WFH and appearance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m with you, OP. It’s not hard to wear a real shirt and brush your hair.

Today a new junior colleague was in a Zoom meeting between people in our office and people in a different department, and he spent the whole meeting chomping away on his lunch. Nobody else was eating but him, and I just couldn’t get over the fact that even if he had the bad judgment to start eating during this meeting, he didn’t notice that nobody else was eating and then stop himself. People are clueless how they come across.

When I read that, it makes me think your junior colleague was working so much that he didn't have time to each lunch aside from that meeting.

That’s a reasonable thought. However, he’s new and has very little work so far. He’s also the only one who used one of those zany Zoom backgrounds. His office is right across from mine, so it’s not like he HAD to because he was WFH and didn’t want to show his bedroom or whatever. And he didn’t have to use a goofy background.

[Anonymous]

I wear a sweatshirt, no makeup, probably look terrible. Maybe we should stop the pointless meetings so we can actually do our work!

[Anonymous]

I always dress professionally, at least from the waist up, on Zoom calls. And I always turn my camera on. I think it's awful when people join meetings and keep their camera off. If your room is messy, then you can easily put on a background, so there's no excuse. And at least comb your hair and put on a decent shirt! I think offices need to institute a Zoom dress code, and require cameras on in all meetings. BTW, I love working from home, and I do like the Zoom meetings, which I find very efficient. And I always make Teams calls because I like to talk face to face. Talking on the phone seems like 1980.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not American and will never understand the slovenliness of Americans. I love America, though, so I forgive them. But I'll probably always be overdressed for the occasion, which is fine by me.

Where are you from Europe?

The climate is much cooler and drier and allows for more restrictive professional wear.

In Asia they super cool their offices so company men can wear their suits.

[Anonymous]

You became a chief of staff and CEO with barely five years of experience? What field is this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not American and will never understand the slovenliness of Americans. I love America, though, so I forgive them. But I'll probably always be overdressed for the occasion, which is fine by me.

Where are you from Europe?

The climate is much cooler and drier and allows for more restrictive professional wear.

In Asia they super cool their offices so company men can wear their suits.

Np. Are you saying its too HOT in the entire continental US to dress nicely?
I live in a much colder climate than most here and still everyone looks like a slob.

[Anonymous]

This seems funny to me. I work at a law firm in SF and we are quite casual. But everyone wears a sweater with pj pants or shorts for client-facing calls so we look good on camera, and for internal meetings we're all in agreement anything goes, including pets on laps.

[Anonymous]

Why do people wear baseball caps when they are inside?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You became a chief of staff and CEO with barely five years of experience? What field is this?

Probably lularoe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I worked in a DC based tech startup we were required to have cameras on but a casual neutral colored sweatshirt, blue light glasses, and baseball cap were pretty standard. Management was as casual or even more so. Our only requirement was we had to have a company mandated Zoom background. We were on camera probably 6 hours a day at least

I was in a client facing role and probably half the time clients looked much more dressed up
But we were fully remote and they were in the office

I think men wearing baseball caps on any professional work call is ridiculous and sexist. No woman would ever wear a baseball cap in this context.

Maga women on camera say "hold my beer"
seriously these people all look ridiculous in ball caps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m with you, OP. It’s not hard to wear a real shirt and brush your hair.

Today a new junior colleague was in a Zoom meeting between people in our office and people in a different department, and he spent the whole meeting chomping away on his lunch. Nobody else was eating but him, and I just couldn’t get over the fact that even if he had the bad judgment to start eating during this meeting, he didn’t notice that nobody else was eating and then stop himself. People are clueless how they come across.

When I read that, it makes me think your junior colleague was working so much that he didn't have time to each lunch aside from that meeting.

That’s how I read it too. People so clueless they schedule meeting through lunchtime and then complain that people eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m with you, OP. It’s not hard to wear a real shirt and brush your hair.

Today a new junior colleague was in a Zoom meeting between people in our office and people in a different department, and he spent the whole meeting chomping away on his lunch. Nobody else was eating but him, and I just couldn’t get over the fact that even if he had the bad judgment to start eating during this meeting, he didn’t notice that nobody else was eating and then stop himself. People are clueless how they come across.

When I read that, it makes me think your junior colleague was working so much that he didn't have time to each lunch aside from that meeting.

That’s a reasonable thought. However, he’s new and has very little work so far. He’s also the only one who used one of those zany Zoom backgrounds. His office is right across from mine, so it’s not like he HAD to because he was WFH and didn’t want to show his bedroom or whatever. And he didn’t have to use a goofy background.

How is his work? Seems like you should getting him working instead. Sounds like you don’t have enough work either if are so bothered by zany backgrounds on internal calls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You became a chief of staff and CEO with barely five years of experience? What field is this?

Chief of Staff TO the CEO. Healthcare. My pre-professional experience is life experience and comes through as well.

I present/interview well, part of which comes from being polished, which I think makes a difference in both how we’re perceived and how we perceive ourselves. Which is why I find the lazy appearances I see off-putting.

[Anonymous]

I always think about the time my friend decided to color her hair during the workday and was called into an emergency meeting on Zoom. She had a shower cap on her head and kept the camera off, but her boss was pinging her on how inappropriate was that she wasn’t on the video with a client. She lied and said her kid had lice and she was doing a treatment and so he let it pass. She even sent him a text message of her with the shower cap on her head!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You became a chief of staff and CEO with barely five years of experience? What field is this?

And what was she doing all of her 20s without a professional career?