when you worked for pyramid @Gavin ?

Just curious if we ever met

[Gavin]

Where was your patch when you worked for pyramid @Gavin ?

Just curious if we ever met

We did, in that I remember you being in the North Bridges store, but I tended to deal with the manager (was a lady but buggered if I can remember her name, unless I am mixing Glasgow and Edinburgh shops up) but I remember when I first joined the EVO forum, there was a what do you do thread and at the time I was still repping although you had moved to Glasgow by then you did say my face rang a bell.

[Rich B]

You walked out of a job interview because you didn’t want to wear a tie?

i wouldn't work for a company that insisted on ties in an office either tbh - if that's the sort of pointless crap they insist on then it's clearly not going to work. I usually wear a shirt for pitches, but other than that it's whatever I want.

I'm generally in Chinos and a shirt with nice shoes for most meetings. I may wear a nice jacket as a step up or even trouser and a jacket depending upon the level of person I'm meeting.

I do find that at lower level meetings, people are generally a little more relaxed if your appearance is a little more smart casual than smart.

I pretty much wear jeans/shorts and T-shirt 90% of the time at work. I might go so far as smarter jeans and even a shirt for a client pitch. I wore a suit (no tie) for a pitch at an investment company last year.

We did get it wrong once though, where a client said the fact we were too casual did affect the choice of who won. The irony was the client MD in the pitch was wearing a football shirt and shorts. Thankfully the project came to nothing anyway, but we did take it as a lesson to at least properly discuss our presentation ahead of pitches.

[Pete_]

I once did an internship in the fleet department of a construction company. Except for dress down Fridays, the dress code was business casual and almost everyone wore suit trousers and a shirt with no tie, except for one graduate who wore a tie Monday - Thursday. When I asked him why he wore a tie he replied "well if I didn't wear a tie I wouldn't know what to wear on dress down Fridays, because on dress down Fridays I wear the same suit but take my tie off and then I'm still dressing down without having to think about what else I should wear."


Personally I quite like ties. I take pleasure from the mechanics that goes into making a good knot. But I really don't like having to wear a tie because I want to do things on my own terms, although I'm also too self conscious to wear a tie casually.. I'm quite looking forward to being old enough (probably 75+) when I can wear a tie every damn time I leave the house and nobody questions why.

[Beany]

You walked out of a job interview because you didn’t want to wear a tie?

i wouldn't work for a company that insisted on ties in an office either tbh - if that's the sort of pointless crap they insist on then it's clearly not going to work. I usually wear a shirt for pitches, but other than that it's whatever I want.

Just seems a bit short-sighted. They're a huge company (of bellends, tbf) and the experience could have been useful later on. He did say it was a long time ago.

It was indeed. It was heading towards what felt like the midpoint of a fairly long interview in a stuff box room and by that point I had pretty much decided that it wasn't for me (having the interview in a fucking hot box wasn't a good start either - great first impression). There were various red flags about KPIs etc that had got my spidey sense going - I've avoided them since working at BT waaay waaaaaay back in the day.

I segued into dresscode, they confirmed full business dress - yes, for a remote, non-client facing role - I let them know that on that basis I probably wouldn't be interested and likely wouldn't be a good fit, and asked for a reminder of the directions out and who to hand my visitor pass to. I'm not a monster

It's not like I rocked up in a trenchcoat wearing a spiked collar and called them all squares - if the interview had gone better broadly, wasn't in a room that felt like someone was dumping the output of a hundred tumble driers into it, and they hadn't required full business dress, I'd probably have stuck around a bit longer at least

[Rich B]

I think that's fair enough, it's an interview for both sides. I've declined several companies down to the "grey" uninspiring offices they're in and the general corporate bullshit-ness of their approach with stuff like KPIs. It would just make me miserable.

[ZedLeg]

Where was your patch when you worked for pyramid @Gavin ?

Just curious if we ever met

We did, in that I remember you being in the North Bridges store, but I tended to deal with the manager (was a lady but buggered if I can remember her name, unless I am mixing Glasgow and Edinburgh shops up) but I remember when I first joined the EVO forum, there was a what do you do thread and at the time I was still repping although you had moved to Glasgow by then you did say my face rang a bell.

Ah yeah, she was the manager and I was the assistant manager.

[Gavin]

Where was your patch when you worked for pyramid @Gavin ?

Just curious if we ever met

We did, in that I remember you being in the North Bridges store, but I tended to deal with the manager (was a lady but buggered if I can remember her name, unless I am mixing Glasgow and Edinburgh shops up) but I remember when I first joined the EVO forum, there was a what do you do thread and at the time I was still repping although you had moved to Glasgow by then you did say my face rang a bell.

Ah yeah, she was the manager and I was the assistant manager.

And I was doing 45k a year in my mighty Signum!