Jefferson Wears a Tie
By John Mansfield

In the short story Jefferson Wears a Tie by John Mansfield we follow the man Jefferson and see the change that is happening to him at his job. Jefferson is working in an office as a Sales Administration Manager and he dreams of success and promotions. But he has been working for 3 years and nothing has changed and at the end he realizes that he cannot stand his life’s situation anymore. So he puts on a tie and begins to let loose at his office. He does not get as much work done as he used to but still he walks around comfortable and confident and people starts to notice a positive change in the entire office because of it. At the workplace the staff starts to talk about a need for a new staff and Jefferson knows that a promotion offer will come to him. In the very end of the story he just cannot stand his job anymore, so he confident walks into the Managing Directors office and says: “Good morning Mr. Price. I understand you’d like to promote me to Sales Executive…”
The story takes place at Jefferson’s job in an office. The telling of the story is in a chronological order with no types of flashback, flash-forwards etc. It is a modern time and environment which as an example can be seen on the graffiti on the station and at the office Jefferson work at.
The most important thing in this text is the personal change that our main character Jefferson goes through. He starts with being quiet and dissatisfied and then he evolves into this confident man who does whatever he pleases at his job. You can see the change begin at the time where Jefferson arrives ten minutes late for work which he normally would never do because of his commitment to his duties. What is even more interesting about the change is his new clothes that make his colleagues at the office turn their heads when he walks by. In the text is says:
The next day, Jefferson did something very unusual. He turned up ten minutes late for work. What was more, he didn’t just ‘turn up’ late, he strolled in to work at ten-past-nine. His trousers pointed dead ahead with their razor sharp creases, his jacket hung on his shoulders just so, and none could avoid glancing at the incandescent blue of his silk tie.
This piece of text shows us the beginning of Jefferson’s change and it describes how the office reacts to it. No one could avoid seeing his blue silk tie and his new confident and relaxed personality has a positive impact on the rest of the office. You can see the effects of the tie in the text where it says: In the brisk smiling nod of the Managing Director he could see that his blue silk tie was performing its role with aplomb, meeting and exceeding service-level agreements, so to speak. The plan with the blue silk tie is working and in the end Jefferson even gets so confident so he just turns up in the Managing Directors office claiming that promotion he knows the Director have wanted to offer to him.
So Jefferson goes from being a man who is pushed around by everyone. He does not stand up for himself and instead he is just quietly furious about everything while he works as hard as he can for his job. He then, through his change, starts to care less and less about getting his job done and instead he is strolling confident around at the office and making the atmosphere change around his co-workers. He takes his life in his own hands and makes a change for him and his environment.
Because of his new influence on the office you can also see Jefferson’s change reflect in the change in the setting in the short story. The office becomes a more delighted place with an improved sentiment between his colleagues. It is not only through Jefferson’s eyes that we can see the change; all the other workers at the office feel it to. It is actually described very clearly in the text where it says: As the rest of the week passed, and the week after that, everybody began to feel a new presence in the office, thought they could not say quite what it was. Jefferson’s new charisma has obvious really changed the offices environment.
I believe this story is about during what you want and to do what makes you happy. Jefferson is walking around dreaming of success but he is just waiting for it to happen instead of doing something about it. When nothing happens he just accepts his life but trough the story he discovers himself and realizes that he is not happy. He does not have any happy places, he does not have a girlfriend and he does not have that success that he has always wanted to have. And at that time he puts on a tie and he starts to make a change in his life. So I believe that the author John Mansfield purpose with this text is to tell the readers that they cannot wait for life to come to them. They have to go out and meet it and make a change themselves.