Monday, November 09, 2009

SEx 101: The Formal Attire Syndrome

Just to inform you, SEx 101 stands for Social EXperiments 101. It's just another crazy section name for my blog. I just had an idea of doing some experiments with people and checking how they will react at a particular event or scenario.

2 weeks ago, there was an internal hiring for a higher position in our office. It's like another job interview, but only within the department. You will know who applied for the vacant position since most of them wear a formal dress code during their interview.

My team mate, Jeff dared me to wear something formal the next day to see how people will react if they saw me in that attire. I told myself, why not? I just recently bought a knitted vest last weekend just in case the need arise to wear something formal.

So I did wear a formal attire the following day and due to my excitement I lost my card holder, which holds all of my ATM card and other ID's (see the story on the other blog entry) in a cab on my way to office.

This is what the people from office did upon seeing me:
- 2 people asked me what time will I be interviewed;
- 1 team mate wish me luck;
- 5 people noticed my dress code and asked what's the occassion;
- 2 of those people concluded that I am for interview;
- Most of other people just noticed the attire and did not ask why;
- Only 3 out of 10 managed to asked if I applied for the position;

With this experimental activity I have concluded that many people tend to jump into conclusion without asking question. Only few asked me if I have applied for the position. Most of them assumed I am scheduled for interview that day.

It only reminded me what our director have mentioned a week ago during a meeting, "We do not have a crystal ball to know all what you are thinking. If you have questions do not hesitate to ask. If you don't ask, we will be just full of assumptions."

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