Wearing the White Shirt -- Part 3

It was the fall planning meeting. A five hundred million dollar technology budget was a stake and any man who entered that room without his white shirt was already a loser.  The conference room was a long, elegant, corporate space at the Boston offices. Needless to say, the testosterone radiating from the white shirts was blinding.  I calculated the testosterone ratio to be 5:1 … five men for every one woman. This ratio was a little higher than most meetings. The standard is generally closer to 4:1 with an occasional 3:1 thrown in for good measure. So with approximately six women in the meeting, the testosterone count was … well you can do the math! As I sat there through out the day, prepared to defend my piece of that budget, something unexpected began to transpire. I was becoming inebriated … almost giddy … with testosterone. One minute I was deflecting the harsh glare of white shirts and the next minute I was feeling drunk with power and prestige. I was making decisions with some of the most powerful testosterone in the corporation. It was so intoxicating that I actually woke up the next morning with a testosterone hangover … the remains of all the clout and status faintly pounding in my head. It did not last long. It did nothing to recharge my own personal testosterone. What it was … was a taste of what it feels like to wear the white shirt!

So ... where shall we go next?  As much as I hate to admit it .... Sometimes ..... 

Wearing the White Shirt -- Part 2

Full summers, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, were dubbed dress down.  Of course, common sense was required.  There were still days when the formal attire was more prudent but this still left long stretches of time when the white shirts were imprisoned together in the back of many closets.  The testosterone laced between the strands of white fabric, steaming. And here, ladies, is when white shirts became our reluctant ally. When a man wants to be ready for battle … a negotiation, a sales presentation, an executive review, a corporate take-over … he will still reach for that white shirt.  He will literally wear his testosterone on his sleeve!  A white shirt is a clear indication that strong testosterone is present and very much in the game.  If you are in that game, be forewarned.

When testosterone and its attire is confined to an enclosed space … a private office, a corporate dining room, a conference room … and there is little or no testosterone-free oxygen circulating, the build up can be stifling and sometimes intoxicating. A direct report once hosted a four hour meeting in one of the smaller conference rooms. The room was intended to sit eight to ten individuals comfortably. Conference rooms were at a premium that particular day, so this room had to accommodate closer to twelve, maybe thirteen individuals, all male, all middle level technology management, and the majority visiting from one of our Wall Street subsidiaries. I had been invited by my subordinate to speak for a few minutes half way through the meeting as we were partnering for a new project and most of us had not yet met in person. Up to now the discussions were held via conference calls. As I approached the room that had one full wall of glass, I didn’t notice any white shirts but I did notice a bulging of the glass, the misty cloud of testosterone clinging to all surface areas, and the more arrogant molecules pinging off the walls and through out the room. Taking a long deep breath and recruiting a shot of my own testosterone, I stepped into the room. It was hard to breathe. So as to not waste too much of my own precious and limited testosterone, I did not linger. After asserting my position as owning senior accountability for the project, and some well placed humorous comments, I left the remainder of the meeting to my testosterone direct report. Though this encounter was lacking the white shirts, the tight quarters seemed to invigorate the testosterone seeping from the more casual attire.   When you combine the two elements, many white shirts and enclosed quarters, and you stay in that environment for longer periods of time, you might actually have a shot of getting passed the stifling effect and experience the lure of the testosterone intoxication.  

What exactly does testosterone intoxication feel like ... that's up next. 

Wearing the White Shirt -- Part 1

There was a day, in the distant past, when corporate testosterone around the globe lived by the rule of the uniform. It was a simple rule. The color of the suit and socks were to be dark blue or black. The tie must be muted and matched. The shoes had to be black or brown. And the very core of the uniform was the shirt. The crisp, clean, colorless shirt must be long sleeved and white. So important was this feature of the uniform that by the early twentieth century corporate testosterone came to be known by it … the white-collar worker. Once in uniform there was easy entry into the testosterone brigade and ready access to a privileged camaraderie. Those of us missing sufficient quantities of testosterone, but finally making it into the management ranks of corporate America, lacked such an ally. There was no such uniform for women and when we tried to imitate the look, we couldn’t pull if off. A woman dressed in a perfectly fitted, dark suit with a tailored white blouse still stood out … too many curves … not enough testosterone. And for that … thankfully … short period, when some women added the tie to complete the look, snickering could be heard from behind her back.

Somewhere, over three decades ago, testosterone began having tiny fashion fits. A short sleeved shirt would surface perhaps on a really hot day. A pale, blue shirt would emerge possibly because all the white shirts were in the wash. A suit jacket would be removed for long periods of time. A tie came loose and the top shirt button unbuttoned. More colors began to spring forth from the closets oppressed for far too long by white.  And finally, the greatest fashion innovation to hit corporate America reared its ugly head … the dress down day. This was a sanctioned day when dark suits and white shirts across an entire company finally took a vacation day.  Individual contributors and middle management were the first ranks to embrace this new phenomenon.  But those laden with the T-stuff, most residing in the senior and executive levels, found it excruciating to step past the revolving doors in anything but a white shirt.  Even the senior women were reluctant at best to explore what ‘dress down’ might mean for them.  They were still struggling with a corporate uniform. Then someone, some brave senior testosterone soul, had a brilliant idea.  He came into the office on that dress down day, attired as though he were off to play golf. The look took off like fire. Now it felt right and made sense.  Golfing attire is testosterone’s second uniform … it’s casual uniform.  As much and maybe even more business is transacted in golfing attire as is in formal business dress. It was now safe for all testosterone management ranks to fully embrace dress down day. The brigade was no longer at risk and the camaraderie still very much intact. Polo shirts and fresh, pressed slacks were victorious over the white shirts.

It would only be a short leap from there into the twenty-first century and what would come next ... stay tuned ...