Shauna Moerke is…

Today was the first day of my new temp gig and it was nice to be working again. Everyone was friendly, I got to have lunch with the Husband, and I even got to go home early. Funny enough, a few people didn’t know Tim and are married and pointed out we had the same last name. On top of all that, I had some good news waiting for me when I got home. Look out Washington DC, I’ll be heading your way later this year!

However, I did experience a couple of “wardrobe malfunctions” today that caused me to think about the importance of first impressions. First of all, the zipper on my pants decided that today would be the perfect time to break, leaving me constantly paranoid that I would be walking around with my zipper down. Sigh. Additionally, despite being 5’8″ barefoot, I have a pair of black pumps with 3 1/2″ heels that are quite cute. Deciding to wear them today was probably a poor choice considering it’s been a month and a half since I wore heels and I had to walk 6-7 blocks, one way, from the train platform to the office. Add in all the walking around to meet people, get a badge, get supplies, etc., and I was limping into the house at the end. Ouch.

Now, this is nothing close to what happened with Janet Jackson’s “malfunction”. It would be hard to remain optimistic if something like that happened. But when you are trying to make a good first impression things like this can really mess with your mind and attitude. It’s hard enough starting something new, meeting new people, and trying to retain all the information you get inundated with on the first day without worrying about your clothes. So to all you new hires out there, congratulations and I suggest you spend more than a couple minutes picking out your outfit that first morning instead of focusing on how much you don’t like being awake that early. After all, if Hindsight was Foresight my feet wouldn’t hurt.

Janet Jackson before the “incident”.