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Do all the male members of this forum wear suits?
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Yes, always wear a suit and tie when going to see clients.

At my previous firm some of the partners would go along without a tie, but personally I think if you are charging someone a fee the least you can do is wear a tie.

Clients however are a whole different story, some wear a suit, some wear jeans and a t-shirt.  But then they are paying so I couldn't really care less what they wear.

 



-- Edited by Paul on Sunday 10th of February 2013 07:51:36 PM

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I've never been a suit person - weddings, funerals, court appearances only for me.

Do others wear a suit when visiting clients or at work generally? Or is shirt and tie acceptable? I've never even been a tie person either but I've ended up buying more ties in the last three weeks than the previous 47 years.



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I always wear a suit and tie even when not seeing clients.

I think that it's a work mindset that one dresses for the role.


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Shaun

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I always wear suit and tie on first meeting with a client. After that it depends on what I think makes the client feel more comfortable and that's more of an art than a science. As a rule, I'm more likely to wear jeans and T shirt when meetings subbies than, say, graphic designers.

I can see Shamus's point about getting into the right mindset, but as I work from home I would feel silly wearing a whistle when I have no meetings scheduled.

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From a ladies perspective (hehehehe) I like a man in a suit! :)



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I'm with Fred, I generally wear a suit for at least the first meeting. After that it depends.

I got some shirts embroidered early on in my business and tend to wear them, without a tie. I never wear a tie unless I'm going to court.

I once heard someone say "how intelligent is it to start your day by putting a noose round your neck". I always find it a pointless piece of attire.

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I've always been a bit weird when it comes to clothes. I was sent home from school one day (when I was meant to sit an exam) for wearing bondage trousers. I stopped wearing jeans when I was about 16 or 17 and didn't wear jeans again until I was over 40. And for no apparent reason I find myself sitting here on my own on a Sunday night watching TV wearing a shirt and tie. Why? Don't ask me. I think I'm going through a tie phase.

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Sonia, is that their birthday suit!!! Lol

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Amanda



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I have worked in some cleints premises where you really wouldn't want to wear your best sunday suit, if you ever wanted to wear it again.

A lot depends on the client but i think you should always wear a suit on the first meeting until you assess them.

Mostly i would just wear my casual clothes, especially those clients where i let myself in and out and wouldnt see anyone.

There are times though where you are working in a situation where the clients' clients will be there so you have to look professional.



-- Edited by NickCraggs on Monday 11th of February 2013 12:42:50 PM

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Spamkebab wrote:

Tee hee 'male members' Tee Hee.


 Someone had to say it, and it had to be you Neil, didn't it  smile

For me I wear suit for first meeting, then dress for the day after that. Some of my clients are not in smart offices (ones in a quarry), and I feel that some clients do not feel comfortable with me wearing a suit.

If I was going to a meeting that would involve negotiations, I would always wear suit, as they have a psychological on the other party. Went on one of those weird training course a few years ago, when I was in employment, that was all about personal image in business. Never had much use for it but a couple of things made sense

Bill

Edit: Just wanted to add on the subject of work clothing. Why have jeans (even Levis) got so thin in the last ten years? I know Levi changed there looms a few years back. If you want decent heavy denim jeans now you have to pay about £200 to get them from Japan (who bought tyhe origianl Levi looms)



-- Edited by Wella on Monday 11th of February 2013 06:29:01 PM

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Tee hee 'male members' Tee Hee.

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Always wear a suit and tie when either seeing a client or in the office.  Probably comes from habit having worked in CA offices for 15 years. (in fact just ordered another 3 shirts today)

Only time dont wear one is if in office at weekend.

I am with Shaun in that you feel more at "work" when you wear your tie and collar.  Whenever I was in practice and was a dress down day it always felt different.

Regards

Mark



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I do agree with your Mark, its abit like women wearing make-up. I always wear make-up, not always loads of it, but wouldn't go to see a client without it on, it just makes you feel better and more professional.

A client asked me to drop some paperwork off on the way to the beach, I was on holiday and had hubby and kids in car, well I was dressed for the beach, I had 3/4 jeans on, t-shirt and flip flops, now I wouldn't usually dress like that but he is one of my best clients and didn't mind that I was on the way to the beach, he was very appreciative that I was able to drop the paperwork off. Hes more interested in the work and service I give rather than how I am dressed. Hes normally got jeans and t-shirt on.



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Amanda



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Amanda wrote:

I do agree with your Mark, its abit like women wearing make-up. I always wear make-up, not always loads of it, but wouldn't go to see a client without it on, it just makes you feel better and more professional.


You've definitely got it easier when it comes to what you wear. More choice. 



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I have no dress sense whatsoever. I have turned up at events, gatherings and do's in the wrong attire most of my life. I never seem to get the gist of casual, smart casual etc.

So last year i purchased my first ever couple of suits. I intend to stick with wearing a suit for all events bookkeeping and accounts related (most of which would be interviews anyway) and try and get as many weddings, christenings etc in as i can.

Going to get my moneys worth. I think i might just be able to squeeze in them after the Christmas feasts.


Bill, for a forum full of people i consider extremely smart, you lot sure do miss some beautiful opportunities lol.

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Plus Neil, of course there's the other cost effective bonus that the store detectives don't home in on the people wearing suits so if you absolutely have to steal a can of beans from Tesco's, wear Armani.

... Mmm, invest in a £1200 suit to steal 60p can of beans... I see the business equivalent of that almost every day in the sets of books that cross my desk.


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Nice to hear you prefer Heinz over supermarket branded products Shaun lol.

Some things (sauces, beans, soups etc) cannot be replaced by supermarket own brands no matter how skint i am.

Ohhh i can feel the floor slipping away beneath my feet........................

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Peasie wrote:
Amanda wrote:

I do agree with your Mark, its abit like women wearing make-up. I always wear make-up, not always loads of it, but wouldn't go to see a client without it on, it just makes you feel better and more professional.


You've definitely got it easier when it comes to what you wear. More choice. 


Wadda ya mean peasie...

We can get black suits from Armani

We can get black suits from Calvin Klien

We can get black suits from Hugo Boss

We can get black suits from Jeff Banks

We can get black suits from Givenchy

We can get black suits from Vivienne Westwood

We can get black suits from Gucci

We can get black suits from Paul Smith

We can get black suits from Versace

and all the way down to black suits from Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda....

... And you say that we have no choice! lol



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Shamus wrote:
and all the way down to black suits from Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda....

... And you say that we have no choice! lol


There have been times when I have looked at what I was wearing and realised the only thing that didn't have "George" on the label was my shoes. I don't think Asda cater for size 13. I was in Asda on Sunday to waste a bit of time. I visit Dad in one hospital in the afternoon. Mum is in another one about ten minutes away but because of the timing there is a gap of about 50 minutes to waste between visiting time in one and visiting time in the other. So I visit Asda in that time to waste some minutes. Can't stay away from the stationery department. So I've been buying ties every week. I bought two box files last week @ £2.00 each. I was going to buy another one this week but the price had gone up to £2.50. The funny things is, if it had been £2.50 last week I would still have bought two. The reason for this rambling piece is in relation to the bit aboiut stealing tine of beans wearing Armani suits. Because I was basically just in wasting time and I  didn't have much in my basket I thought I looked like a shoplifter. At one point I pulled at my ear lobe and then rememberd the program on tv about pickpockets and that's what they do to signal to others in the team. I was getting paranoid that I might be being watched on CCTV cameras - so I started looking about for them. And looking more suspicious as a result.

I did notice the "male members" bit when I started this thread and I was thinking to myself how else can I word it. I considered "male forum members" but then I thought people would think I was trying too hard to avoid using "male members".



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LOL @ pulling you ear lobe Peasie, I thought that was a poker players 'tell' didn't know shoplifters worked that way too.

Imagine John McCririck shoplifting?

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Spamkebab wrote:

LOL @ pulling you ear lobe Peasie, I thought that was a poker players 'tell' didn't know shoplifters worked that way too.

Imagine John McCririck shoplifting?


It was pickpockets that used that method - I just happened to be shopping at the time. 



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Every time that I go in Asda (at least twice a week) no matter what else I buy, I head to the stationary isle and get a pack of 100 6*4 index cards (£1). When I go to Tesco (2-3 times a week) I do the same with 100 5*3 index cards for the same price.

You would think that by now I would be drowning under a sea of index cards but I think that the fairies must be away with them at night as no matter how many I buy I always seem to be running low.

5*3's are for memory decks where there's a short question on one side and short answer on the other (i.e IAS37 (front of card), Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets (back of card).
6*4's are for proper questions, (i.e. taxpayer has £X income, gifts shares of £X to charity, Building society interest of £X, Dividends of £X, loan interest of £X for investment in a close company What is the tax liability. Then have the full answer on the reverse)

Also, I never throw index cards away. If I mess them up or they go out of date and they are beyond tippex (as with the tax example above) then I just use them as bookmarks the way you do with the milk bottle tops.

On the shoplifting front my boy has a terrible habit of getting really close to the shelf when looking at things the way shoplifters do when slipping things in their coats without the CCTV seeing it and that makes me really paranoid that the store detectives are going to descend on us.

I think that "Male Forum Members" would have sounded more like the appealing to the problem page from a girlie mag, lol.

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Shamus wrote:

Every time that I go in Asda (at least twice a week) no matter what else I buy, I head to the stationary isle and get a pack of 100 6*4 index cards (£1). When I go to Tesco (2-3 times a week) I do the same with 100 5*3 index cards for the same price.


I saw them (In Asda) and because they were so cheap was going to buy them. But I couldn't think what I would use them for. Picked them up a couple of times as well just wanting my brain to come up with a use for them. Probably won't get them now as I don't need to go to Asda now. Dad is getting home after 35 weeks in hospital. I di but a sort of minature ringbinder that has those cards in - 75p. 



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Any colour shirt, tie, trousers and feel undressed without a waistcoat - I wear one more often than the jacket.

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I got one of those ring binders although I paid £1.50 for that.

Not used it at all as after buying it the thought occurred to me that one would be sequence learning and the key to driving home the knowledge is shuffling the deck after every use.

I'll notch that one up to being one of my cheaper brilliant ideas that cam to nothing (most expensive to date was a Psion series 7 that I eventually swapped almost unused for a HP Jornada which went totally unused.

Well, at least I've got the index card ring binder now for if I do ever think of anything that I need to learn sequentially.

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Don Tax wrote:

Any colour shirt, tie, trousers and feel undressed without a waistcoat - I wear one more often than the jacket.


Agreed except that none of the buttons do up on mine anymore!

Time to hit the gym methinks

 

 



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Shaun

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hahaa yes, I have one of those. Nothing to do with the 60p beans I've got stashed inside 'onest guv.

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Very rarely wear a suit anymore. Smart jeans or trousers with jumper in the winter. I have branded polo's for the summer.

The main reason for not wearing a suit is that I don't want to mislead that meeting. If I am going to be casual thereafter it seems a bit pointless.


The last time I wore one was when I did a group presentation for someone else. The only other occasion would be where I am occasionally doing some client facing consultancy for aNother firm of accountants.

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Hi

I always wear a suit when working at a clients premises, having a meeting or going to a networking event. Having always worked in accountancy offices I guess it is something that I have always done so it has become a habit, plus I feel that it help project the right sort of image (it's almost as if people expect you to wear a suit).

I remember being told a by a client once that their receptionist (who'd never seen me before) recognised me as the accountant the moment they saw me walking across the car park.

When I'm in the office I always wear a shirt & jumper with a pair of jeans, unless I know someone is going to be calling

Mark

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To answer the original question: No, abso-frelling-lutely not. My normal attire is a pair of cargo pants (or jeans, but only if I've been too lazy to do the washing so I have no clean cargos) with a t-shirt in summer, and a jumper or sweatshirt in winter. And I only shave on average once per week - doing that every morning is just too much like hard work.

Yes, even on the rare occasion that I'm meeting a client for the first time.

If someone looks at how I'm dressed and draws from some idiotic stereotype and assumes from it that I'm somehow incapable of doing the job, then sod them: they aren't the type of person I want to work for anyway.

(It's almost as if I'm trying to put people off so I don't have to do too much work, isn't it?)

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Afterthought: Pretty much as I appear in the profile picture, except I only wear the hat when I'm off walking in the mountains or wherever.

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VinceH wrote:

I only wear the hat when I'm off walking in the mountains


yer right.

I've got you pegged as the gunslinger from Westworld Vince, lol.

With me the issue does not come down to what the client expects me to wear but rather what I expect me to wear.

If I wore jeans I would feel that I was not showing a client the respect that they deserve.

Also the suit lets it be known that you are serious (well, unless it's a Tesco's 19.99 one in which instance jeans would have been a better call).

The above said, I've worked in IT departments where the one not in a suit is the one that you need to listen to as anyone who doesn't care whether they are fired as they know that there are half a dozen companies just waiting to hire them is to be respected.

So in a way, they are not wearing a suit as a suit. (that probably makes sense only in my little world but I know what I mean).



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Hey... I have hair under that hat - Yul Brynner didn't!

It may be receding slightly, but there's definitely hair there!

Oh, and it's an 'Australian Outback Hat' - so wrong continent. :p

But back to the topic at hand: things like "the suit lets it be known that you are serious" - that's just part of the stereotype, but as seen from the wearer's perspective, or possibly bowing to it, depending on how you look at it.

I suppose, though, that being a fully fledged geek, I'm more like the IT types you describe than anything else, even though I've ended up doing this sort of work to pay the bills.

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