For years, I had a ritual on Friday mornings. It’s a subtle reference to Office Space. On Fridays, I’d wear a Hawaiian shirt to work. That’s the extent of it, but others wore them too. We were modest in count, but strong in consistency. We wore them year-round, independent of the weather. We were our Hawaiian shirt brigade. I continued even upon moving teams. One subsequent team dressed up on Fridays once a month, and I participated on both by wearing a festive tie with my Hawaiian shirt. I would not be denied.
Upon moving to a new company, I started work during the pandemic. While I could not physically participate with my teammates in wearing Hawaiian shirts on Fridays, I still established that tradition. We established a channel on our communications application dedicated to precisely this, “Hawaiian Shirt Fridays”. Even now, after we have returned to the office, we still work remotely on Fridays for the most part. A number of us dutifully post selfies of ourselves in our colorful shirts.