"What's the dress code?" is, perhaps surprisingly, not an unusual question to ask in the past couple of years. Sure, we may have been stuck at home for most of that time - do note that I have been mostly working from home for the past, let's see, six years now - but it doesn't mean you show up for an event just wearing whatever. At the very least, you deploy a collared shirt and hope the camera gets your nice side. I think I survived being a reactor to Sars' talk on Jo Koy's humor a year ago. I mean, I don't think I looked stupid.
I spend more time on the other side of the virtual event fence, though, so I'm the one who gets asked that question. "What's the dress code?" It doesn't come up often, but my stock answer is usually "whatever you wear to the office". If they want their branding on their outfits, completely fine. Just don't turn up on a tank top - unless it's appropriate, in which case it hasn't been the case yet. Personally, I'm more concerned with how you sound and whether there's too much headroom in your shot.
Now that we're returning to physical events, though - caveat: "for now, because the elections are coming and there might just be a big spike again" - the question of dress codes becomes a little relevant again. I mean, yes, of course you wear your business attires (or your corporate-branded tops) in conferences and the like, but elsewhere, it gets a little complicated. Or maybe it's because it's me.
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One of the first restrictions to go when Metro Manila was put under Alert Level 1 - the least strict pandemic restriction, under this still convoluted new set of restrictions - was the limit on the number of people who can be at the elevator at any given time.
Sure, it wasn't really something mandated by the government, but it was something building owners decided to do from the moment the phrase "social distancing" became inescapable. In the spirit of social distancing, only four people can ride the elevator at any given time. There were even markings on the floor to indicate where you should stand, and in some cases, where you should face. This was the case at the building where my offices are. You were supposed to face the wall. I imagine if people followed it, it would look awkward. You'd be entering an elevator where everyone was given a time-out for being rowdy in the classroom.
But yes, I was working at home. We haven't really reopened our offices yet, although we are in the process of doing so. (PLDT takes forever to reconnect our phones.) This four-at-a-time rule is also a thing at the flat, and I go up and down almost on the daily, to run errands, mostly. I live on one of the upper floors, so there's a better chance that I'd be in an empty elevator. But also, this isn't an office building, so the elevators are rarely full, unlike in my last job, where I had to contend with employees from the top floors hogging the elevators throughout the lunch hour. (Hello, Allene.)
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I only realized this morning that we're past halfway through the month, and I have yet to write a single essay on the blog this month.
Well, it isn't unusual. I have been busy, primarily with cramming a magazine and putting together an event (happening tomorrow, I must add). But I thought about how, this time last year, I probably had written a lot of things down because it's the election season. Considering how I wrote a lot of essays critical of Noynoy Aquino during his time, I probably had a lot to say.
I checked. Nope, not really. I only wrote four essays this time six years ago, and the first one was, well, six years ago today.
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