White Socks: A Lesson in Etiquette

We learn a great deal of useful information in school.  Arithmetic and reading are two of the best.  But there are also many life skills we have to learn on our own because they aren’t taught in school (or anywhere else). Office etiquette is one of those skills.

My first real office job was with the national accounting firm KPMG.  After my junior year in college, I was hired as an intern.  This later became a full-time job, but not because of my sartorial elegance.

No one had ever told me how to dress appropriately for the office.  My mother was a homemaker, and my dad was a musician, so I’d never learned what I should wear in a professional office setting.  I dressed in my usual school attire – white or blue shirt, with tie, slacks, and black shoes.  My idea of acceptable fashion was fine except for one detail.

I always wore white socks.

Why?  I suppose they were cheap. Also, that is what my mom bought for me.  I didn’t even think about it.  But while white socks might have been acceptable for home or school, they stood out at the office and marked me as a young man who didn’t know how to dress for success. After six months my supervisor politely mentioned that perhaps a solid color, such as black or navy blue, might be more appropriate.  (At that time the dress code of the Chicago office of KPMG was still so formal that hats were a required accessory.)

If you’ve ever unintentionally violated a social norm, chances are you were oblivious to it until someone pointed out your transgression. If you’re lucky, as I was, they did so compassionately.

Even so, I was embarrassed to learn that I had been violating an unwritten office rule.  I left work early that day to go shopping.  I purchased a dozen pairs of black socks.

You are welcome to come and check out my sock drawer.  To this day every pair is either black or navy blue.  I assume the accountants at KPMG would approve.

Of course, there remains the issue of my office desk that is in a state of, well, disarray.

But I’ll leave that confession for another day.

Alan