16th November 2005, 01:53 PM
Quote:quote:Stand back and study people who have convinced themselves that they`re self importance is clearly expressed in a child-like dress-code.
Oh dear oh dear[xx(]. Is it really any wonder that field archaeologists are blanked at site meetings by developers etc with attitudes like the one displayed above?
As a former long-standing field archy and now a consultant, I've come to appreciate the view from the other side of the fence. Unbelieveable that dressing in an appropriate way for an office environment should be seen as child-like. Why should office-based peeps visiting site dress any different if they're not going to play around in the mud?
Us and them attitudes? Highly exaggerated. Many of the suits you'll see on site are managers who've come into that position from specalist backgrounds, which formerly involved their fair share of fieldwork. Any ignoring of field staff from suits on site visits comes about from them being too busy to stop and talk to staff anyway (project time and money is accountable for). Besuited types have to talk to site staff all the time, many probably just feel that as archaeology is outside their specialism and there probably isn't that much to talk about other than deadlines and budgets etc, which is what they're primarily concerned with, for very real practical reasons.
Please no more of this "digging heroes" attitude and the "snooty suits" lording it over them. Caricatures.