DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a lawyer in D.C., and I just completed a relatively prestigious yearlong fellowship/clerkship. I have had two job interviews thus far -- one for a government position and one for a nonprofit job -- and both times, I was surprised to find the interviewers wearing T-shirts, whereas I was wearing a suit.
Is it normal to wear T-shirts for interviews and meetings during the pandemic? It seems almost disrespectfully informal to me. Am I old-fashioned and behind the times?
GENTLE READER: Universal work-from-home is uncharted territory. Therefore, many sartorial “pioneers” believe that the old etiquette does not apply, and that they can conduct business meetings in their pajamas.
You will not be surprised to hear that Miss Manners disagrees. If you feel silly wearing a shirt and tie in your kitchen, remind yourself how silly the representative of a serious enterprise should feel conducting interviews in a T-shirt. And then keep doing what you are doing. Just because the person who has the power to award the job is wearing gym clothes does not mean that he will not feel disrespected if you do the same.