Ugly American, Day 6: She had to have been a little chilly

Now just in case you haven't been paying attention over the past few years or just in case you have just joined us, you should know that I am a bonifide, card carrying Redneck. I was born in the wilds of LA (Lower Alabama of course) raised on a farm and spent about 80% of my younger life working and playing outdoors. This, of course, earned me the trade mark farmers tan that inspired the term Redneck in the first place.

Because of this upbringing I am much more comfortable in jeans and a tee shirt (or flannel shirt in the winter) than a suit and tie. As a matter of fact, before we moved to Virginia, I could count the number of times I wore a tie on one hand and have a finger left over to pick my nose. Jeans, T-shirt and a comfy pair of sneakers are all I need to feel comfortable.

Now having said this little biography, I wish to state that even before this move, I was well aware of what “Dressing Business Professional” meant even though I had never had much need to do so. So when I received an invitation for a job interview with a prominent Supermarket chain and was told to dress business professional, I showered, shaved and put on my best suit. Silly me, I expected that when I got the Open House Interview that everyone there would be dressing in like fashions. Boy was I wrong!

So I walk into the waiting area where about twenty people were sitting waiting for their turn with an Interviewer. The first person I saw was a young lady (Term used loosely) who was dressed rather “interestingly.” She was wearing a very tight blouse, a extremely Mini Skirt, high black boots with fuzzy fringes and some sort of dark animal print leotards.

Now folks, I am not criticizing her for her tastes in clothing. No slut shaming or name calling involved. I do admit to a passing thought about exactly what kind of job she was applying for that counted that as business professional, but that is just my warped mind at work. She is free to wear whatever clothing she feels comfortable in where ever she wants.

On the other hand, IF she was applying for any of the management positions being interviewed for ( I am guessing this is the case since all they were interviewing for were high/mid level management positions.) then her dress was highly inappropriate. Most businesses don't want their grunt labor wearing that sort of clothing and certainly don't want their managers dressing that way. It is simply a matter of projecting a proper professional appearance that customers expect. She is free to dress any way she likes when not working, but most companies have pretty strict dress codes.

I ponder all of this because I have seen way to many cases where people dress like crap and then complain unfair treatment when Businesses will not hire them. As management myself, I have oftentimes had to deal with angry employees who came to work dressed like they just came out a strip club from the work entrance. As I grow older and people I work with get younger and younger, I see more of this happening all the time and it boggles my mind.

“Dress for success” and “Dress for the kind of job you want” are old sayings but still seem true to me. If your only goal is to be a fry tender at Wendy's for the rest of your life, then you can probably get away with dressing ever the heck you want. If you want to have a job with any sort of respect or future, you prolly wanna leave the vinyl mini skirt and animal print hose at home.

Ugly American, Day Five: Perceived Insults

Use yer nose instead.

So there is a really popular poster running around social media sites right now that starts its long numerical rant about what's wrong with Merrica (Bacon Guns GOD!) with the line “We have to press one for English” or something along those lines. The list goes on and on after that, but every time I see that first line, I am struck with the notion of just how impossibly sensitive people in the country have become to perceived slights or insults about them and their beliefs. It has become almost some sort of mania. “OH MY GAWD, THEM THERE FOLKS ARE ATTACKING THE MERRICAN WAY!”

I reminded of something I heard someone talking about last year. She ranted on and on because a website she visited had the US of A all the way down at the bottom of the list where you pick the country you live in. She ranted about how the US should be at the top of the list. She completely ignored the fact that it was an international website AND the list was in alphabetical order. She was to busy being insulted than to actually think about the subject.

Along the same lines is this moronic thing going around that makes the assumption that people saying “Happy Holidays” is somehow an attack against Christmas. The rants go on and on about how this is some new attack on the Sanctity of Christmas by them there other people who hate Santa and Trees. Never mind that saying Happy Holidays is nothing even remotely new and never mind that there are quite a few holidays right around that same time. (Hanukkah, Kwanza, Yule...any I left out?) This idea that this time of the year is devoted to Christmas is silly especially considering most scholars believe that if Christ lived he was more than likely born in the Spring not Winter?

People have become so insanely sensitive to any perceived threat to what they believe that they instantly go up in arms the moment they think that anyone might be working against them. They take their extremely narrow minded views and make them gospel. They take recent ideas and events and devoutly believe that what they feel is the way the things have always been.

People need to grow up and maybe just maybe get a little bit of maturity. They need to stop automatically feeling offended just because people express beliefs that don't agree with theirs. Despite what so many people seem to believe, America is not and never has been a nation of one single belief, culture or religion. From the very earliest days, America has been made up of dozens of cultures and many races with their own beliefs. “Americans” don't all speak English as their primary language. “Americans” aren't all Christians. Christians don't get to pick and chose the practices and traditions that everyone has to abide by.

America is a rich cultural garden with a wide variety of faiths, beliefs and cultures. It is high time we stopped being offended and started enjoying all of it. If nothing else, be danged happy that English is #1 when you press buttons. Could be 5^th behind French and Swahili.

End of Rant