When did they stop teaching this?

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

Please allow a good old fashioned grip session.

I'm the editor and publisher of two small newspapers - 8 employees. I'm in the process of looking for a new classifieds representative and a part-time sports writer.

When did they, whoever "they" are, stop teaching people how to dress for an interview?

Thus far I have interviewed a total of 11 people for the two jobs and not one was dressed in a manner that I'd deem was trying to impress me. One guy, NO LIE, was dressed like he walked in from the beach.

I know we are a coastal community and very laid back, but come on. Are kaki's and a nice shirt too much to expect? I have had shorts, jeans, sandals and a string of untucked shirts and I'm about to scream.

I don't know what to do, but this is clearly a pet peeve of mine.

Sorry all...and thank you for the rant.

[Christa M. Miller]

They're the same people who would quit without giving you two weeks' notice. Just call in sick one day and never return. (That's my personal pet peeve, and I'm not even an employer.)

[LJ Roberts]

As one who has hired quite a few people in my career, it does seem to have become more of a problem. If I interview someone I think might have that for which I'm looking, I'm honest with them and tell them I may be interested but their dress is not appropriate for the position. I will then schedule another interview and see if they got the point. My other personal irritant is when someone, man or woman, has no idea how to shake hands properly. I was raised with what was termed to us as "the good, old Methodist handshake." It's the first thing I emphasize when I do hire someone and I test them on it periodically.

[Christa M. Miller]

There's a proper way to shake hands? All I know is you're not supposed to have a dead fish grip....

[Bill Mehlman]

I'm going to attempt to say this without having it appear to be an outright flamejob. I completely understand that posting in venues like this one doesn't demand perfect, thrice-written, twice-edited prose. Nonetheless, when anyone, especially an editor, puts up a screed like this, with the misspellings, bad grammar and poor syntax, it shows very little respect for his audience. We're all involved with language, either as a vocation or an avocation, and I find it very difficult to take writing like this seriously, especially when the subject is the poor manners and bad judgment of other people.

Sorry, Clay. I've been sitting on this all day, and I didn't see any reason to refrain from these ad hoc, as opposed to ad hominem, remarks.

[Tom Cain]

Damned if I can see what was wrong with the original post, bar a missing 'h' in khakis. Here's a simple truth about online forums - people write fast, they don't worry too much about proof-reading and they express themselves pretty much as they would speak, not as they would write a formal document. Some people don't seem to understand this.

As for Clay's original point, I think it's completely valid. It seems to me - as an aged 48 year-old - that the concept of propriety has been lost. In other words, people don't grasp that different situations demand particular modes of dress, behaviour, speech, whatever. People are brought up much more to think of themselves first and foremost, so their 'right' to behave exactly as they wish, no matter what, supercedes any amount of social convention or - and this is the crucial point - consideration for others. By moderating our own desires or individuality to conform to social expectations, we acknowledge that others have rights, that communities have their own rules and mores and that we respect those conventions.

Luckily, however, society has its own ways of fighting back. So when some snotty little toe-rag turns up to an interview looking like a beach-bum, his/her prospective employer is still at liberty to give the job to someone else ... or even to sat, 'The hell with the shorts and the sandals, this kid is so friggin' talented I'm gonna hire them anyway' ... which is the only way a slob like me ever got hired, that's for sure!

[Bill Mehlman]

I'm actually in agreement with the point of Clay's posting. Entirely. But I get equally miffed reading posts that the author doesn't seem to have spent thirty seconds reading before he hit the "Add Your Reply" button.

I'm not going to grip about this any more, however.

What's a toe-rag, Tom?

[Tom Cain]

A toe-rag is a nasty little Limey creature, somewhat equivalent to an American douche-bag or slime-ball!

[Bill Mehlman]

Got it. Here's more: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-toe1.htm

[Pepper Smith]

LOL! I was going to ask what he was gripping...