The day I wore a tie

As far as corporate cultures go, ATA is pretty laid back. Full time employees can come in and leave whenever they like. There are groups who regularly leave to play Ultimate Frisbee or soccer in the middle of the day. And nobody wears a tie.

It was the day of the so-called co-op exit presentations. Every session, each co-op has to give a presentation to the rest of the employees about what he or she did this session. We were told to dress nicely - hence the shopping trip in LA to find dress pants for N. Since I wasn't leaving this session, I was the only co-op not giving a presentation, but I thought I'd dress up to support the other co-ops. So that morning I put on a nice shirt, dress pants, and... a tie.

When S and I walked over to the other apartment to see if they were ready to get leave, N and C looked at me and said, "Holy cow! Why are you wearing a tie man?! You're not giving a presentation." I told him I just dressed up to support him and all the other co-ops are giving presentations. N looked at me sternly. "Do you see me or C wearing a tie? You're going to make us look bad, dressing all fancy like that!" At that point, B walked in, also wearing a tie. N and C turn on him. "What the heck, B?! That's not cool. Don't wear a tie man!" N and C give me and B dirty looks as the seriousness of our predicament sinks in. But B and I stubbornly stuck it out and decided to wear our ties anyway - if it made us look better than the other co-ops, that is their problem right?

"Dude, one of the employees is going to call you out, I just know it," said C. "I tried wearing a tie once, and I got called out on it. And if someone doesn't, I'll point it out every time I run into you today." Ben decided to take off the tie and wear it just for the presentation. I thought N and C were crazy, and decided to wear mine all day. Little did I know.

That morning, my boss came over to discuss the project I'd been working on. His face became a look of consternation. "What's the occasion for wearing a tie?" he asked quizzically.

"Oh, the co-ops are giving their end-of-session presentations today," I told him.

"Oh are they? I don't usually go to those so I'd forgotten. So you had to wear a tie, because you're giving a presentation." My boss relaxed, the puzzled look beginning to dissipate.

"Actually, since I just got here, I'm not giving a presentation."

The puzzled look returned to his face. "Oh, but you had to wear a tie anyway?"

My boss's logic baffling me, I carefully replied, "No... it wasn't required. I just wore a tie."

My boss looked at me for a moment, trying to work out in his head why I was wearing a tie. "Uh huh," he said, finally giving up and changing the topic of our conversation.

Later that day in the carpool on the way home, C asked me if I got called out for wearing a tie. "Yeah," I admitted, "I think when my boss saw it he was worried he'd forgotten an important meeting or something. He was pretty confused."

C smiled triumphantly. "I told you!" he said. "I told you not to wear a tie."