An Experiment in the Office

In a society where it is theoretically impossible to maintain complete anonymity, I have decided to test that theory. I'm not going to go completely off of the grid or anything. I just want to test my coworker's sense of observation.

I have worked for my company for 8 months. I work in an office with 18 employees that are in the office daily and another 8 that are in the office at least 2 days a week. The dress code is business casual and there are not any real repercussions associated with minor variance. I choose to stick with the traditional polo style shirt and conservative pants. I, however, refuse to let an iron or dry cleaner touch them. The way I see it, my clothes are going to get wrinkled during my drive from home to work, so why bother (?).

For my “experiment”, I have decided to wear the same shirt and pants everyday for a week. I would stretch this out until somebody said something, but when you factor in the weekends, it doesn't really work. The shirt of choice is a Calvin Klein polo shirt that I purchased from Ross. It was originally black in color, but repeated washings have left it more of a dark charcoal color. The pants are dark grey pants from the Gap. This is a pants/shirt combo that I have worn many times since I took this job. Coupled with this outfit is a pair of grey Nike trainers that I wear 90% of the time at work. I'll also be wearing a non-descript black belt and black socks. There is truly nothing special about my outfit.

Monday

I arrive at work at 8:02am and get right to work. So far each coworker that has stopped to talk to me has wanted to discuss their weekend. I can't really collect data today, so I might as well get some work done. Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to collect data, I took it upon myself to try to get my outfit dirty. I used my shirt and pants as a napkin during lunch and I was always eager to go grab dirty, dusty cardboard boxes from the warehouse.

Tuesday

Today was my first real day to try out my experiment. As of 10am (2 hours into my workday), nobody has noticed. I'm starting to think that I probably won't have anybody say anything until Friday. Friday is even more casual than Monday-Thursday….we can wear jeans. It's more likely that people will notice that I'm not wearing jeans than the fact that I have worn the same outfit every day this week. As of 4:30 (punchout time), no one has even looked at my clothing with a skeptical eye.

Wednesday

So far the day is business as usual. No one has even noticed the dog hair all over my shirt. I'm thinking that there are maybe 2 people that might notice. One is the young admin on the other side of the office. We swap emails and see each other maybe 3 times a day, but she seems to be fairly observant. We'll see. I'm also thinking that the woman in accounts receivable might notice. Considering that she has 2 blouses that look identical and occasionally wears them on consecutive days, she may/may not say anything if she does notice. Oh and a late entry. We just had a new receptionist start. She doesn't have much to do other than look around and try to learn people's names, so she could possibly ruin my experiment.

Thursday

I decided to jazz it up today. I wore some black/red/grey argyle socks that stick out like a sore thumb. My experiment keeps on going. On my way out of the door today, I had some yellow wafer cookies. They left a nice mess all over my shirt that I was sure that people would notice. No luck. I have also resorted to intentionally touching my shirt and pants to try to garner more attention. Whenever anybody is talking to me, I now fidget with the button on my shirt or rub my hands on my legs as if I'm trying to wipe dirt onto my pants.

Friday

Today is the last day of my experiment. I know I could probably keep it going, but with the weekend on the horizon, it's not going to matter. Today is the first day that I'm starting to notice that my shirt has developed a big of a funky smell. Unfortunately, I don't get close enough to anybody that they can catch a whiff. As of right now, none of my theories are coming to fruition. Nobody has noticed that I'm not wearing jeans. This is also the first day that I have risked jinxing myself. I made the mistake of telling people on Thursday night what I'm doing.

Conclusion

My experiment has finished. Just as I expected, nobody noticed. I didn't even get a second look. So it is now safe to say that in the course of my work week, nobody in my office of 25+ employees would notice if I wore the same thing each day. This has made me wonder if I would be able to notice if someone else were to try this same experiment. So I am encouraging anyone to try this in their workplace (this does not include those who wear a standardized uniform) and let me know the results. I have posted my gallery of daily pics  here if anybody would like to see them.