Thought for the Day - 31 March 2008

I haven't been updating my blog as frequently as I would like, and the reason for that is because I typically only have one thought a day, so it takes me a while to amass enough thoughts to compile a blog.

Today as I was in a shop with a particularly long line to the check out, so to kill some time, I decided to read the random advertisements and posters that decorating the walls of most shops.  Unfortunately, the only sign or poster within reading distance was a sign that said this:

It's Casual Day Today!

Our employees are dressed in casual clothes today

instead of their uniforms to raise money for charity.

The first part the sign maker should have thought of is the readers.  Will the readers care?  Will the readers be offended?  Are the readers needing a sign to explain something to them?  If any other readers were like me, they wouldn't have noticed, because I had never been in there, and I don't know what the uniforms look like.  The second thing the sign maker should have thought of is completing a thought before laminating it and tacking it up.  I personally don't know how wearing casual clothes raises money for charity, but I've been concentrating on that for an hour and a half, and I've come up with a few scenarios where having an employee wear different clothes could raise money for charity.

Scenario 1: Impress Wealthy Clients with Employee's Fashion Sense

Perhaps at an employee party the shop manager realized their employees had a very good eye for fashion, or maybe he ran into employees one day when they weren't working and saw them wearing something really nice. After that, the owner thought if they put a tip jar out, wealthy clients would be impressed with the employees' fashion sense, and donate the earnings to charity. This scenario isn't very logical, but it's as good a guess as any I've come up with.

Scenario 2: Employer Sells Uniforms

Since the sign said they were raising money, and not donating clothes to charity, my next guess would be they sell the extra uniforms and give the earnings to charity, but this would hardly be something to brag about. The sum of money donated wouldn't be too impressive, and I wouldn't think it's worthwhile to get rid of uniforms. What if casual day coincides with laundry day for an employee or two? I'd imagine that would cause a coup in no time at all.

Scenario 3: Impress the Homeless

The employees could Impress the homeless by wearing homeless clothes, and ultimately make the homeless feel like they're not doing so bad, which would encourage them not to take money from charity. Although the sign didn't say it was saving money from charity, it was raising money for charity.

Those are all the scenarios I've come up with, and none of them make sense at all. I wish the sign maker had taken the time to fill us in on how it all works, there was plenty of room on the sign for an explanation. I guess my curiosity won't be cured, I might have to let this one go.