It's all about the jeans

Today marks an anniversary of sorts: it's been a year since I decided to change my work attire to jeans. Just jeans, every day.

It started when I looked around the room during our weekly staff meeting, and everyone in the room (except for our boss) was wearing jeans. The software team, the lead engineer, the electrical engineers, the technical writers, the industrial designer… everyone in blue jeans. I decided right then to start wearing jeans more often, maybe even daily. I I'd already been in jeans every day that week, because of almost daily snowfall.

Jeans are easy to take care of, no ironing required, and comfortable. And everything goes with them, which would give me less to worry about in the morning. Plus, I think it was just a tiny sign of rebellion on my part. If everyone else in Engineering wore jeans every day, why shouldn't I?

For the past year, a pretty big part of my day was spent on the manufacturing floor, documenting new products. So jeans made a lot of sense. I didn't have to think twice about getting down on the floor to check out plumbing connections, or climbing into a catcher tank to see how the sections were put together. And comfy jeans and t-shirts and warm sweaters just made the rest of my day—the time spent at my computer, writing—that much easier to get through.

And now, a year later, jeans are a habit I have no intention of breaking.