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"Professionalism" gets used as a rhetorical tool to lump aesthetics into the same category as qualities that effect job performance. Once they're in the same c
by forgottenpass 12y ago
"Professionalism" gets used as a rhetorical tool to lump aesthetics into the same category as qualities that effect job performance. Once they're in the same category, the irrelevant things steal creditability from the important ones. (And because society doesn't exist in a vacuum, they might even become self-fulfilling prophecies)
Remeber Bobak Ferdowsi? The NASA guy with a mohawk?
[...] you know, too unprofessional to be selling tickets at a railway
station but reliable enough for landing robots on Mars. [0]
[0] http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/blogs/work-in-progress/unshaven-unprofessional-mohawk-no-worries-20120809-23xjk.html http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/blogs/work-in-progress/...
- fennecfoxen 12y agoEh. Different professions have different needs. If you're in a profession where you need to interact with a broad variety of human beings in a positive way, then having a haircut which is designed to draw attention to yourself by boldly and deliberately flouting social conventions, it may be a problem. You're being paid to make the customers happy and their interactions straightforward, not to challenge their conventions and ways of thinking. If you're in a position where you need to work closely with your fellow employees and a computer, that's different. Approaching things unconventionally and thinking outside the box could very well be a NASA scientist's chief virtue.
- afarrell 12y agoI suspect that a salesman would give others pause if he was near-obsessively washing his hands. Not so with a surgeon.
- watwut 12y agoWhile a I agree with you up to the point, the word "professionalism" is often used to construct social convention around a rule that did not existed previously or is not strong. I am talking about a situation where the society do not care much, but the person using the word "professionalism" does and wants us to force it on others.
- enraged_camel 12y agoAnd yet we have hordes of white collar workers who never interact with customers face-to-face, but are still expected to come into the office in business or business casual clothing. After a certain period, you start to understand that "proper business attire" has nothing to do with customer interactions and everything to do with providing yet another avenue for bosses to exert control over their workers.
- gnopgnip 12y agoHow you present yourself has a very real effect on how you perform. When you stay in pajamas and a t shirt all day you are holding yourself back.
- moron4hire 12y agoI barely put pants on most days and I'm making more now than I ever did when I was shaving and wearing a suit.
- collyw 12y agoAssuming you are something along the lines of a freelance software developer, would you visit clients undressed like that?
- moron4hire 12y agoOf course not. Why would I ever visit my clients?
- collyw 12y agoFace to face contact can be useful to clarify things.
- moron4hire 12y agoOnly if they are bad communicators. And then you either lose any record of what was discussed or you have to write notes, which will have to be clear without human interaction anyway, so why not just write that email and draw those diagrams and save everyone the trouble from the start? I firmly believe meetings are a waste of time.
- x0x0 12y agoI'd say rather "professionalism" is a way for people to deride behavior they choose not to like and attempt to escape justifying their derision.