One of the things I like about living in France is discovering the little things that make life so different here. Take clothes for instance. People think that the French are chic, well-dressed, etc. And the Parisians are, definitely more so than à la compagne (“in the countryside”). At my current job, we work in an office. We almost never see a client in our office, since we are in the consulting field, if we see a client it’s at their location. So you would think that we wouldn’t need to be dressed up. And you’d be right. But “they” are anyway. I have to say “they” because I’m not one of them. “They” are the majority of my coworkers who come to work dressed in suits every day. I can’t think of anything more boring. Very little room for personal expression. Everyone looks the same. In fact many of them wear the exact same suit every day for an entire week! Even the shirt. It’s very conformist, but so are the French (more on that later). I’ve only worn a suite a couple times, and that’s when interviewing for a job or when meeting the client for the first time. Otherwise, I like to mix it up. Slacks & a dress shirt one day, jeans & a polo the next. One of my friend mixes it up even more, suite one day and basketball shoes the next.
So why do the majority of my coworkers, who don’t leave the office and don’t see clients wear suites? When I first joined my company I started right away on a project at our partner’s site (another consulting company). I had a very junior team of mostly new college graduates. I was surprised when several of them were wearing suit & tie every day. They explained to me that if one wants to be a manager one has to dress like one, stay late, etc. I should point out that in France everyone wants to be a manager whereas in the US, at least in the software development industry, no one wants to be a manager. The manager’s at my company are always in suits, and the higher the manager the more likely he’ll be wearing a tie. This is in sharp contrast to the west coast in the US. At my last job in the US, we had a vice-president (ok it was a financial company and there were tons of vice presidents) who wore shorts and sandals in the summer.
One of my coworkers attributes this overdressing it to company culture. People just tend to do what everyone else is doing. Including working long hours, etc. I like to be different. But does it affect my career? In a way I hope so. If they see me dressed in jeans maybe they’ll think twice about sending me to a client’s site for a 6 month project! I prefer to stay in my office, wearing my jeans.
Ok I got one more for you, and this goes to show the extent of this company culture. Me and a coworker recently transferred to other business units in our company. At our old business unit, I was dressed mostly in jeans, often in t-shirt or polo shirt, etc. He usually wore dress pants and dress shirt. Now he is working in the financial unit. I saw him after a few days of our transfer and he was wearing a tie. I saw him wear a tie once in the 3 years that I knew him, and now he’s wearing one every day. “Everyone wears ties” he says, and as a manager he feels obligated to do the same. At my unit, I’m not wearing jeans every day but I do wear them a few times a week. And I have yet to wear a suit in our office, nor a tie. Same company, same building, different business units and different floors, and a different “company culture”.
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