Thursday’s Workwear Report: The Everyday Linen Shirt
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
We’re entering the time of year when the weather is so uncomfortable that I don’t particularly mind looking a little bit rumpled if it’s going to keep me cool.
Linen workwear is going to be a know-your-office situation, but I think this button-up from Banana Republic would work for me on most days. I’d pick a pant or skirt that will look a little crisper, and I think this navy color would look lovely with a sky blue midi skirt currently hanging in my closet.
The shirt is on sale for $54.99-$79.99 at Banana Republic and comes in sizes XXS-XXL. It also comes in 10 other solids and prints.
Probably the weirdest question but does anyone else struggle with feeling like they don’t have enough normalcy in their life and routine? It feels like every single day is a one off. An appointment, a kids performance, a dinner out, a coffee date with a friend I haven’t seen in months who is never available on weekends. I’m constantly playing catch up and just trying to have a day where I work a normal workday and don’t have to do non- work things. Is there a better way to build barriers around this? Fwiw my working mom friends seem to constantly be doing this too. But I’m behind and constantly frustrated. I’m dreading next week when I’ll have zero childcare for one kid. I’m looking forward to the school year but you know how that goes: a holiday, a conference, a concert. I know I don’t thrive on this level of busy and my solution has been to cancel my own medical appointments and self care but it’s still not enough. I think our social life is much quieter than most people’s but my friends do matter so I can’t totally blow stuff off. I kind of of low key want to slam my office door and yell “leave me alone until 5.”
Can you just mentally allot 1.5 hours a day to “today’s one-off”? Sounds like part of the problem is assuming you’re going to have uninterrupted days, which leaves you behind your planned to-do list every time.
Yeah, I feel this all the time. No week looks the same – my teaching changes from term to term pretty dramatically. I think I’d find it easier if I was always on campus the same 2 days a week. And a student in crisis, some sort of admin mess-up, etc can really derail my day.
Prioritize what you want. You can say no to things, or to things on certain days, if you want more stability and predictability.
But if having all the coffee dates and get-togethers is your priority, you are experiencing the trade off.
It’s not like that though. Not the OP but you can’t really cut your kid’s concert or an xray for an ankle sprain. It’s always something that you can’t really defer and then something also jumps into the queue.
+1
I feel this way all the time. I do my best to carve out an hour each day for a workout as my “me time” but our schedule is insane. We have one teen (not yet driving) who is heavily involved in sports and other school-related activities. We both have full-time demanding jobs, plus my 82-year-old mother (a very limited driver) is now permanently living with us. Between the job demands, ferrying the teen around, and getting my mother to her various appointments, we are never on any sort of regular schedule. For example, today is both my kid’s first day of high school and his first high school football scrimmage, which is, of course, two hours away from where we live. One thing I’ve done at least once a month the last 3 months is declare myself completely off for a Sunday. No church, no shopping, no social stuff, just me and a good book or tv show. It does give me a chance to recharge but only if I make sure my phone is off.
I absolutely have this experience. No perfect solution, but some things that have helped:
1. being willing to schedule things (usually appointments, house stuff, etc) far out into the future;
2. scheduling only one unusual thing per day (ideally one per week);
3. getting supplemental childcare to the extent possible;
4. reallocating things with my spouse.
I think the key is understanding that is a normal day and planning accordingly. Once you accept the disruptions and incorporate them into how you approach things, it feels normal.
Sounds like these ARE your normal days. How do you build a structure where things like deep work, errands, chores, and exercise always get done under the circumstances you’re actually living with?
Yes I struggle with this also. I am desperate, not necessarily for an easy day, or a simple day, I just want a normal day. One where I am responsible only for the normal and usual work, family, and household responsibilities. In addition to a demanding job where leaning out is not a possibility (as a prosecutor a lot of it involves victims and most of it involves public safety), I am eyeballs deep in elder care, with some health limitations of my own to narrow the parameters of what I am capable of doing. I think the biggest problem right now for me is feeling like I don’t have much agency over my days and my life as whole.
Isn’t this just being a mom to school age kids? Divide what you can with your spouse and lean into the quieter times (I love Sept/Oct because we’re back in the school year swing of things but the holiday craziness hasn’t ramped up yet). But I feel like otherwise this just is what it is.
A few things:
Consider tracking your time for a week, including noting when you felt more at peace or more stressed. Laura Vanderkam is a good resource for this.
Consider if there are activities that you enjoy but only at certain times of day. For example, I typically get a lot more enjoyment out of meeting friends when it’s during the day – I’m not so great at social get-togethers at night. You can also consider combinations. If you like audiobooks, for example, you can make it a habit to listen to one on the commute. You can walk while also catching up with a friend on the phone.
On the same note, consider the scheduling options for non-enjoyable but mandatory activities, like doctor’s visits. I strongly prefer appointments at the beginning or end of the day and find them much less disruptive than mid-day appointments. I’d rather get up early, even lose a little sleep, to have a 7:30 appointment rather than a 10:45. Find out what works best for your personal clock and make your appointments early so they feel less disruptive.
Yes! Thank you for putting this into words. I have a kid who is living at home while attending college. It’s hard not to let her chaos become my chaos!
I’m considering a long weekend in a walkable city. I’d like to fly there, ok to uber to the town/city, then just walk everywhere until I have to get to the airport. I’m open to US or outside US. I’m in Chicago, don’t want NYC or Boston. Might do a week-long vacation next year so open to recommendations for both in and outside the US. I am comfortable walking several miles a day but I’d like museums, eclectic food, entertainment, maybe gardens/outdoors, and a nice hotel. I don’t want to take a train, bus, etc. while there (unless weather emergency, then I’m ok with a taxi or uber, anyway). Just me, I’m 42.
How long of a weekend? Like, in your shoes, I would 100% go to Paris or similar since ORD has so many great nonstops – fly Thurs night, take 3 days off, home on Tuesday.
Philly is extremely walkable. You can start as far down as Penn’s Landing and essentially walk the length of the scenic areas up to the University of Pennsylvania, which has got to be 40 or so city blocks. If you walked along Walnut Street you could also veer off to other neighborhoods – Chinatown, South Street, Rittenhouse Square. It’s been ages since I lived there so consult a map, lol, but it is an amazing city for walkers.
100% – I always forget to suggest Philly for this kind of question because I live here, but it is amazingly walkable. We own a car, but typically put 1,000-2,000 miles a *year* on it, and that is 90% shore runs in the summer.
Yup. My car use is exclusively for the shore and hiking/skiing
Philadelphia is super walkable. You can walk from the art museum to the eastern edge of Old City in an hour or so.
just spent a weekend walking around Bologna and totally fell in love! Not sure there’s enough for a week just in the city but there’s also easy train connections to other places.
Montreal
Agree with Philly, their art museums are some of my favorite. Last fall before thanksgiving I did a long weekend solo trip to Quebec and that was fun. Several good museums, I did a food tour, and lots of cute hotels. Depending where you stay in DC you could make it walkable, but I do prefer doing some train to get between the major neighborhoods. So many museums though.
US cities where you can do this beyond Boston/NYC:
-Philly
-DC
-Chicago
-San Francisco
-Seattle
In non summer months – i’d also include charleston, miami, key west
I would not pick San Francisco or Seattle these days, having split the last decade between the two. The good museums are in the bad parts of town in both, and you have to REALLY like hills.
I’ve never heard anyone describe SF or Miami as walkable, lol.
Eh, I think SF is pretty walkable as a local. It just smells like pee a lot, and the rough streets are like one block off the good streets, so it’s more walkable for locals than tourists.
San Diego.
Hmm I would not say that San Diego is particularly walkable. You can get by without a car in the downtown / Gaslamp area, but I personally do not think there is enough there to keep OP occupied for a long weekend.
+1 I spent a long weekend there recently. We would have gotten bored without a car. There’s just not much that to do in the walkable areas.
If she’s willing to walk 7-8 miles a day, I think there’s plenty to do! If she means 2-3 miles, then yes, I agree.
Kind of an odd requirement, I live in San Francisco where you can absolutely vacation without a car, but you’re going to want to take an uber or Waymo to get to things. The only places that meet your criteria are tiny vacation spots, like Newport, Nantucket, etc. Cities usually do not have alll the things in one walkable place. That’s why they’re cities.
This is both incorrect and weirdly hostile, lol.
OP, Rome is great for this. I’ve also done Charleston without a car, and it’s fine (but hot this time of year!!).
Charleston (not in summer) would be my vote as well. The tourist area is very compact and walkable and filled with great food. Charleston is somewhat unique among American cities in that the best restaurants are right in the most touristy areas. In most big cities, you will want to get away from the tourist sights to eat, and doing that can be hard without using a subway or bus. (Like how in Chicago, if you’re looking for the best food you don’t go to the Loop/River North even though that’s where all the hotels and many of the tourist attractions are.)
No it isn’t, if you insist on only walking only you’re going to miss most of what’s in major cities. If you broaden it to “don’t need a car and can uber places,” much more opens up to you.
Or the subway. You definitely do not need or want a car in NYC but it doesn’t really meet OP’s criteria, because you’re going to miss a lot if you won’t get on the subway or bus.
I do think Charleston works and maaaaybe Philly but a lot of major US cities you will really need to take Uber or ride a subway to see properly.
Okay, but that’s not what she wants to do. Obviously, you can do more with a car. But for a 3 day trip, you simply do not need to get in one in many major cities around the world. You might not hit “all the highlights,” or whatever, but you can have a wonderful, enriching trip.
Definitely can’t do it in, like, Houston, though.
Charleston in the spring or fall would by my US rec. Amsterdam is super easy if you’re up for Europe. There are actually lots of viable options in Europe I think – Paris, London, Madrid, Rome, Lisbon, Barcelona.
Coming from the Chicago area like OP, Charleston has very mild weather even in the winter. We went in January and it was lovely (not to southerners, but it was about 40 degrees warmer than Chicago when we went).
Totally fair! You are right, Charleston is downright warm in the winter compared to Chicago.
Savannah is lovely and you don’t need a car once you get to the city. I am a pretty good traveler but would be reluctant to fly to Europe for a long weekend from Chicago; I feel like even mild jetlag would be cut into my weekend exploring time.
Montreal or Vancouver are both great if you want something outside the country though.
I’m the one who suggested Paris above- fwiw, I picked that in particular, though Spain could also be good, because they run “late” – like we had 9:30p or 10p dinner reservations and then slept in. At home we’re more like 6:30 or 7p reservations so the adjustment was a lot softer than a city that closed up earlier.
Can’t believe no one has said Quebec City yet!
Berlin or Munich. Being open to taking the subway would be beneficial but not a must.
Paging the data center poster looking for resources: I work in public utilities and we are all listening to the new Ezra Klein podcast episode that came out this week about data centers, and there is also an article form the Atlantic earlier this summer.
I just listened to that, too. Usually I can only stand to listen to a quarter of his podcasts, but I appreciated this one.
Washington, DC meets your specs. Lots of excellent restaurants at a variety of price points and nearly all the museums are free. You can take the Metro from DCA, and I’d recommend staying in my own fair Arlington, an easy commute into downtown.
Also Philadelphia. Take a look at the Mutter Museum (medical history) and the Barnes Foundation (modern European art).
You could combine these two by taking Amtrak between your home base city and the other — it’s about a 2-hour trip.
I’m hiring my first admin. Meeting a vetted candidate for the first time today and looking for questions on how to assess fit. It is just a team of two so I want to get this right!
Any suggestions for pull on linen pants – without a visible drawstring? I have one pair from Madewell from a few years ago but need more. I’d also like full length, not ankle. I need them for field visits at work in a hot country. They don’t need to be formal, but a drawstring is too casual. I can always wear longer shirts I guess.
Check Old Navy
Old Navy has elastic and drawsring in the same pant. Just remove the drawstring.
The non drawstring pants look like pajamas. JCrew sells some, but look at Aritzia’s version with a drawstring, those look very polished. La Ligne makes some too without drawstrings.
This is not what you requested because they are not pull on, but I really like the J.Crew 5-pocket linen blend pants. They have a zipper and a button, look like real pants rather than pajamas, wash well, not terrible on wrinkling, and the blend is flowy and cool. I suggest ordering a size range up if you want them to be full length, so regular if you are short, tall if you are over 5’5”. I have been living in these this summer.
I have these in black and like them. Might be too short if you’re very tall, but they do come in talls, too.
https://www.anthropologie.com/shop/somerset-100-linen-pull-on-pants2?color=201&type=STANDARD&quantity=1