Basic Trope: A character's appearance deteriorates thanks to stress.
- Straight: Alice's hair and clothing becomes untidy which she's working on a project.
- Exaggerated: Every person in the office stops showering, bathing and changing their clothes for several months while trying to complete their project.
- Downplayed: Alice looks noticeably tired after working all night.
- Justified: The project has to be completed in a ludicrously short timespan or everyone will be fired. There isn't time to do anything but work.
- Inverted: Alice looks like more and more of a slob as her workload decreases and she starts slacking off.
- Alice is in a job that requires her to look smarter than usual, and, being stressed, wants to avoid scrutiny from the company.
- Subverted: After revealing the deadline, management carefully designs a rota so that everyone working on the project gets time off to keep morale up.
- Double Subverted: A lazy coworker shoves all their responsibilities on Alice forcing her to work on her days off.
- Parodied: The entire office practically turns into a lost tribe, with their work beginning to resemble elaborate work rituals and an unwanted visitor being chased by a squad of angry interns.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice's appearance varies while she's working on the project.
- Averted: Alice looks the same as always and it's only possible to tell she's under stress from her complaints.
- Enforced: Alice's actress is working on two shows, the other of which requires her to look untidy. The writers come up with the "project deadline" arc to save makeup-related time, effort, and material.
- Lampshaded: "Hmm, Alice looks a bit stressed..."
- Invoked: Bob the supervisor keeps everyone working hard so he can be the best dressed person in the office.
- Exploited: Alice keeps her hair carefully ruffled and makes sure her eyeliner runs to make sure the management can tell she's working hard.
- Defied: Alice gets up early to prepare for work.
- Discussed: "The project's due in three days!?" "I guess we'll have to let the dress code slide."
- Conversed: "Is this going to be like one of those sitcoms where we have an absurdly short deadline and we end up looking like modern art?"
- Implied: A recurring group of businesspeople are always looking stressed and scruffy, but their work environment is never shown.
- Deconstructed: Having everyone looking untidy undermines Bob's position and he's ordered to make sure his underlings aren't being worked so hard.
- Reconstructed: Trying to achieve this causes Bob's own appearance to slip.
- Plotted a Good Waste: Alice is informed of a looming deadline and dashes off ... however, it's passed by the time the next episode begins.
- Played For Laughs: The office's staffs' complaints about looking untidy are portrayed as "First-World Problems."
- Played for Drama: Alice is eventually hospitalised with severe stomach ulcers, jeopardising the project.
- Played for Horror: Bob pushes his employees too far and they snap, with messy results.
Take a shower and go back to Seriously Scruffy.
