I’m a manager and department head for a major metropolitan school system. On Fridays, we relax our dress code like a lot of organizations, and I’m thinking an “Alumni Day” where we all wear a sweatshirt or whatever from our alma maters would be fun. Who doesn’t enjoy a little inter-collegiate rivalry every now and then (my alma mater is Princeton), especially with March Madness just around the corner! It’ll also be a great way to highlight the academic diversity of our organization, something I happen to be very proud of, given I played no small role in fostering it. What do you think..? – Name withheld       

This is a terrible idea, in my opinion.

Sure – one could argue it will showcase the breadth and depth of your employees’ educational backgrounds, as you say. But for your employees, it’s more likely to morph into something unwanted—and frankly, unneeded: An opportunity for them to judge each other.

And not in a way that is good for them, for you, or for your organization.

You see, on a very fundamental level, we all want the organizations we work for to function as a meritocracy, to the extent that’s possible. We want to be rewarded for doing well, and recognized for our contributions to agreed upon organizational goals. And if we have to be punished at all—passed over for a raise, promotion, or other organizational prize, for instance—we want that to be because one or more of our colleagues outshined us in some way.

What we don’t want is to be judged on is anything unrelated to our on-the-job performance. Not the neighborhood we live in, the company we keep, nor the car we drive. And not whatever institution of higher learning we happened to attend way back when. That should be considered irrelevant. Because it is.

(The only exception to this, obviously, is when it works to your advantage. You say you graduated from Princeton? Congratulations – you must be very proud. I would just wonder if you’d be as excited about your idea if you’d matriculated from say, the University of American Samoa?[1])

Further problematic is that whatever college or university a person attends—even if not all that long ago—is now widely understood to be more a reflection of the socio-economic status of their parents and/or peer group, as opposed to academic ability.[2] Grades, entrance exams; it’s all suspect.[3][4] If, of course, you were lucky enough to be able to afford to go at all.

So as difficult as this may be for you to hear, your “Stinky Sweatshirt Day” also reeks of classism. Whatever sense of equity, fairness, and trust you have (hopefully) been established within your department will almost certainly be undermined or damaged should you follow through on this.

As will your employees’ sense of camaraderie. In fact, can’t you already hear some of this in their probable comments, even if otherwise well meaning? For instance:

You graduated from _______ Community College? Wow – you’ve done exceptionally well for yourself, haven’t you?

Isn’t this inspiring? I can’t believe all the schools being represented here today! I guess it just goes to show you don’t need to go to Yale (like me) to get ahead!

Yeah, I was at Harvard. But I wasn’t a very good student, ha ha. And it looks like I didn’t need to bust my a** there for 4 years to get where I am! Could’ve saved my parents a lot of money too!

And what about you? You claim you’re already well aware of the educational backgrounds of those in your department. But can you swear on a stack of Princeton syllabi that this little reminder of who went where won’t influence any of your personnel decisions in the future? And even if you think you’re above this kind of bias, and can remain objective, are you certain your employees feel just as confident?

So at work, keep it about work, and your employees’ performances. That’s the only kind of “rivalry” you should be trying to encourage there.

Still, if you’re really committed to going through with this, I suppose you could try the following:

Instead of having everyone wear a sweatshirt from their alma maters, just ask them to bring one to work. Then throw them all in a big box, and have everyone pick one at random to wear for the day. This will still highlight your department’s academic and educational diversity as you intend, but avoid much of the unneeded pettiness that’s almost sure to result otherwise…

…but then again, given the likely differences in body types, it’s also probably best if it’s an XXL-sized sweatshirt, just to be sure. They’ll need plenty of notice, though, given they may have to purchase one just for the occasion…but come to think of it, forcing your employees to do that doesn’t seem right either (hoodies aren’t cheap; one from my alma mater runs $60-$80). So maybe a school pennant instead, since they’re cheaper? But that doesn’t have anything to do with casual Friday, which was your inspiration in the first place…

Or you could just forget the whole stupid idea altogether.

NOTES:

[1] University of American Samoa is not actually a real university. Nevertheless, its fictional law school gained notoriety in the AMC television drama “Breaking Bad,” it being the alma mater of the character Saul Goodman.

[2] Crosnoe, Robert and Chandra Muller. “Family Socio-Economic Status, Peers, and the Path to College,” Social Problems. 2014 Nov; (61)4, 602-624.

[3] Cain, Jeff; Melissa Medina, Frank Romanelli, and Adam Persky. “Deficiencies of Traditional Grading Systems and Recommendations for the Future,” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 2022; 86(7), 908-915.

[4] Dixon-Roman, Ezekiel; Howard Everson, and John Mcardle. “Race, Poverty, and SAT Scores: Modeling the Influences of Family Income on Black and White High School Student’s SAT Performance,” Teachers College Record. April 2013, 115. 33 pages.