I'd like to take this opportunity to tell a short story. It's a story about suits, clothing, and the implications and expectations people have of them.

A few months ago, I was sitting in our lounge with a new employee. He had just started, and I wanted to check in on him and see how he was doing after his first few weeks. We were in a fairly crowded lounge (some of our employees were having informal meetings, others were meeting for a break), drinking coffee, and talking about his experiences during his first few weeks at Netstream. At some point, the conversation turned to management because I wanted to know if he had met any of them yet. He seemed rather taken aback by myagand said it was very strange because he had never actually seen anyone from management at Netstream. My reaction to this was even more bewildered because there were two members of management sitting in the lounge at the same time. I pointed them out to him andag, "But there they are. Alexis is sitting over there, and Dom is at the other table." I had to chuckle when he thenagthat he had somehow always only paid attention to whether he ever saw men in suits…

The moral of the story

There are two things I'd like to share about Netstream with this story. First, the idea that management is lurking everywhere, watching everyone and everything! Just kidding. Our management team is among us; they don't stand out with fancy suits or ostentatious private offices. They have a function in our company just like any other team member, but that doesn't make them any more important than other employees. They're still involved in day-to-day operations and know what's going on. We all treat each other as equals and share our opinions without fear of negative consequences. Second, we don't have a dress code and probably never will. If someone feels comfortable in a hoodie, we're not going to force them toaga shirt everyag . And vice versa. Of course, there are limits, and we wouldn't exactly be thrilled if one of us greeted a client in swim trunks and flip-flops—but we have great faith that everyone has a good head on their shoulders and is willing to use it. 🙂