I've worked for two other Fortune 500 companies and I've never even met a vice president of one of them, let alone the CEO. That's not true this time. Last Thursday I had my second chance to meet him when I went to a reception on the executive floor of my company. I was really excited leading up to the event. Not knowing what to expect, on the day before the event I had asked a colleague/friend of mine who is a veteran of these things what I should wear. "Business attire", she said firmly. Well I wear "business attire" every day, don't I? "Is what I'm wearing business enough or do you mean I should wear a jacket" I asked her. "A jacket" she replied, quite firmly. So I hauled out my new suit that I had bought to wear for some previous trip but had never worn because the meeting turned out to be casual. It is a beautiful suit, I must say. It's a safari brown linen. Not the kind of linen that wrinkles as soon as you put it on, but lined and blended with something (I didn't read the label) that gave it enough weight to keep it wrinkle free without being hot. The jacket has a belt that ties at the waist, and these large pockets on the front just below the belt that gave me the look that I was ready to bag some big game......either on a safari in Africa or at a large corporation. I wore it with a white linen blouse with a collar that stood up out of the suit just enough which, coincidentally, added to the African safari look, but not so much that it looked like a butterfly collar from the seventies.
There were all sorts of people there from all levels of the company. One man had even brought his "lady friend" with him (her words, not mine). She hadn't gotten the memo about the attire though, and she was dressed in a white lace body-hugging, low-cut, leave nothing to the imagination cocktail dress and high, high heels, and *gasp* had painted herself in bright gold body glitter accentuating her shoulders and cleavage. It was not subtle. Hmm, I thought. Maybe she didn't know.
The executive floor is beautiful. There's lots of glass and beautifully decorated offices with expensive artwork. Halfway through the event the CEO made a speech and invited everyone to take a look at his office and even sit in his chair. I had already toured the floor but hadn't been in his office yet (it just seemed sort of intrusive until he made the offer). After the speech I made my way through the crowd and into the office where several of the other people had already ventured and were sitting in the CEO's chair and taking pictures like tourists. One the way I chatted with Ms. Body Glitter. "What do you do?" I asked. "I work for (major) airlines" she said. I didn't ask her what she did for the airlines. When I arrived in the office, someone had spilled food in the floor and one of the wait staff was sweeping it up with one of those carpet sweepers........Honestly, I sighed, you can't take some people anywhere....
Now normally under such circumstances I (ashamedly) admit my inner snob would recoil in horror at all of this lack of decorum. But, I thought, he (the CEO) knows what he's doing. If it's good enough for him then it's good enough for me. So I trotted out my "good 'ol girl, I love everybody self" (I do, truly) and started introducing myself and being friendly to everyone in the room. I walked around shaking hands and introducing myself and asking everyone where they were from and where they worked. I met one woman who said she worked on a floor near mine. "I'm surprised we've never met" I said. "Well, I'm not, I never come up here to this floor" she said. "Oh, neither do I!" I said surprised, "this is my first time here". "Oh", she said....you look like you belong here".
I smiled. Good suit.
P.S.
The next morning Ms. Body Glitter came to the conference assembly wearing another less formal but still inappropriate cocktail dress. Hmm.....I thought. Again??? Did she not take any clues from last night???? Well, maybe it's all she packed, I thought. (she was from out of town). As she passed me we made eye contact. She gave me a look that told me she read my thoughts and no, that wasn't all she had packed and yes, she had worn that outfit on purpose. We didn't speak to each other as we passed......we just nodded imperceptibly....a sort of truce....an unspoken agreement by each of us to acknowledge and respect the choice of the other......and went on our separate ways.
