Get Out Of Bed, Get Dressed

You're only going to the social welfare office.

They know you're not working. What do they expect you to be doing, so, beyond sitting around indoors? What's the point in getting dressed?

In future, those arriving for interviews at the office will be expected to make a slight effort at appearing presentable.

Pyjamas, in spite of all the hype by fashionistas, are out.

At the Damastown office in West Dublin, they've posted a sign that bans the wearing of jammies. If you're meeting with a counselor, you have to turn up in real clothes.

Looking like you've just climbed out of bed isn't sending the right signal, especially when the counselor wants to know how you're progressing on your job search. Sitting there in P.J.'s, it's pretty clear that you're not searching and you're quite content to pocket your allowance and remain on the dole into infinity.

Then again, you might be signalling severe depression and before you know it, someone from the mental health services is clucking over you as they bundle you off to the psychiatric ward. You'll be free to wear jim jams all day long, but it will hospital-issued apparel and there's no fashion sense to those items whatsoever. And the barred windows tend to be rather confining.

Who would have envisioned a dress code at the welfare office? How times have changed.