Avatars To Have Business Dress Codes By 2013 221
nk497 writes "With businesses increasingly using digital tech like virtual worlds and Twitter, their staff will have to be given guidelines on how they 'dress' their avatars, according to analysts. 'As the use of virtual environments for business purposes grows, enterprises need to understand how employees are using avatars in ways that might affect the enterprise or the enterprise's reputation,' said James Lundy, managing vice president at Gartner, in a statement. 'We advise establishing codes of behavior that apply in any circumstance when an employee is acting as a company representative, whether in a real or virtual environment.'"
Resigning Issue... (Score:3, Insightful)
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This is why you should use social networking services with a pseudonym - otherwise the company thinks you're on their clock, all the time.
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This is why you should use social networking services with a pseudonym - otherwise the company thinks you're on their clock, all the time.
huh? so instead of standing up for your rights you advocate giving in to your employers insane demands by hiding your life.
If the company thinks you're on their clock all the time, then they should be paying you all the time.
The problem with dress codes is that they spill out of the work environment and in to the rest of your life. If you're employer doesn't want you to have piercings or green hair then you can't really have them at the times you're not a work either. Which is bullshit.
Re:Resigning Issue... (Score:4, Insightful)
I have the feeling that if you showed up in a Speedo and refused to put on pants, you wouldn't have to resign.
They'd cut you loose pretty quickly.
'Point is, you conform to a dress code even if you don't know it. The only way around it is to work out of your home... with the drapes closed. (Please.)
Re:Resigning Issue... (Score:4, Interesting)
I actually have a habit of wearing clothes that get me dirty looks from people who see me on the street (my dreadlocks probably don't help this (and most people who look at me like I'm worthless scum are the typical "gray suit and tie" Volvo drivers)) and I wear the same clothes to work. But yeah, a speedo may be a hard sell in an office environment.
That said, unless the job requires special clothing (either for identification purposes such as with police officers or firemen or for safety or hygiene reasons) I see no reason for people not to wear whatever they feel like but then I tend to cringe when I enter a store and notice all the employees wearing identical clothing...
/Mikael
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Fair enough. I work in the dairy food industry, and our hygiene policy has a total ban on the use of scotch-brite pads, because no matter how much you wash and rinse them with industrial bleach, they continue to harbour large colonies of bacteria. Since you can't subject your head to that kind of agressive cleansing, one can only imagine what kind of wildlife will be festering in your dreadlocks. There is just n
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They're clean.
They're just not sterile.
And they are probably inappropriate in your industry.
But that doesn't make them unsanitary.
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All human hair and flesh harbors bacteria. It's simply unavoidable. Just put a hair net on if you're going to be working around food.
If you wash your dreadlocks regularly they probably won't be too nasty, but I've also seen real authentic street people with dreadlocks that were turning into compost on their heads. Literally decomposing tangles of putrid shit dangling from their heads. Of course that's not representative of all dreadlocks, but it's an example of what not to wear when working around food
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Fair enough. I work in the dairy food industry, and our hygiene policy has a total ban on the use of scotch-brite pads, because no matter how much you wash and rinse them with industrial bleach, they continue to harbour large colonies of bacteria.
I think bleaching them would kill most of the bacteria in the pad, it just wouldn't remove the food so new bacteria could repopulate the pad in a short time.
Since you can't subject your head to that kind of agressive cleansing, one can only imagine what kind of wildlife will be festering in your dreadlocks. There is just no way you can convince me those damn things are clean.
You rinse YOUR hair with industrial bleach? No matter what type of hairdo you have, or how you clean it, your head is coated in bacteria. The only thing it should take to convince you that dreadlocks are "clean" are 1: is the wearer's head infected and 2: do the locks smell. If not, they're within normal parameters of hair cleanliness.
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Re:Resigning Issue... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? It's for one of the reasons you stated. Identification purposes.
It makes it easier for you to find them when you want to, or avoid them if you don't.
Similarly in a restaurant, proper uniforms reduce the odds of you trying to get other customers to fetch you a menu. Or vice versa.
That said, I find ties uncomfortable and a rather stupid idea in warm environments/climates.
I'd be glad if someone can come up with a fashion that looks decently "business like", is practical and doesn't involve ties and zillions of buttons.
Probably easier for menswear. Women's wear tend to have somewhat insane stuff like jacket/coat "pockets" that aren't pockets, or real pockets that are actually sewn shut.
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Well, the way I see it, if a jewish person has a constitutional right to wear one of those hats to work, and muslim women have a right to their hijab, then I have a right to not wear a tie. Discrimination extends to "creed," which is a pretty open term.
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You have free will over whether to wear a tie or not. But people who wear yid lids and ninja suits do it because a nonexistent man with a beard told them they have to.
See the difference now?
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What if my religion believes that all forms of torture are wrong? Heck mine could even be clothing optional, so just be glad my tie is the only article of clothing I left at home.
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just be glad my tie is the only article of clothing I left at home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbers_Don't_Wear_Ties [wikipedia.org]
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Nope. There are still laws relating to hygiene, obscenity and safety.
Say a woman wanted to wear long flowing hijab while operating a machine with rotating parts. Her clothes could get caught in it. Usually people are restricted from wearing loose clothes in those sorts of jobs. If she refuses to wear safe clothing, it's not discrimination against her religion (forbidden), it is discrimination on grounds of safety (perfectly reasonable).
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As opposed to the ones we have, which started out as someone creating a religion? Following that logic, all religions are lies, and should therefore be disregarded entirely (which actually sounds about right to me)
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You don't get it. They're religions. That makes bad taste in clothing, child mutilations, not eating otherwise delicious food OK...
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Why? It's for one of the reasons you stated. Identification purposes.
True, it's definitely an advantage to be able to tell store employees apart from customers. I suppose I should have clarified that I was talking more about those places where everyone wears identical shirts, shoes, pants and possibly hats as well as name tags with the company logo. This just seems a bit excessive to me, at least when dealing with stores that may only have three or four employees working at one time, IMHO they should be able to work with "shirt in this color and always wear your name tag", i
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The chances of a (potential) customer being put off by someone *not* having piercings or tattoos are much less than of them being put off by someone who does, so the employee without them is going to be acceptable to a much larger set of (potential) customers.
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I suppose I should have clarified that I was talking more about those places where everyone wears identical shirts, shoes, pants and possibly hats as well as name tags with the company logo.
You think that's bad, one guy in a topic some time ago was issued company boxers - and he was working for a bank.
Worse- they wanted them back when he left.
When I worked retail my uniform was company shirt(issued), black pants(self obtained, conservative - IE no latex/leather/10 sizes too large) and name tag.
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That said, I find ties uncomfortable and a rather stupid idea in warm environments/climates.
Engineers should even consider them as death hazards!
I don't think it's to unusual in that field to rapidly switch between office work or a meeting with customers, where a tie might be appropriate, and five minutes later standing next to some f**ing big machine trying to strange you with your own tie.
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If you really want to know, the real reason I live in the Southwest is so I don't have to wear a tie, but can get away with a bolo tie instead. Seriously, these need to catch on, because they suck so much less than a regular tie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_tie [wikipedia.org]
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I'd be glad if someone can come up with a fashion that looks decently "business like", is practical and doesn't involve ties and zillions of buttons.
http://www.st-spike.org/pages/uniforms/uniforms.htm [st-spike.org]
Re:Resigning Issue... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good luck moving up in your company, then (unless you're in design or something).
Looking the part is an important part of playing the part. I'm sorry, but it's true. The higher you go, the more likely it will be that you will need to represent the company at some time, and your appearance may not present an image that is good for the company.
Take your appearance, as you've described yourself here, for example. You would have to knock my socks on their asses before I bought anything from you. Why? Because I have a very negative reaction to dreadlocks. I think they're disgusting. And if you're not black, those are best not described as dreadlocks, but "matted, filthy, homeless hair." You might be the nicest guy in the world. I might want to hang out with you (you'd endure endless shit for the dreadlocks, though), but I don't want to have anything to do with your company because I don't know of any good companies that would let you out of the basement, let alone hire you. It reflects poorly on the company.
I don't want you to think I'm just coming down on you like "the Man," man. This is, in fact, all new to me. I'm 35 now, but I was a goth until I was about 29. I wasn't dirty (very few goths are); I dressed well (just all black), and I'm a pretty smart cookie. But it just seemed like I couldn't make anything happen. No one would hire me for anything worthwhile, despite my solid academic record and recommendations from previous employers. I blamed all sorts of things--the economy (okay, that had a hand in it), stupid HR people (is there any other kind?), the time I got diarrhea from eating the expired food in my fridge (all I had left) during the interview--but once the (tasteful--not tribal) earrings were removed, hair was returned to natural brown, and I threw some more colors into my wardrobe, things picked up almost immediately.
I'm not saying that appearance is really a good indication of your abilities. It isn't; we all know that. What I'm saying is that it's like proper spelling: We value it not for what it is, but what it implies: This person gives a shit. This person has gone through some of the same shaping experiences as I have, and which I have found to be important in my own life.
So, to be honest, as a former adherent to the "looks don't matter, man; it's all about self-expression, man" school of thought, I'm probably more likely to write you off as a petulant child, because I sure as hell was one myself when I thought I was too good to put on a pair of slacks and a dress shirt.
No one likes wearing business wear. You're not special because you want to look like a freak. Everyone wants that. But they don't so as to create a more coherent social community with tribal markings that facilitate a feeling of belonging and fraternity. It's not about the suppression of savage customs; it's about being polite to one another and making people feel at ease.
It would be no different if the business community standardized on strap-on dildos and horse-tail butt-plugs. We'd still wear them to create a community. (Un?)Fortunately, business attire has not taken such a fashion direction, so it's slacks and collared shirts for all.
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No one likes wearing business wear. [.....] and making people feel at ease.
Your sentence reminds me of a dilbert cartoon in which the PHB forgets to insert a "United way update" between telling of the great company success and then telling that there can be no pay rises since the company has financial difficulties.
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I don't want you to think I'm just coming down on you like "the Man," man. This is, in fact, all new to me. I'm 35 now, but I was a goth until I was about 29. I wasn't dirty (very few goths are); I dressed well (just all black), and I'm a pretty smart cookie. But it just seemed like I couldn't make anything happen. No one would hire me for anything worthwhile, despite my solid academic record and recommendations from previous employers. I blamed all sorts of things--the economy (okay, that had a hand in it), stupid HR people (is there any other kind?), the time I got diarrhea from eating the expired food in my fridge (all I had left) during the interview--but once the (tasteful--not tribal) earrings were removed, hair was returned to natural brown, and I threw some more colors into my wardrobe, things picked up almost immediately.
This. When I was in high school and early in my college career, I always promised myself I wouldn't worry about what people wore, and I certainly wouldn't ever spend a ton on clothes or worry about what I was wearing. What I did was all that mattered. Then, through some life changes, I was (sort of) forced to go out and buy a new wardrobe.
Wow.
I was amazed at the response change from people. All of a sudden, I was more respected. I was dating regularly. People found me more approachable. It almost dis
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I wasn't. I was merely pointing out how a certain type of appearance portrays a completely different message (goth vs. prep vs. business vs. casual vs. whatever) and how important it is to dress the part for the role you want or are in to be taken seriously. (Plus, I was also a bit surprised at the change in people towards me and just wanted to relay that.)
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This really shouldn't come as a surprise. As a college prof, I see a lot of students who have this sense of entitlement ("I should be able to rebel and still get all the same opportunities that my non-rebellious classmates get"). The fact is, the true "rebel" is the one who dresses and/or acts rebelliously and embraces the consequences. If you're not willing to do that, you might want to reconsider your reasons for
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I actually have a habit of wearing clothes that get me dirty looks from people who see me on the street (my dreadlocks probably don't help this (and most people who look at me like I'm worthless scum are the typical "gray suit and tie" Volvo drivers)) and I wear the same clothes to work. But yeah, a speedo may be a hard sell in an office environment.
That said, unless the job requires special clothing (either for identification purposes such as with police officers or firemen or for safety or hygiene reasons) I see no reason for people not to wear whatever they feel like but then I tend to cringe when I enter a store and notice all the employees wearing identical clothing...
/Mikael
You cringe when you see identical clothing? How about the 40-year old office manager you never knew wore tiger-striped t-backs peeking out from her love humps saddled on her 300-pound frame? What, you didn't know that Bob liked to wear a wife beater that showed off his man-boobs? Not being old-fashioned, but walk the mall lately? Half the shit girls wear these days to push-up/pull-out/enlarge/tighten to show off at a club is begging for a sexual harassment lawsuit with just a few glances from horny old
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Seeing as how I actually shower and wash my hair I sincerely doubt there's some weird smell I'm not noticing, at least nothing that compares to the smell of a lot of the suit-claden folk I run into on a daily basis (seriously, there are a lot of people who seem to pay a lot of attention to what they wear but not how they smell).
Also, even if I did smell that wouldn't explain why people shoot me the same looks from across the street...
/Mikael
Re:Resigning Issue... (Score:4, Interesting)
And, even worse, people won't learn that. You even conform if you are not working, and it is really hard to evade that. Example:
"The Mothers Of Invention : The Little House I Used To Live In
Lyrics
FZ: Thank you, good night . . . Thank you, if you'll . . . if you sit down and be quiet, we'll make an attempt to, ah, perform Brown Shoes Don't Make It.
Man In Uniform: Back on your seats, come on, we'll help you back to your seats, come on . .
Guy In The Audience: Take that man out of here! Oh! Go away! Take that uniform off man! Take that bloody uniform before it's fuckin' too late, man!
FZ: Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself.
Guy In The Audience: . . . man!
FZ: You'll hurt your throat, stop it!"
About 4 decades ago.
CC.
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Awesome.
Wow man, it's a drag being a rock
I wish I was anything but a rock
Heck, I'd even like to be a policeman
Hey, you know what, you know maybe if I practiced, you know
Maybe if I passed my driving test
I could get a gig drivin' that bus and pick some freaks up
In front of Ben Franks, right!
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'Point is, you conform to a dress code even if you don't know it. The only way around it is to work out of your home... with the drapes closed. (Please.)
Not really. A "dress code" is a *code*. It has to be codified in some sense. Being fired for being "indecent" isn't really a dress code.
Even if it were codified that you couldn't be indecent, it's still below the threshold most people would have for calling something a dress code. The general distinction here is probably something like, "you have to wear clothes a normal person wouldn't generally chose to wear, or face disciplinary action", or inversely, "there are perfectly socially acceptable clothes that
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Why wouldn't they take a fuzzy bunny seriously? People buy insurance from a talking gecko. Remember those old Wellbutrin commercials? I'm sure many thousands of people got their doctors to prescribe the medicine suggested by the happy bouncing bubble.
If I wanted technical advice and was using a virtual world, a detailed hand crafted avatar would scream knowledge to me more so than a generic pick one from the list suit and tie clone. Virtual worlds can be what we make them, it'd be such a shame if they e
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I'd resign if anyone tried to tell me what to wear in the real world, never mind the virtual. I've never worked at a company with a dress code and I never will. Not because I have an aversion to looking smart, but because that kind of control is normally just the tip of the iceberg.
The golden rule: Those who have the gold, make the rules.
There's nothing in that where it says the rules have to make sense. Often, they don't. But the majority of jobs out there want it. You can skirt around it, but it'll cost you opportunities you'd otherwise have if you'd just get with the program. No, what you wear has no bearing on what's between your ears. Yet, curiously, it does have a bearing on the size of your paycheck.
It's like this: I could choose to dress in a provocative manner, but I'd be att
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There are enough companies out there that I am willing to leave a company in order to find one that is respectful of me as a professional. I don't need to sell myself for gold, and I believe the GP feels the same way.
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In fact I feel the other way around. I'm the one with the gold. I have the skills and if the company wants my services then they get them on my terms.
I'll admit that at the start of my career I probably spent more time looking for a job than most, but I found that the jobs I did get were more "rounded" (i.e. not cubicle drudgery) and therefore that led me to be more rounded in terms of skills. I now firmly believe that I'm b
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True. They also keep appendages from freezing off or sticking together.
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The golden path-to-profit:
1 - Those who makes the rules, get the gold.
2 - Those who have the gold, make the rules.
3 - GOTO 1
BTW: WTF is wrong with this POST form?!
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Re:Resigning Issue... (Score:4, Insightful)
You're assuming someone wants to get into the executive suite. Personally, I can't think of anything less attractive. The odds of it are low, you have to work hard for years, you have to put up with politics for years to do it, and lets face it the most sure way to get there are to throw all your morals out the window and backstab your way there. On top of that all those years you're doing shit that just isn't fun. No thanks. Give me career options of that or dropping out and flipping burgers, I'll take burgers.
As for aging and whether people think you look funny- why the hell do you care what other people think? If you enjoy it, fuck everyone else.
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That's what the rapists and CxOs said.
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You may be closer to the "executive suite" and suits than you think
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The odds of it are low, you have to work hard for years, you have to put up with politics for years to do it, and lets face it the most sure way to get there are to throw all your morals out the window and backstab your way there. On top of that all those years you're doing shit that just isn't fun. No thanks. Give me career options of that or dropping out and flipping burgers, I'll take burgers.
You're assuming moving up in an already established company. What happens if you get the idea to create your own? Sure, for awhile you can come across as the "brash, young entrepreneur" but that gets old somewhat quickly. If you want people to fund your business and trust your ideas, you have to put on a good appearance.
Re:Resigning Issue... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're right.
I guess thats why so often upper managment makes terrible, right out stupid management decissions - besides when it's about what "clothes to wear". If that is the key skill to get into managment in any buissness (outside the fashion industry), you're doing it *wrong*.
No wonder economy got driven into a crises when you put it into the hands of the best dressed people instead of the best people.
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I have no intention of going near the executive suite. And my income is more than enough for anyone. I don't need any more.
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I'd resign if anyone tried to tell me what to wear in the real world, never mind the virtual. I've never worked at a company with a dress code and I never will. Not because I have an aversion to looking smart, but because that kind of control is normally just the tip of the iceberg.
Jesus, ease back there just a tad and relax buddy. Not every dress code policy stems from Hitleresque-control, nor does it result in mind-control. I work in a manufacturing facility. While I rarely find myself venturing anywhere beyond the cube farm and my desk, I'd imagine that there's some level of concern for general safety and health wearing shorts and flip-flops around heavy machinery. In 95% of companies, your sales staff probably isn't going to be selling much coming to work dressed like they're
Re:Already have this in IBM (Score:5, Insightful)
You should probably not google doug winger if your in work (and what is seen cannot be unseen) O_O
And yet---! (Score:2)
...and yet, one of the pioneers, most active and certainly most visible IBM'ers is using an avatar which is a 2.5m tall Predator. Nobody's told him off (maybe because they know what a shoulder gun can do).
Those IBM'ers who are already hopeless "penguins" do of course have Suit avatars. Natch.
Me, I dress in my fave tee, jeans, converses, and five o'clock shadow.
Re:Already have this in IBM (Score:5, Informative)
the work/real life/virtual life are blurring.
People are allowing their work and social life to blur but it's a real problem. I think it's very important to keep them separate, but that most people don't yet understand the technology or it's implications. I'm allowed to use my work computer and email for limited personal reasons (before you tell me that that's stupid; it's only stupid if your company lacks competent lawyers; or possibly if you live in the USA), however I keep clear tagging; personal stuff is generally under one userID; work another. At the very least I use clearly labelled folders. I have music I can listen to on my company phone, but I use a separate memory card which I paid for; which is clearly labelled as personal and where I keep the receipt. Keeping this boundary intact is critical.
It's very simple to apply this to the virtual world. You should have two separate avatars. One you use from work; one you use from home. Do not link them in any way. Make it clear to people which one they should interact with depending on circumstances (e.g. your friend's avatar wants to have sex with your work avatar; if you even admit who you are you then you say "sorry I'm working. I'll be off later"); if it's the suit which is turning them on, then get another avatar dressed in a sharp suit too.
There are very clear legal differences between these different things. If I have my (legally copied) music on my card I can use privacy laws to limit the companies access to them during an audit (you still have to allow access if you want to demonstrate that you haven't been stealing company secrets, but you can make an agreement that they can't have any personal material). If I have the same stuff on a company computer I may actually have indulged in unlicensed copying because the act of putting it on the company computer from my personal media is copying/distribution (even if the music is CC-SA or some such, I may not in a position to agree to the CC-SA for the company). If you have material on your personal computer at home you have much more protection still. In the context of Avatars, as long as you do your best to maintain the separation, the very fact that your HR researched what other avatar you have in private life should already be a breach of privacy laws in any civilised country.
In that context, what's the difficulty with a dress policy for your work avatar? You should treat your work avatar as company property. Let them dispose of it as they wish. Do not share anything personal with a company unless you are a contractor with your own company (in which case nothing will save you from liability).
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I think what you say is fine if your just a normal run of the mill job that isn't going to go anywhere.
But what if you want to become a speaker on the technology you sell? To some extent your personal life will impact your business life.
Btw, in relation to your example on your mobile phone. Some companies just bringing your mobile phone into work constitutes it falling under the business.
Now this avatar business I don't see it as extreme as the old days where IBM had employees who measured your clothing to
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It's very simple to apply this to the virtual world. You should have two separate avatars.
That would be a breach of the T&Cs of many (most?) virtual worlds. Arguably less professional than wandering around the virtual world as a naked furry.
For SL technical breach but "allowed" (Score:2)
In fact most of the lindens have more than one avatar (prelinden avatar and then the linden avatar). If a Company has a Formal Presence In-World then they should have a Storage Area where a person can pick up an "approved" avatar.
Oh btw an AnthroMorph/Feral Avatar can be more professional that a lot of "human" avatars.
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If you use the avatar for anything that may be business related then it should be an avatar that shows some level of professionalism
No. It's what they *do* that should be important, not what they look like.
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"It should be inclusive with ideas being bounced backwards and forwards between everyone in the team, including management"
Yeah right. Where do you work , some fluffy web company where everyone walks around in slacks and tiedyes , plays pool 3 hours a day with their managers and gets a vote on company policy? Sorry son, in real companies it doesn't work like that. They pay you money , you do what they tell you or you take a hike. If you don't accept those terms don't accept the job.
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I have high standards for my
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Funny, I work at company where everyone is on first name basis, junior input) and whatnot, etc ... too. And no-one ever had do enforce dress code (much less to write document describing it) or any similar policies. Because everyone understands that they need to be dressed for job appropriately, and anything more than 7 hours is frowned down too.
But, thing is, it works like this nearly everywhere.
Untill, of course, someone goes out of their way and makes trouble. I guarantee you, should anyone step out of li
Why is parent modded troll? (Score:2)
Parent poster obviously has a lot more experience of real life work than the teenage moderators around here!
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We have no rules... and I'm the one that would set them if any. You see we employ smart people not drones.. people that learned how to dress themselves when they were in school and don't need patronising.
I've never worked anywhere that had a dress code. I've seen a few places like that.. and such things always come from overbearing management that think they're slave masters not bosses.
Makes Sense (Score:5, Interesting)
were not talking personal avatars/twitters etc, thats a seperate, more difficult problem.
this is about representing a company, situations like gaming with developers, company islands in second life, twitter feeds for businesses. situations where an employee is representing their organisation on an official level in a digital context.
i think the same company office policy should simply extend to the online realm. in second life you avatars dress code should reflect the dress code of the business, same with behavior, etc.
for example i apply a simmilar policy to my work mobile. no custom tones or backgrounds, it uses a generic ringtone and the company logo as the background, no good sitting down to a meeting with a client and having the "crazy frog" or star wars theme start blaring out of my phone.
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this is about representing a company, situations like gaming with developers, company islands in second life, twitter feeds for businesses. situations where an employee is representing their organisation on an official level in a digital context.
I doubt that. Those are already depersonalized, white-washed, and boring as can be. Plus, most large tech companies already have policies for what employees can post on their own personal blogs, so this avatar policy just seems to be an extension of that.
for example i apply a simmilar policy to my work mobile. no custom tones or backgrounds, it uses a generic ringtone and the company logo as the background, no good sitting down to a meeting with a client and having the "crazy frog" or star wars theme start blaring out of my phone.
Not me, I'll mute my "crazy frog" phone before I even sit down for a meeting. Generic tones or not, I hate cell phones ringing in meetings.
Plus, the x-rated avatar of my fat naked male body is opt-in only, so if you see me naked -- it's your own damn fault
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Don't you dare sending any links, but where is the *viewer* able to decide what avatar he gets to see?
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I pretty much agree with everything you said, up till the "Crazy Frog" and Star Wars part. The Crazy Frog themes I've heard are Axel-F and Popcorn. I can understand not wanting the phone to ring when you sit down with a client, but in the technology world having 80's pop hits or science fiction themes as ring tones are about as innocuous as it gets.
But yeah, the overall point still stands as long as we're talking about company avatars, not private avatars. If you're being paid to represent a company, it
Consider the source - Gartner == FAIL! (Score:5, Insightful)
Gartner gets so many things wrong, so much of the time, why should this be any different?
The day someone tells me how to dress is the day they find out that they can't tell me how to dress.
As long as it's clean, presentable, and isn't festooned with slogans promoting criminal acts or competitors' products, it's simply not their business.
And it's not like an avatar is going to have to abide by safety codes like "hard hats required beyond this point".
If your company is depending on avatars to try to hide the fact that "Bob" in customer support in Idaho is really "Bashir" in New Dehli, it ain't gonna work.
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As long as it's clean, presentable, and isn't festooned with slogans promoting criminal acts or competitors' products, it's simply not their business.
That IS a dresscode already.
A reasonable one. And I don't mind a reasonable dresscode. ("Reasonable" might vary from buissness to buissness)
I remember that guy from my last job. Company lore went that he is still proud of beeing the reason for dress code similar to the above was formaly introduced. The only company so far where I've seen the the rule to wash and shower from time to time in the employee handbook.
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As long as it's clean, presentable, and isn't festooned with slogans promoting criminal acts or competitors' products, it's simply not their business.
I would argue that, if your company is paying you, it is very much their business how you represent your company. What you wear outside of work - yeah, I would agree hands off (for the most part...this can't be true with all jobs). But, while you're at work, representing your employer, they have a right to say, "Here's how you should look when you represent us."
What? (Score:2)
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And the next time you show up wearing green gear, you're fired!
According To Analysts... (Score:2)
... analysts will tell you all kinds of goofy stuff, particularly if they think they can get you to pay them to tell you more about how to do it, including why it works (miraculously, with no research having been done to support their reasons), as well as what you're doing wrong when it doesn't work ('listening to them' never seems to make the list). In this case they'll turn the long disused and discredited 'dress for success' construct and apply it to the cartoons they say are so important as replacements
Great. Here it comes... (Score:5, Interesting)
"casual friday" for avatars.
Bill Lumbergh: Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.
Gartner again? (Score:2)
Remind me again.. why do people listen to Gartner any more?
I can't think of a meaningful thing they've put out in the last 5 years.
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At an old company I was at, Gartner gave us a huge boost in their ratings and ranked us top in the field, and the only thing we had done differently was start a new marketing campaign. The product hadn't changed at all, the customers hadn't changed their opinions. There was rumor that we also paid them off, but I suspect that someone was just doing their "analysis" by
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They seem to occupy a bizarre state between "independent" analysts and "for-hire" research consultants that provide, surprisingly enough, the conclusions that the organisation commissioning the study expected in the first place.
Just a way to justify one's interests to management, it seems..
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Because they have more street cred than Tolly? (Not saying much.)
Actually, after having done two in-depth in-house reviews of two different technologies for our purchasing, we were amused to find out that in both cases our "short list" ended up looking almost identical to the Gartner "Magic Quadrant." It's also useful in justifying "Why did you pick these products for evaluation" to management. So, used carefully, with common sense, they can be of use in an enterprise environment.
Is anyone really using "virtutual worlds" at work? (Score:2)
Simply .... (Score:2)
I would focus on the contents of electronic communication more than the appearance!
Provided that I had one other than the default gray outline.
3 words (Score:3)
Answer: Says who? (Score:2, Redundant)
Seriously, business dress codes are the dumbest thing that ever got to that spineless "monkey see, monkey do" "culture" we call business employee.
Nobody needs it, nobody wants it, and everybody who wears it, looks like he's following the dress code of a Chinese communist movement where everybody has to dress the same.
The worst sign of despair is the "Please hang me right now! I'm just a slave in the big machine of bureaucracy. My life is completely meaningless!" tie. You're practically the walking dead when
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I'd rather come nude than in a business suit.
I would too. If anything, Clinton and Lewinsky taught me that it's more difficult than you'd think to get those stains out...
~jaraxle
Business with an avatar? (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah that'll work. When's the last time you or your company did business via fucking avatar. Video conference MAYBE. Even then if money's involved it'll be in person, with signatures and handshakes. If you're wearing a fucking avatar you're not in business dress period...let alone when it's a slut in a toob top or a shirtless hippy guy.
all businesses ? (Score:2)
Will virtual burgerflippers also be required to wear a virtual cardboard hat with a logo on it ?
I Suggest (Score:2)
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Re:What about ethnicity codes? (Score:5, Funny)
My avatar is a grey squirrel, you insensitive clod.
Re:What about ethnicity codes? (Score:5, Funny)
ASL?
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Probably context. [illwillpress.com]
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Re:What about ethnicity codes? (Score:5, Funny)
It's pretty much standard issue for a pool attendant.