I saw in the Austin Chronicle; A John Waters Christmas is scheduled for this evening (December 6th) at the Paramount Theatre. I regret I will miss the performance, but I would love to see it. Particularly the part when he talks about sloppy COVID dressing because I happen to have a few ideas about it too. Waters calls it COVID sloppy. I call it the COVID cozy pajama syndrome. I realize being sheltered and separated from society didn’t lend itself to dressing up, but now that restrictions have relaxed and we are out and about again, I have noticed that some people (including those in professional positions) continue to dress as if they are still at home and not out in public. Has making a good impression gone extinct? This raises a concern for me and here is why. I am in a service business, and our mission is to make people look and feel good so it’s important that we look and feel good too. If we dressed in COVID pajamas with scrunchies in our hair and looked less than professional, I think our customers would question the quality of our service. And it goes both ways. Research tells us that we form impressions of others in less than a second based on our clothing, hairstyle, accessories, and more. Our judgements may not be accurate, but the point is, we form a positive or negative impression instantly, and we react from that impression. Take this for example, and this is totally hypothetical. There is a woman at the airport in pajamas and a scrunchy, and there is another woman dressed more nicely appearing like she is travelling for business. Both are on stand-by. A seat opens. A decision is made on who gets the seat. Does the one who looks casually comfortable get the seat, or the one who looks like she is headed to a business meeting get the seat? Which would you choose? I’m sure airlines have their guidelines to follow in making decisions like these, but hopefully you can catch my drift. My point is, I think the casualness of the COVID cozy pajama syndrome perpetuates a degree of casualness when it comes to customer service for people. At Garbo A Salon, our goal is to help you make a good impression so hopefully you won’t be the one left at the airport waiting on a flight heading to your destination days later than you scheduled. https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2021-12-03/mark-the-calendar-for-a-john-waters-christmas/ https://imaginehealth.ie/psychology-first-impressions/
