Professors have similar debates about how to dress for teaching class.
I was told that I should dress formally to get the respect of my students. I quickly came to the conclusion that this didn't really help- anyone who's going to spend many hours in class with you over the course of a semester will have plenty of time to get over any shallow initial impressions. It's much more important how you interact with students. They will remember whether you were honest or dishonest, demanding or lax, cynical or positive.
Sue and I have been working with the same vet for over ten years now. I'm much more impressed by the fact that I can call her in an emergency than I am by how she dresses. Since she does mostly large animal work she dresses in barn appropriate clothing even when she's working on cats and dogs at the clinic.
I guess that in the small animal world you often have one-off contact with clients that you'll never see again. In that kind of situation first impressions can be much more important.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-03-24 04:17 am (UTC)I was told that I should dress formally to get the respect of my students. I quickly came to the conclusion that this didn't really help- anyone who's going to spend many hours in class with you over the course of a semester will have plenty of time to get over any shallow initial impressions. It's much more important how you interact with students. They will remember whether you were honest or dishonest, demanding or lax, cynical or positive.
Sue and I have been working with the same vet for over ten years now. I'm much more impressed by the fact that I can call her in an emergency than I am by how she dresses. Since she does mostly large animal work she dresses in barn appropriate clothing even when she's working on cats and dogs at the clinic.
I guess that in the small animal world you often have one-off contact with clients that you'll never see again. In that kind of situation first impressions can be much more important.