What the Heck Is in Your Work Bag?

If we’re really gonna be honest about it, we-and that means all of us, men as well as women-make a fashion statement every day that we trudge into our cubes. True, what we opt to wear (or, in this case, carry) is dictated either by necessity, personal preference, or a combination of both. And the choices we make may indeed be as much subliminal as conscious.

Take what we carry, for example. True, the leather briefcase is now probably relegated to memories of your eighth grade science teacher, and the totally passe attache case is only seen as a prop for ‘businessmen’ in circa 1960s movies. Yet, the fact remains that almost all of us actually feel compelled to carry some form of hand luggage (for want of a better word) to work every day. So, and whether you carry a portfolio, or wear either a messenger bag or back pack, the fact is that you do lug (no pun intended) your ‘stuff’ to the office. Maybe it’s just a security blanket, but we all seem to need one.

Maybe I’m just a voyeur at heart, but I can’t help wondering what-in-the-hell people carry every day. Sometimes I think that, so long as I’m wearing heavy rubber gloves, I’d like to randomly search through people’s bags, just to see what they contain. Like a customs inspector, or Homeland Security. Hmm, let’s see-that grad. school type with a beard over there, what’s in his back pack?
A bomb? Brown bag lunch? Pet ferret? And her, Suzy Q. businesswoman, what’s in her Kipling messenger bag? the latest Cosmo, Iphone, blackberry? Does the old guy’s portfolio contain corporate, or government secrets? Or just the most recent edition of AARP magazine? Human nature being what it is, though, I’d bet my paycheck that we would all find some quite surprising, and not stereotypical stuff, in other people’s carry-alls. Things we might just not want to know about…

So, and whether you’re a fashionista who craves crinkle-cut leather, or simple canvas in earthtone shades or the very practical standard black nylon, the odds are that you do carry something to work. But the reality is what’s inside your bag says more about you than the exterior ever will. And that’s a good thing.