The Man doesn't care about your trousers

Well - not so much.

Many people, myself included, attempt it. I did it last weekend and it was far from being the first time. But, having re-examined my reasons and the reaction, I won't be doing it again in May.

I have done chippy dressing down for the last time.

If you've never worked a bank holiday, or if you can wear whatever you want to work, this won't mean as much to you (but stick around anyway, I've hidden some free money somewhere before the last paragraph).

Imagine you had to work a Saturday, somewhere that normally if you wear trainers or jeans you are looked up and down in silent disappointment.

There's something inside you that thinks - hey, all my friends are going to the pub, I'm not going to wear the frayed suit trousers, ill-fitting shirt and uncomfortable, unshined shoes that normally pass as my uniform.

Yeah, you think. That'll show them.

(I have no real grievance here. I get a day back in lieu. I don't even like bank holidays. But still...)

So you find some downbeat trousers and a smartly casual T-shirt and you set off, carried along by your own self-satisfaction.

There's no one else commuting of course. And you marvel at how great it would be to always go to work like this: T-shirted on a train seat.

But then it all goes wrong. You don't feel right. As you near the tower you feel like a tourist. Then upstairs people do a little double take and make certain unpleasant assumptions about you.

And I've worked out why you feel so uncomfortable. It's because you're giving out a different message to the one you intended. You are not saying "Hey, I'm cool and casual normally and today I'm sticking it to the man."

You are saying: "I'm not taking today very seriously. And the fact that you're in today means you're not worth making my usual effort for."

I am not for a moment saying that smart is good and casual is bad. I think smart is ridiculous - but consistency, that's the thing.

If I had any courage in my convictions, I'd have worn trainers and combats in the first day of my job and people would have long since stopped giving a toss.

But I didn't.

Which means now, the change is a problem. Normally, you are saying, I care. But today, I really don't.

And that's rude and counter-productive. And I think we can all agree we're against both of those things too.

Also see mirror.co.uk/dan-bourke