An Experiment in the Office
by I made my coworkers the subject of an experiment that tested a long suspected theory.
In a society where it is theoretically impossible to maintain complete anonymity, I have decided to test that theory. I’m not going to go completely off of the grid or anything. I just want to test my coworker’s sense of observation.
I have worked for my company for 8 months. I work in an office with 18 employees that are in the office daily and another 8 that are in the office at least 2 days a week. The dress code is business casual and there are not any real repercussions associated with minor variance. I choose to stick with the traditional polo style shirt and conservative pants. I, however, refuse to let an iron or dry cleaner touch them. The way I see it, my clothes are going to get wrinkled during my drive from home to work, so why bother (?).
For my “experiment”, I have decided to wear the same shirt and pants everyday for a week. I would stretch this out until somebody said something, but when you factor in the weekends, it doesn’t really work. The shirt of choice is a Calvin Klein polo shirt that I purchased from Ross. It was originally black in color, but repeated washings have left it more of a dark charcoal color. The pants are dark grey pants from the Gap. This is a pants/shirt combo that I have worn many times since I took this job. Coupled with this outfit is a pair of grey Nike trainers that I wear 90% of the time at work. I’ll also be wearing a non-descript black belt and black socks. There is truly nothing special about my outfit.
Monday
I arrive at work at 8:02am and get right to work. So far each coworker that has stopped to talk to me has wanted to discuss their weekend. I can’t really collect data today, so I might as well get some work done. Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to collect data, I took it upon myself to try to get my outfit dirty. I used my shirt and pants as a napkin during lunch and I was always eager to go grab dirty, dusty cardboard boxes from the warehouse.
Tuesday
Today was my first real day to try out my experiment. As of 10am (2 hours into my workday), nobody has noticed. I’m starting to think that I probably won’t have anybody say anything until Friday. Friday is even more casual than Monday-Thursday….we can wear jeans. It’s more likely that people will notice that I’m not wearing jeans than the fact that I have worn the same outfit every day this week. As of 4:30 (punchout time), no one has even looked at my clothing with a skeptical eye.
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Post CommentTim
On April 27, 2008 at 4:12 pm
HAHA, nice work there. I can admit that I did not notice, but to my defense, I have been so tied up back there lately that I wouldn’t have noticed if anybody up front was doing such a think. Rest assured that if I had been sitting up in your neck of the woods, trust me I would have noticed (or at least wondered if you had more than one of the same pieces of clothing). What you might do to test your theory is to try it again and see if it still falls through.
Couple of kudos for doing it though.
Angieb93
On April 29, 2008 at 5:08 pm
That’s hilarious! This proves that most people are so wrapped up in what they do, that they barely have time to notice what’s going on with other people. It’s a clear lesson that we shouldn’t worry about what other people are thinking about us because most likely — they’re not thinking anything at all!
Kudos to you for enduring the funk in the name of science!
Yayan
On May 19, 2008 at 10:29 pm
So. a black outfit is pretty plain and normal. next time you try this maybe you should wear something that is noticeable like a button down with bright noticeable colors or something.