Right now I’m living at home with my folks, so I’m about three miles from the high school I attended. For the most part, I don’t run into many of my classmates - we’ve scattered to the far corners of the globe. (OK, mainly to colleges around Colorado, but put that way it doesn’t seem quite as epic.)

This week, however, is Thanksgiving week, so many of my former classmates are in town. I went to the local watering hole this evening, intent on throwing some darts with my co-workers. Low and behold, the place was packed with fellow alumni! Consequently, I spent a good portion of my evening catching up with old classmates.

I spoke with one friend, Dave, who is about to graduate with a business degree, and he was worried about his prospects for job hunting. We both know that the market is getting tougher out there. One of the positions I just applied for saw me in a record sized applicant pool. I recently heard that another alum recently applied for one position for which there were 200 applicants, or about 199 more than would be getting the job. I’m just relieved that I’m not in the market for a house right now.

Even with this in the back of our minds, the majority of our conversation was the same conversation I had with everyone else this evening. “What have you been up to? Really? School? That’s great. What did you study?…” But at one point, Dave said something I didn’t expect. He said, “People keep asking me what kind of job I want. Right now, I just want the kind that pays money.”

Maybe this stood out for me because it’s the first time I’ve heard someone say something like that instead of telling me his dream job. (When someone asks me, I typically say that my dream job title is “Six Time Lottery Winner and Heavy Weight Champion of the World.”)

Maybe it stood out because I don’t know enough about the economy to know if things are really so bad that intelligent, young folks coming out of college are really going to be struggling that badly. I am certain that we’re not hanging out in the Grapes of Wrath. The simple truth is, despite all the news about this being a massive financial crisis, my life hasn’t changed substantively.

Nonetheless, I am a little wearier about quitting any job right now. If my life does change substantively, I want to be ready. And while I’m still looking for a dream job, I think I would consider some opportunities seriously that I might not have before. I know for sure that Dave will be considering his options.

My first job was working for a Montessori school. The school was set up in the parish hall of a church, and  my job was to go in after school on Friday afternoon and put away all of the school’s furniture so the church could use the space over the weekend. I worked unsupervised and had to make sure I was there every Friday.

So, how did I find my way to this particular position? It was simple: it came to me. I was in the Boy Scouts and the director of the Montessori school dropped by and spoke with the Scoutmaster one night. He said he was looking for someone who was reliable, trustworthy, and hardworking. And he thought that the Scouts could provide a pool of young men who fit that description.

Kudos to him for having that idea! He was right. Not only did he score a good employee (which I say without a trace of modesty because it’s true), he didn’t have to spend long hours on a job search. He didn’t have to pour through resumes or pay craigslist for a posting. He simply had a good idea on where to find someone and made the corresponding connection. I don’t think it gets much easier than that.

At this point, I think readers may have noticed that I am a firm believer in the idea that an employee should be judged by the quality of his work rather than his ability to dress sharply. For those wondering why this topic is so near and dear to my heart, I would like to present this comparison:

This is me my sophomore year of college:

This is me just minutes before a job interview last week:

Same guy! Same work ethic! Same writing skills! Same people skills!  Same devastating inability to smile normally for a picture!

One of the restaurants I worked for had a system that worked well for getting employees to want to wear their uniform. Well, part of it.

For the most part, the uniform code was simple and bland. Wear a collared shirt, tuck it in, wear a belt, blah blah blah. In short, dress was business casual. This always made for a great time trying to explain the mayonnaise stains on my slacks. “I swear I’m not a messy eater! I just work at a restaurant.”

The only thing the uniform seemed to represent was what our bosses felt our customers expected. And while attempting to meet customer expectations is an admirable goal, I often felt that our customers had more important expectations for us to meet. The thought process went something like this: “These guys buying sandwiches want me to tuck in my shirt? See, that’s funny, because every time they talk to me, they’re more concerned about whether or not they have tomatoes on their sandwiches. So, I’ll focus on the tomatoes for now and when everyone is happy with their tomatoes, then I’ll worry about tucking in my shirt.”

Overall, I’m a pretty cooperative guy, so despite my misgivings, I would grudgingly tuck in my shirt. Other employees were less likely to. I’d say the company was batting around .400 on getting employees to tuck in their shirts. And why? If you ask me, it’s because tucking in your shirt doesn’t affect the taste of a sandwich and the employees know it. Try it if you don’t believe me.

There was, however, a different area of the company’s dress code where my guess is they were batting close to .900 on compliance.

At this restaurant there were about six different areas of the restaurant in which we could work. One could make sandwiches, or be a cashier, or a barista, and so on. Once an associate was trained in any of these areas, he would receive a small lapel pin to show that he had completed that training. It was a small piece of recognition that said “Good job.” It was a little bit of bling to show that the company knew you could do your job.

Personally, I thought of the pins as another part of my uniform to lose - I had enough trouble not losing my hat. But to my surprise, many of the young employees loved the pins. They were the only parts of the associate uniform that we had to be sure to keep on order because they were being requested by the associates. This was a part of the uniform that young employees were asking for.

Now, as I’ve said before, if you can make your uniform something that employees want to wear, you’re going to win the war over dress code before it starts. In this case, the little pat on the back that the pin represented was enough to make Gen Whys want to wear their uniforms. How cool is that?

A close friend of mine is serving in the 1st Infantry Division. He’s currently deployed to Afghanistan.

Naturally, before he left, his brother, myself, and another friend wanted to drop in and visit him. So, we spent most of the weekend in Austin, Texas (he was stationed at Ft. Hood), making sure that we squeezed every last bit of enjoyment out of this weekend.

Now, it’s important to note that while my friend is serving his nation, he isn’t Mr. Adherence to Social Norms. He has big tattoos. He likes bar fights. When we worked at a restaurant together, he maintained that working in the service industry will inevitably turn you into a phony.

Imagine my surprise, then, when, sitting in his barracks room at Ft. Hood after a weekend of partying, he began to deliver to us a lesson in the proper placement of the patch that represents his unit. Each soldier, he explained, wears on his left sleeve the patch of the unit in which he is currently serving. After deploying to a combat area, the soldier may then wear his unit patch on his right arm.

As he had not yet been deployed, my friend had only his Big Red 1 patch on his left sleeve. His brother suggested putting the patch on his right arm to see how it looked. (The patches are all Velcro on his uniform, so it’s about a two second procedure.) My friend refused with a zeal I didn’t expect. He said, “Good men have died who didn’t get to do that. There’s no chance I’ll do that.”

The lesson here for employers is that aspects of uniforms that represent more than an arbitrary decision from on high that employees must dress a certain way will lead to employees who are more willing to wear their uniforms correctly. I don’t doubt that the nature of service in the Army contributed to my friend’s passion for proper wear of the uniform. But don’t think that civilian employers need to create a paramilitary environment to create uniforms with meaning. In fact, they don’t even need to create the meaning themselves.

To bring it back to my previous post, meaning is one of the parts of Tokyo Joe’s uniform code that is so appealing to me. In this case, employees who are wearing piercings or tattoos that often have a significant meaning to them are allowed to show them instead of being forced to hide them. In Joe’s uniform, they’re being allowed to share with others a meaning they have created .

The Army creates the meaning of the uniform and expects soldiers to understand this and take pride in the message transmitted as a result of this meaning. Tokyo Joe’s allows employees to create their own meaning and share that with people. In both cases, you can find young people who normally resist fashion requirements wearing their uniforms correctly.

For my first installment on uniforms I want to look at what I consider a company with a great dress code: Colorado-based restaurant chain Tokyo Joe’s.

For those who have never been, Joe’s is a quick-casual Japanese restaurant. However, if you go there expecting a quiet tea-room experience, you’re going to be surprised. They play loud music, restaurants have an edgy sense decor, and the staff are anything but geishas. Rather, they tend to look very punk rock. You know: Piercings. Tattoos. Eye-liner. The whole 9 yards. Their dress code doesn’t seem to discourage this in the least. In fact, the slogan to be found on their hiring website is “The Few. The Proud. The Pierced.”

From what I can see (I’ve never worked there), the dress code basically requires employees to wear black clothes that are suitable for restaurant work. Cashiers wear their own clothes, and sometimes wear company t-shirts. Cooks wear provided jackets so they don’t screw up their clothes. There is even a special uniform for the sushi chef.

This is a great dress code because it lets employees be who they are. While everyone must wear black, there is still some give room in what can be worn. This allows employees to dress to their preference, whether it’s for comfort or style. Maybe even more importantly, no one seems to be required to cover up tattoos or piercings. To me (I’ll come clean here and mention that I have neither tattoos or piercings), this says two things about this company:

1. They’re cool about letting you be who you are. On some level, they recognize that my entire life isn’t built around work and that my wardrobe shouldn’t be either. Whether it’s requiring them to buy a new wardrobe of clothes they would never wear otherwise or forcing them to go to lengths to cover up tattoos they’re proud of, employers making these requests are asking employees to give away a part of who they are to be a part of the company. Joe’s code does the exact opposite. And that has a great appeal.

2. Perhaps of equal importance, this tells employees that their work product is what’s important. If you spend enough time dealing with employees in regards to their appearances, they will begin to wonder if showing up dressed properly is more important than actually doing their jobs. At Joe’s, I think they have a great plan because now the entire focus and energy of the company can be put into performing better.

Now, as an added bonus, the company has managed to build a great brand by allowing, and embracing, the punk rock look.

So, overall, I think this is a great dress code: It’s one I would willingly abide and it helps the company, both in terms of focus and brand.

In my next post, I’m going to look at the entirely opposite side of the uniform spectrum and discuss some of the most effective aspects of the uniforms of a very different organization: The United States Army.

So, Halloween has come and gone.

The candy bowl by your front door is half full and you’re only slightly begrudging the fact that you’ll have to finish off what remains. Your pumpkins are probably already getting a little wilted-looking.  And your costumes are put away until next year. Unless, of course, you have to “dress for success.”

I’ve always thought of dressing for work as dressing in a costume. One day, I’m dressed up to play sandwich maker. The next day, I’m dressed up to play office worker. Either way, I’m not dressed up as TJ.

As someone who typically dresses for comfort, this bothered me because I don’t find it particularly comfortable to tuck in my shirt, wear a belt, shave, or pull off any of the other looks that are generally referred to as “maintaining a professional appearance.” I also know other folks my age who feel some chafing from their uniform codes because they like to dress in a particular fashion that is frowned upon by management.

Whatever the reason, I know that dress codes and appearances are important both to employers and employees. I have also observed that they are a regular source of tension between Gen Whys and their bosses. So, in the next few posts, I’m going to look at some uniform codes and tell you what I see.

I’m going to try to flesh out a recurring theme I see in codes seem to generate less conflict. I’m going to tell you about a few of the less important details I’ve seen managers waste time on. Oh, and I promise I won’t complain about shaving any more than I have to.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions.