I think it is time that people start working a little harder on self- respect, don’t you agree?
I was in a restaurant over the holidays and was astounded by how many people were dining out in pyjama bottoms.
What self-respecting individual wears jammies in public?
At one table, there was a young family, the father in a leisure pant track suit that looked like it should have been washed three weeks before, with the mother and all of the kids in pyjama bottoms, with all except the littlest one old enough to know better, I thought.
What are we modelling to children who rely on us for showing a good example? That it is okay to be out in public looking like unwashed ne’er do wells? How can this be respectful to yourself? How can it be respectful to others? We have lost our self-respect and respect for others, it seems.
Over the years, kids in school swearing at the teachers has become normalized and the teachers are unable to do anything about it. Signs have to be posted that say disrespect will not be tolerated. How has it become that these signs have even become necessary? Certainly, if we don’t respect ourselves, for sure we will not be able to respect others.
Respect begins at home, it is said, but if the adults do not respect themselves, they cannot be models for those who look up to them to find their way in the world.
When I owned my companies, my employees were expected to come to work dressed appropriately, not in sweatpants or jogging wear, certainly not in jammies! They were there to work, to represent my company, and to show that they respected themselves. I feel more places should start doing that.
In a grocery store recently, the young clerk was wearing pyjama bottoms (although with the ‘bed-head’ of unwashed and uncombed hair, they might just have gotten up), and I wondered why management tolerated such things, reflecting badly as it does upon the store. I did hear another customer and an employee express similar sentiments.
It came to my attention recently that teaching people who are looking for work requires that they be advised to dress appropriately, wash their hair and shower, brush their teeth, and arrive on time for the interview.
How has this become necessary? Are we really so far removed from ourselves that we would show up late for a job interview with dirty hair and unwashed clothes … and then expect to be hired?
Properly dressed, you can feel the difference and you can feel better about who you are.
If you respect yourself, and are proud of the person you are, it might very well change your entire outlook on life. It will certainly positively affect how others see you.
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