Here’s What Happened When I Wore a Tie to Work Every Day for a Year

Just over a year ago, I started an engineering job at a local company where typical daily dress is a collared shirt and slacks. While scouting for something to wear on a random day in the first few weeks, I noticed a large number of ties in my closet. My wife and I had recently moved and made an ardent effort in packing and unpacking these clothing articles, so I decided to make these efforts worthwhile by knotting one on my neck for the day and determining to wear one the rest of the week. Around the office that week, I received the typical, sarcasm-laced questions of “When’s the interview?” and “Why are you dressed like that?” numerous times.

The next week, I was running late on Monday and decided to skip the tie in favor of regaining a few much-needed minutes. A peculiar situation occurred later in the day when the president of the company, whom I rarely interacted with, poked his head into my humble cube and asked where my tie was. I was floored and unable to answer, but his question made me ponder my wardrobe decisions. I had worn a tie for a single week and, as a result, the head of the company was keenly aware of my presence and appearance.

Consequently, I decided to run an amateur social experiment to see if one tiny strip of colored fabric could truly make a difference in my professional life. My experiment was simply to wear a tie to work every day for a year while occasionally donning a sport coat or blazer for good measure. As a non-senior engineer, I knew I was unable to change my years of experience immediately; however, I did have the ability to quickly change my appearance for the better.