Don't you hate it when you miss the memo?

Well, actually, in this case, when nobody even SENDS you the memo?

I started a new job last month in the financial services industry. This has produced a fair amount of frustration since I have absolutely zero experience in that area (what is this money thing you speak of?), but it's been okay since I was hired because they wanted an English major to write letters for them. So I don't actually have to really know what is going on in other parts of the office.

Apparently the powers that be figured that "don't really have to know" translates to "why bother telling her?" when it comes to office-wide memos.

Like the one that went out this week saying that it's basically casual Friday until the end of tax season. So, casual March/April.

Generally we do have casual Friday, when we all wear jeans and feel a little lazy in anticipation of the weekend. So when I walked into my cubicle-unit on Thursday in my nice business slacks and everyone else in my group were wearing jeans (what, you think they only have enough letters for one English major to write? There are seven of us plus three or four part-timers), I was very confused. I spent at least twenty minutes surreptitiously glancing at my calendar, my notes, and my computer trying to verify that I hadn't pulled some sort of Rip Van Winkle and slept through Thursday. Or that it wasn't April Fools and they were all trying to pull a (not funny at all) prank on me. I finally asked one of my coworkers and she explained the Month of Casual Fridays concept to me, adding, "Didn't you get the memo they emailed out?"

She forwarded it to me, which is how I found out that for whatever reason, I am not on the office-wide email list. The girl who was hired a week or so after me is on the list, though, and she was wearing jeans like the rest of them.

Even though I looked dang good in my professional attire, I still felt like Lily in The Princess Diaries. "Why didn't we dress like her? We look like idiots!"

Well, at least the happy ending is that I get to wear jeans for the rest of tax season. And I do like my jeans, no matter how dang good my professional attire looks. :) And maybe next time I'll get the memo. But even if I don't, that means less junk crowding up my inbox, so I suppose it's a win-win situation.

Now if only someone could explain that money concept to me...