Workplace clothes and personal identity

To most this is probably not a big revelation, but to me something clicked this morning.

I have spent most of my working life in “corporate environment” like finance and pension. I have always made a point out of going to work in a dress shirt and press fold pants.

To me it has been a way to show professionalism and also act as a “uniform” I can change out of when I get home from work.

Being the places I have worked so far almost everyone has in some way shape or form done the same.

Hence we all look alike.

Professionals going to work.

LEGO

For the last couple of months I have been working with LEGO. It is by a very wide margin the most diverse workplace I have ever experienced. There are so many cultures and background represented. I really love it.

A stand out point for me as an external consultant was also that this is one of the first places I have experienced where they during the hiring process wanted to hear a lot about who I was as a person outside of work. Most other places are just interested in hiring the right skills. Which of course is okay when hiring external consultants. But is was a nice change to feel like me as a person also had something to do with the hiring.

But back to clothing. I had some weeks ago spotted the back of someone in a Nightride t-shirt. If you do not know Nightride, they are some very cool dudes from Poland doing automotive content. Back then I did not manage to find him again and speak to him, but promised myself that if I spotted him again I needed to compliment his t-shirt.

Well, this morning I found him and talked with him. As it turned out he had been to Ultrace in Gdansk which is a very big car meet that I had drooled over and he recommended me an upcoming event in Estonia. He showed me his Mazda MX-5 and we talked quite a lot. A very fun and giving exchange.

What dawned on me afterwards was that had we been in a corporate environment with strict clothing requirements, then we would have never talked to each other. We would just have been individuals working at the same company but apart from that there would be no common denominator.

We would just be workers.

But suddenly when we are allowed to wear what we want to work we can express who we are as persons not just workers.

I think I need to re-think my work clothes at least as long as I am with an as inclusive and diverse workplace as LEGO.