For the last 4 years, at several different jobs, I’ve worn a Hawaiian Shirt nearly every Friday to work for “Hawaiian Shirt Friday.” I can count on one hand how many times someone OTHER than myself has worn a Hawaiian shirt, so I’m pretty used to going it alone. After a while it simply becomes something funny/quirky. Everyone has come to expect that I’ll be wearing some Hawaiian shirt or another because that’s what happens on Fridays. When I accidentally miss, I get comments ALL day long about it.

Well, today several of my coworkers wore Hawaiian shirts and brought me donuts that included a note: “Thank you, Mark, for all your work! You’ve made Red Zone¹ Awesome!” I can’t tell you how much that meant. It’s not often that you get thanked in any job, but that is especially true when you are a knowledge worker of any kind. When something is broken you hear about it, but usually the best compliment you get is not hearing anything for a while.

I don’t think I’ll see any more Hawaiian Shirts for a while now, but it is good to know that a few people appreciated work I was paid to do enough to thank me personally and participate in my little quirks.

Here’s to more oversized, ugly shirts

¹Red Zone is our internal tool used to help automate business processes.