Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Uniforms and Time Clocks

I always lumped uniforms in with time clocks as facets of blue collar life. You put on a uniform and a hair net, you go to your job and you clock in, you finish your day you clock out. They are pratical for the blue collar worker and the employer. It's a win/win situation. School uniforms serve a similar purpose.

Time clocks and uniforms have something else in common I hadn't thought of until I saw this picture. See if you can follow my logic. For some time now, I have been ruminating about time clocks. When I started my new job, I feared that I would now have to clock in and out through a computer interface. I thought this would make me feel very constricted. I have always thought of uniforms as constricting too...But alas, the converse is true.

One person is not more popular than another due to the clothes they wear. You cannot make judge a child's wealth due to their name-brand school clothes versus their Wal-Mart specials. All students are equal in uniforms.

The same goes for my time clock system at work. I am required to work eight hours a day. I come in, log on, work eight hours and go home. There are no brownie points for staying late or coming in super early. I can work 7-3 or 10-6. It doesn't matter. I am not always looking over my shoulder to see who is "beating" me by staying later or coming in earlier. I know we are all on the same timer.

So, time clocks and uniforms though they may seem constricting, are great at enabling equality. There just might be some comfort in looking like everyone else and being just a number on time sheet.

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