I was on a contract for the government when my company hired a really good DBA. He hated dressing up. He was introduced at a meeting and wore a polo shirt, which I thought was fairly professional.
Government contracting guy said to wear a tie.
Next meeting, he wore a tie around his polo shirt.
He was fired on the spot.
There are times I fucking hate the government and this was one of those times.
The guy was fucking amazing. But my company fired him because the government didn’t want someone so sloppy on the team.
Honestly no database admin is anywhere near that level of “fuck you” influence in any organization. We are more talking about the guy whose name is on all the patents and who is putting together the tech demos which win the big money contracts.
That’s ridiculous. I’ve worked as a government contractor for almost 15 years and the most strict I’ve seen the dress code be is “no shorts, collared shirt required.” Hell, at some sites I’ve worked the dress code has been basically “wear clothes.”
I’ve been to meetings where the only people not wearing printed tee shirts were the military members who had to be in uniform.
Government sites are garbage for a lot of reasons, mostly due to old people not understanding how the Internet works and they’d rather build a camel than a horse.
Plus on many occasions they go with the lowest bidder for the sake of appearances. I remember a company I used to work for went with a very unrealistic low bid to get their foot in the door and then get the maintenance contract that came after implementation.
The project went as well as you’d expect with such a low budget. Experienced people left due to long working hours, unrealistic client expectations and no budget for any quality of life improvements available (I was one of them). The company lost the maintenance bid and will likely lose the best people they still have to the new company taking over the contract.
Government contracting is a fucking racket. Especially at federal level because the government is allowed to go over the contract budget by I think 25% so every fucking company that bids knows they are going to get that amount more than their bid.
Not only that, but because of how the procurement process works, they aren’t going to rebid the contract if you mess up.
Contractors don’t save the government any money. It privatizes government functions and makes a few people rich while taking away good jobs and benefits.
Those same government agencies then turn around and hire my company to pull them out of the fire after they royally fuck everything up. We charge a fuck ton, will never go onsite, and they should consider themselves lucky if the engineer is wearing pants.
I was on a contract for the government when my company hired a really good DBA. He hated dressing up. He was introduced at a meeting and wore a polo shirt, which I thought was fairly professional.
Government contracting guy said to wear a tie.
Next meeting, he wore a tie around his polo shirt.
He was fired on the spot.
There are times I fucking hate the government and this was one of those times.
The guy was fucking amazing. But my company fired him because the government didn’t want someone so sloppy on the team.
Honestly no database admin is anywhere near that level of “fuck you” influence in any organization. We are more talking about the guy whose name is on all the patents and who is putting together the tech demos which win the big money contracts.
That’s ridiculous. I’ve worked as a government contractor for almost 15 years and the most strict I’ve seen the dress code be is “no shorts, collared shirt required.” Hell, at some sites I’ve worked the dress code has been basically “wear clothes.”
I’ve been to meetings where the only people not wearing printed tee shirts were the military members who had to be in uniform.
This explains a lot about why government sites are such garbage.
Government sites are garbage for a lot of reasons, mostly due to old people not understanding how the Internet works and they’d rather build a camel than a horse.
Plus on many occasions they go with the lowest bidder for the sake of appearances. I remember a company I used to work for went with a very unrealistic low bid to get their foot in the door and then get the maintenance contract that came after implementation.
The project went as well as you’d expect with such a low budget. Experienced people left due to long working hours, unrealistic client expectations and no budget for any quality of life improvements available (I was one of them). The company lost the maintenance bid and will likely lose the best people they still have to the new company taking over the contract.
Government contracting is a fucking racket. Especially at federal level because the government is allowed to go over the contract budget by I think 25% so every fucking company that bids knows they are going to get that amount more than their bid.
Not only that, but because of how the procurement process works, they aren’t going to rebid the contract if you mess up.
Contractors don’t save the government any money. It privatizes government functions and makes a few people rich while taking away good jobs and benefits.
in actual work ethics as well or just in perceived social/office norms?
Mostly the latter.
Those same government agencies then turn around and hire my company to pull them out of the fire after they royally fuck everything up. We charge a fuck ton, will never go onsite, and they should consider themselves lucky if the engineer is wearing pants.
no pants is okay so long as there’s a tie somewhere in the outfit
just not on a polo
The Nudist on the late shift
No underwear is ok so long as you’re wearing a top hat.