At work currently: German department, where I've been employed since last fall. I sit at the desk outside the secretary's office, and do work on a computer that could stand to be upgraded (for some reason firefox does not function so I have to use internet explorer, which brings me back to the 90s in a non-fun way) (I'm fairly certain that all the other dept's computers, including laptops, are macs... just saying). Or there's no work to do and I sit there fiddling around on a computer that could stand to be upgraded, just so that when I'm looking up the Wendy's menu (as was the case five minutes ago. What? I'm quite peckish and I'm planning what food to pick up from the student center on the way home) the screen doesn't freeze because in 1995 flash plugins didn't exist yet.
Generally on days I work here, which is only once a week anyway, for three hours, I make sure to dress relatively nicely--well, not that I dress in any sort of unkempt way normally. In other words, the likelihood of my wearing a button-down jumps from 50% to 85% and if I'm not wearing a button-down I'm wearing a sweater. I do this because it helps me pretend I'm more important than I actually am, and in my mind distinguishes me from the other students who were assigned to work for the department as part of work-study. Whereas I am not only an employee but eine Studentin of the department (which I also like to hope looks really good on my resume).
I am also compelled to dress nicely on Mondays because that's the day I have my graduate-level course and I already look like a small child who stumbled into a room full of German scholars, so I might as well look like the child nerd who wears argyle and purposely strode into "German Romanticism and Gender Studies."
But, in general, I'm no longer comfortable dressing down these days because, I suppose, it serves as a mark of distinction from the hoardes of underclassmen. A totally called-for distinction, obviously, because I'm all about-to-graduate and adult-y and wear button-downs while working in the creaky, drafty Victorian building across from the library.
