For the first time in any number of months, Dennis has had to pay a service call to the lady down the road who considers him the household CTO. He was getting ready to leave and obviously in "seek" mode. Having done a bit of hardware support, I assumed Dennis couldn't find his electrostatic-proof wrist-strap, or at least wanted to borrow my set of mini-screwdrivers.
Silly me. He was actually (semi-feverishly) looking for the receipt book she had given him for such jobs. Why? Because she's owned a business for a heckuvalotta years, and receipts are just part of How Things Are Done, Darnitlalready.
On consideration, it's like how one of the guyzos in the Linux User's Group described professional credibility: "You have to be from out of town. Oh, and carry a briefcase or a tool-box."
Or maybe like when my uncle (who worked for the IBM in the 70s) and I (who worked at IBM in the early 00s) compared notes on the "evolution" in dress code. (Me: "So I'm lookin' at this guy in his tie-dye t-shirt with the pony-tail hanging outta the baseball cap and I'm thinkin' 'Whoa, duuuuude...this is *not* your father's IBM." Uncle: "Yeah, Once in awhile I'd see somebody like that I'd I'd think, 'Either you're *reeeeeally* good--or you're on your way out.'")
Or even like one of the "old timers" in my dept. described the pre-Gerstner era, when IBM manufactured products--in the U.S.A., no less--that (gasp!) actual mortals were even allowed to touch. Which roughly coincided with the era when white shirts and ties were de rigueur for hardware techs making onsite service calls.
Personally, I never understood how dooming a clean white shirt to ink/toner was supposed to add brand credibility. But that's apparently just How Things Were Done, Darnitalready. Which, I suppose, means that it all boils down to a question of signalling. Problem is, by the time The Powers That Be agree on the official semaphore for whatever trait it's supposed to embody (professionalism, loyalty, dedication, etc.), it could very well be passe. Or--infinitely worse--a metric to be gamed.
Moral of the story: Interpret your signals wisely.
