h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Neckties are often used as a substitute to actually having a personality. Deranged individuals wearing brightly coloured ties with cartoon characters on to try and convince their work mates that they're fun, interesting people.

..and yet they fail completely, only managing to demonstrate how utterly devoid of personality they really are.

Expecially when they all walk into the office to display their new found individuality to find that every other personality devoid office worker, is wearing exactly the same tie.

They can either display the wit they've borrowed in lieu of their own or they can say "I'm not an individual, I'm a product of THIS expensive school! Recognise that by wearing this I am telling you that I can speak fluent latin, polish my shoes in a trice and that I speak down to everybody but the queen". Some of my office-working firends up here tell me that every last friday in the month is dress-down friday, when people can feel comfortable and relaxed in the workplace. Does this happen everywhere in the country? Ties are a bad idea simply on the principle that my dad would have more money and a less embarassing wardrobe interior if he hadn't felt the need to vary his tie frequently in his earlier years.

We don't have dress down friday, although quite a few companies do. Where I work, not wearing a tie is almost a criminal offence! Really annoying!

Can you were any sort of tie as long as it's a tie? There's an opening there for subverting their repression-formed need to conform to a past ideal in the workplace. Wear things that clash hideously, or make a point of changing from and to something obviously practical when arriving and leaving the office. Is there no dispensation in the summer when it's nasty and sweaty and the use of a tie means that shirt collars get brown and sticky by the end of the hot, humid day? Is it annoying that the women are free to wear open-necked shirts? That pissed me off something chronic in school, even though the open-necked shirt was invented by chauvanist men as a means to look at breasts. Buy a load of cheap ties and develop the habit of spilling soup down them, getting them caught in the shredder or using them as a bandage for a colleague who's been savaged by the office leopard. A scruffy tie is probably worse than no tie at all to such a boss as you seem to have; thereby will you be able to remove what is left if yours for the rest of the day.

Well, an outrageous tie would definately not go down well! I've already tried the destruction idea too - but that was unintnetional...

Wearing an outrageous tie is one of the reasons why they're bad in the first place. What did you do in school to make the tie more bearable?

Tie's are only bad when people preceive them as so. I personally think a mellow, non-labled tie (i.e. Disney) can help complete an outfit.

In my office (in the US) Ties are not required. One thing we do to dress down is one day a week during the summer (usually a wednesday) we are allowed to wear jeans to work for the price of $2, which gets donated to a charity. A pretty good idea.

Tarast