An Experiment in the Office
by I made my coworkers the subject of an experiment that tested a long suspected theory.
Wednesday
So far the day is business as usual. No one has even noticed the dog hair all over my shirt. I’m thinking that there are maybe 2 people that might notice. One is the young admin on the other side of the office. We swap emails and see each other maybe 3 times a day, but she seems to be fairly observant. We’ll see. I’m also thinking that the woman in accounts receivable might notice. Considering that she has 2 blouses that look identical and occasionally wears them on consecutive days, she may/may not say anything if she does notice. Oh and a late entry. We just had a new receptionist start. She doesn’t have much to do other than look around and try to learn people’s names, so she could possibly ruin my experiment.
Thursday
I decided to jazz it up today. I wore some black/red/grey argyle socks that stick out like a sore thumb. My experiment keeps on going. On my way out of the door today, I had some yellow wafer cookies. They left a nice mess all over my shirt that I was sure that people would notice. No luck. I have also resorted to intentionally touching my shirt and pants to try to garner more attention. Whenever anybody is talking to me, I now fidget with the button on my shirt or rub my hands on my legs as if I’m trying to wipe dirt onto my pants.
Friday
Today is the last day of my experiment. I know I could probably keep it going, but with the weekend on the horizon, it’s not going to matter. Today is the first day that I’m starting to notice that my shirt has developed a big of a funky smell. Unfortunately, I don’t get close enough to anybody that they can catch a whiff. As of right now, none of my theories are coming to fruition. Nobody has noticed that I’m not wearing jeans. This is also the first day that I have risked jinxing myself. I made the mistake of telling people on Thursday night what I’m doing.
Conclusion
My experiment has finished. Just as I expected, nobody noticed. I didn’t even get a second look. So it is now safe to say that in the course of my work week, nobody in my office of 25+ employees would notice if I wore the same thing each day. This has made me wonder if I would be able to notice if someone else were to try this same experiment. So I am encouraging anyone to try this in their workplace (this does not include those who wear a standardized uniform) and let me know the results. I have posted my gallery of daily pics here if anybody would like to see them.
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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.