Wearing a tie in a company that does NOT embrace ties?

[Miss Neecerie]

If you want to wear a tie, wear a tie. One part of being stylish is bravery and not-giving-a-damnness.

And you can always use that tie down at the unemployment office, when they decide they need to downsize and look closely at the perceived non team players first.

Sucks yes. But honestly if wearing a tie is worth that risk...

 

[Tomasso]

BTW, I only go in the office about 2 - 3 times a month. I work from home the rest of the time except for once a quarter when I generally travel for a week with a client. I obviously dont wear ties at home in my office, so it would be nice to put one on when I go into our office.

So, you're in a position to wear whatever you please for the overwhelming majority of your time and yet you want to force the issue at your seldom visited workplace;a place where it is neither encouraged nor appreciated. I don't get it. [huh]


BTW, why exactly can't you wear a tie when at home? Or out to lunch/dinner, the store, the movie theater, etc........or wherever you go when NOT in your company office.

 

[JimWagner]

If you want to wear a tie, wear a tie. One part of being stylish is bravery and not-giving-a-damnness.

And maybe one part unemployed.

 

[JLStorm]

I think you all may be taking their dislike of ties to a whole new level. No one is getting laid off because they dress to nicely. I guess I just wanted to know if you though Id really stick out or if after a passing comment people would forget about it and move on. I want to be known for the work I do, not "oh that guy who always wears a tie"

As to why I care...well I have a tie and tie buying fetish and I dont leave the house much when I work from home, so Im always looking for reasons to wear a tie.

 

[Paisley]

My company (where ties are most welcome) has a saying: when in doubt, don't.

Those of us suggesting you avoid ties at work aren't anti-tie. We've just been around the job market longer and know that if the boss doesn't like you--and it can be over something as trivial as a tie--they'll find a way to get rid of you. You say you want to know what the reaction around the office will be--but we've never met your coworkers, whereas you know them and you've said ties aren't popular there.

If you really do want to be known for your work, don't call attention to your appearance.

 

[JLStorm]

My company (where ties are most welcome) has a saying: when in doubt, don't.

Those of us suggesting you avoid ties at work aren't anti-tie. We've just been around the job market longer and know that if the boss doesn't like you--and it can be over something as trivial as a tie--they'll find a way to get rid of you. You say you want to know what the reaction around the office will be--but we've never met your coworkers, whereas you know them and you've said ties aren't popular there.

If you really do want to be known for your work, don't call attention to your appearance.

Im not worried about the job itself. Ive worked for this company and my current superiors for 8 years working my way up the ranks into management. I am well respected and well liked, but no one is calling me up asking me to play poker on poker night if you know what I mean.

But, what you say makes sense, why risk sticking out when I want to be known for my work not my attire.

It strikes me as funny, I work for a fortune 100 company and jeans and a harley davidson shirt arent given a second look, a tie is the devil. But I get it I guess, people dont want company culture to change and dont want to be pressed into wearing a tie. Frankly, if I didnt like ties so much, Id hate the idea too. I guess I'll stick with going untied.

 

[Mav]

I guess I'll stick with going untied.

Good choice.
Company cultures are interesting, and they get dumber every day. Yours isn't the first I've heard of that had an unspoken no- tie rule (emphasis on unspoken), because it's somehow hip and shows the company to be forward- thinking. Which they usually aren't.

I also worked for a Fortune 100 in '07- '08 that had an unspoken rule that only management wore ties. Since I'd been wearing a tie to work for the last 25 years, I spent about the first week in a tie, with disapproving looks from management, until another sales engineer filled me in. So, on the rare and unfortunate occasion I'd have to go into the office, I'd wear what I usually wear sans tie, and wear a tie the rest of the time on sales calls.

A paycheck is a paycheck.

 

[Mr Vim]

I am fortunate enough to wear a uniform at work, but when I am at home, and in my off time, I wear ties, slacks and sport coats mostly.

I think the important thing you should consider is if the company has any by laws stating a specific dress code. If not, well yeah, wear what you want until they say something.

And I find that if they want to say something about you showing everyone else up, when they try to say that out loud to you, it will make them feel awkward... so they might not say anything.

Seriously, when has anyone been told "you look to nice, go home and change into something more casual."

I get little remarks now and then on my choice of attire, but no one has ever told me that.

 

[VitaminG]

Or he ends up the second guy in the office having his ties ruined...

easy solution - don't wear a tie on the day of the annual meeting.

this may be less of a problem once there are TWO employees wearing ties around the office. And it may encourage a couple more who have been holding back to get onboard too.

And you can always use that tie down at the unemployment office, when they decide they need to downsize and look closely at the perceived non team players first.

Sucks yes. But honestly if wearing a tie is worth that risk...

I can't imagine going through life that scared. "I'm afraid that the texture of my shoe laces will offend the CEO - I don't want to get fired over it so I better wear slip-ons. Unless the boss has a bias against loafers and then I'm really in trouble."

I can see getting canned for wearing a t-shirt with an offensive slogan, but for wearing a tie? You should at least receive a first warning for a breach of whatever dress code is in place in your workplace. Repeated offenses could (and probably should) result in some kind of disciplinary action, even dismissal. But the OP hasn't worn a tie to work even ONCE yet.

I'm with Mr Vim - unless the company has expressly stated in the corporate dress code that ties are verboten, wear your ties and enjoy them.

It's not like you'll be going it alone, JLStorm. You've already stated that someone else around the office is wearing them daily

 

[Torpedo]

I am sorry, but I believe all of that "I will dress according to my style and to hell with everything and everybody" is so much crap when it can harm your means of living, although hey, if some people want to go this way, good luck. If you vulnerate written or unwritten codes of dress, in job interviews or at the job itself, do so at your own risk.

This is not to say the above necessarily applies to the OP's case; it could be, or it could not. My initial reply was on the whole supportive, but it should be understood with the proviso that no style is worth problems at job. JLStorm should test the waters, if he wants to, and then re-evaluate. As I said, his public seems difficult, and maybe it will not pay the effort. But I do not think trying will be much dangerous. It's just a tie; it's not like going with a mohawk or with tatoos on your face. If things look bleak, surely it would be better to drop it and wear ties at any other opportunity outside the workplace.

Regards!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

^^ You got it. Sure, people who are bothered by the appearance of other people aren't worth the breath it takes to argue. But when they sign the paycheck, or the dreaded pink slip, you just bend over and take it.

bk

p.s. Torpedo: Kudos, much much kudos, for "vulnerate". I haven't seen that word for a long, long time.

 

[Dan'l]

I don't have any new advice to add here. Baron Kurtz and Torpedo seem to have summed it up very well.
I will say that I used to wear a tie to work nearly everyday. I've always heard that you can never overdress, now after reading this thread I wonder...?
Anyway, everyday I'd wear a tie other co-wokers would compliment me but then would ask, "are you going to a meeting to ask for funding?" Or some similar remark. Most just wear dockers or blue jeans and polos or button shirts. So, I don't wear a tie very much at work anymore. I still wear the dress pants and dress shirts but I go to work to provide for my family. I enjoy my job, but the bottom line is money.
Now, anytime my wife and I go out to dinner, shopping, friends, or realitives there is a very good chance I'll be wearing a tie and jacket.

I do get asked by friends and family, "why do you dress up all the time anymore?" My response is always, "I enjoy it and everyone else dresses like a bum." I guess it's my way of being a rebel carried over from high school when I dressed like a bum while everyone else was "preppy"

Cheers
Dan'l

 

[Tomasso]

It's just a tie; it's not like going with a mohawk or with tatoos on your face.

True, but the gap is closing...

 

[Torpedo]

True, but the gap is closing...

Yes... it's scary, isn't it?

 

[Paisley]

Im not worried about the job itself. Ive worked for this company and my current superiors for 8 years working my way up the ranks into management. I am well respected and well liked, but no one is calling me up asking me to play poker on poker night if you know what I mean.

But, what you say makes sense, why risk sticking out when I want to be known for my work not my attire.

It strikes me as funny, I work for a fortune 100 company and jeans and a harley davidson shirt arent given a second look, a tie is the devil. But I get it I guess, people dont want company culture to change and dont want to be pressed into wearing a tie. Frankly, if I didnt like ties so much, Id hate the idea too. I guess I'll stick with going untied.

Agreed. There's a time to resist, and a time to go with the flow. Every workplace has unwritten, unspoken rules, and for the most part, unless some great injustice is going on, it's a pot that's best left unstirred.

 

[1961MJS]

Im not worried about the job itself. Ive worked for this company and my current superiors for 8 years working my way up the ranks into management. I am well respected and well liked, but no one is calling me up asking me to play poker on poker night if you know what I mean.
...

Hi

I'd say the bigger problem is not being invited on Poker night. When I worked in Huntsville AL for an aerospace firm (up through 1995), only those who played Dungeons and Dragons with the leads got raises. In fact, they all got raises of 14.5% every year with 15% being the amount needed to get corporate permission for the raise. I realize that I'm in aerospace and we're nerds, but jeez..

Later

 

[Cobden]

Where I work, ties aren't worn by anyone except the very senior most staff (headmaster and the like), and me; I simply got round by, when asked why I was wearing a tie, responding "because I like them", then undoing my top button and loosening the tie to demonstrate the inevitable collar stud mark from re-enactment at the weekend and adding "and because of this". Granted, easier to do from the beginning, and does require some temporary neck mutilation, and...actually, this is really bad advise

 

[1961MJS]

Hi, we're not supposed to wear ties either, BUT I have an enlarged sense of what's right and wrong, proper and improper or something. Anyway, wearing a sport coat, dress pants, and a collared shirt means that you need the tie. The same ensemble replacing the shirt with a turtle neck doesn't. Suits are an OBVIOUS place for a tie, if you ain't wearing a tie, then why did you put on a suit.

Yes, I won't eat Taco Pizza, and I think that white socks with black shoes is in poor taste too.

Later

 

[JimWagner]

Workplace culture is.

You either fit in or not. If not you have the choice of adapting to that culture, not adapting - with all the possible negative consequences associated with not doing so - or finding other employment with a culture where you do fit in as you are.

When all is said and done it's about doing what needs to be done to keep that paycheck coming. Contrary to what some people believe you aren't being paid to be happy.

 

[JimWagner]

I meant to add that the better you are than those around you at your job the more (in general) you can vary from corporate culture (in my experience).