From the Take It For What It's Worth Department
An appealing portrait this is not. According to a survey of 1,000 office workers conducted by e-mail and Web hosting company Intermedia.NET, your handy-dandy IT professional is:
(2012’s 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries)
- Twice as likely as his non-geek co-workers to believe that any list of proper business attire includes the heavy-metal T-shirt — yes, still;
- 34% more likely than the so-called “normal” employee to favor a ponytail, although the survey didn’t differentiate between male and female coiffures.
- Twice as likely to carry a Leatherman and/or Maglite (which to be fair are not standard issue for your typical bean counter or paper pusher);
- And, a whopping 63% more likely to sport a pair of those spiffy black jeans.
This is all standard geek-stereotype stuff, of course, however unflattering, outdated or unfair.
But there was one last nugget from the survey that should give everyone pause next time they pass their favorite IT guy in the hallway: “IT workers are 32% less likely to wear clean clothes every day of the week than business managers.”
Now, people, there’s simply no excuse for coming to work in yesterday’s duds, with the possible exception of having spent last night in a bed other than your own — and we all know that the IT guy with the Megadeath T-shirt, Maglite and Brillo-pad of a ponytail isn’t getting any outside of his Web browser.
Man, I hope the fellas in our IT department can take a joke.
