Re:Consultant gimmick or not? (Score 1)

While there's something to be said for presenting a consistent image to customers, the downside is a complete lack of downtime at lunch, on break, walking across the parking lot, in the restroom, etc. as most people believe you are on-duty when wearing the uniform (been there, done that) I would strongly suggest a paid lunch if the interruptions expand your workday in any measurable form. Is the company out of line? No more than any other fortune 10 company who reached into all of it's US employee's paychecks in CY2009 and took a significant percentage of their gross salary without explicit permission, only to report an $8bil+ USD net profit. Times will change and someday your job will either be shipped offshore for 20 cents on the dollar for a substantially inferior work product, or the company will decide that it wasn't such a good idea because they've lost too many IT people and can't find any replacements who will take the oath to wear the shirt