A while back, the company I work for had a food drive. To encourage participation, people who gave a certain amount of nonperishable foodstuffs received "Dress Down" cards. The more food you donated, the more cards you got. Each one was good for one day of, you guessed it, "Dressing Down." The cards were handily the same size as the corporate id/magnetic entry cards that everyone who works here has, and certain people display on their belts or lapels. If you woke up in the morning and discovered you couldn't stand another day with your legs trapped within twin tubes of khaki tyranny, you could put on jeans and slip your "Dress Down" card into the plastic sheath already carrying your well-displayed id card.
Now, I already have a problem with the suspect fashion choice of hanging anything on your belt (excepting live fauna), but the idea that you need to openly display proper identification and documentation justifying non-homogenous clothing choices seems, well, a bit Reich-Flavored. It's not like we have jackbooted sentries in the halls that constantly question our legitamacy (that's more of a family thing). No one really cares.
And yet most of the people still wear those little badges on their belts. Even more unfortunately, it's been a month now since most of our departments adopted a five-day "casual friday," letting everyone know they can wear jeans to work whenever they want, and there's one guy who still occasionally displays one of those sad little "Dress Down Day" cards. I don't get it. Is he worried that it's all a joke? That the harpies in HR set the whole scheme up to some day swoop down on the staff and rend the flesh from everyone in jeans? Or is he just unwilling to give up that precious prize they won seven months ago for parting with his entire stock of pork and beans? Hard to say. He might just be accessorizing. The card is a delightful shade of pale blue.
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