Casually Corporate

Suits are optional at my workplace. The dress code is the somewhat ambiguous ‘corporate casual’.

As far as I can tell this means (for men) to wear something approximating a suit, but the tie is optional and it doesn’t really matter if your jacket doesn’t match.

For lazy people like me it’s a bonanza. I can spend that extra two minutes saved by not putting on a tie every morning doing something constructive. Like sleeping in for an extra two minutes.

However, circumstances sometimes call for a more formal mode of dress. Like meeting with clients. Or going to job interviews.

Actually, that’s a bit of a running gag. If someone turns up wearing a tie who normally doesn’t, that’s the first question: “job interview then?”

(Admittedly it’s become slightly less amusing in these fraught and redundancy-laden times).

But over the last couple of days I’ve had my own reason to be donning the tie and matching jacket. We’re seeking a replacement for one of my team who rudely found a better job more in keeping with his career goals a few weeks ago.

So I’m sitting in a room, playing serious manager-type, and asking the same inane questions of candidates over and over again.

“Why are you interested in this role?”

“What is your previous experience?”

“Can you tell me about a time when . . . (insert difficult professional dilemma here).”

And when colleagues see me in the suit and tie and say “job interview then?” . . . I say yes.