Business bags: Serious briefcase or casual backpack?

In Hollywood, the ultimate business power move is imagined something like this: The boss walks into the meeting room, where the nervous team is already seated, slams the briefcase onto the conference table, and begins the groundbreaking announcements. Pay attention the next time you're Netflix-and-chilling: The bold, sweeping set-down of the bag appears in every film that deals with business hierarchies, from "The Wolf of Wall Street" to "The Devil Wears Prada." Why? Because the business bag serves as a territorial marker: Hey, I'm the boss here, everyone listen up and do what I say!

In real life, this gesture may not work quite as reliably, at least not since half the team has been holed up behind their home office screens during hybrid meetings. But: The bag you use to lug your laptop, calendar (so anachronistic!), and two cell phones (personal and work) around your professional life still reveals at least as much about your job mentality as your decision for or against an open-door policy.

Choosing an office bag should therefore never be a matter of arbitrariness. But let's take a closer look:

The classic briefcase stands for reliability, of course. All important documents are always at hand, thanks to a personal secretary, a luxury the owner of this bag can afford (yes, the owner—who else carries a bag like this besides boomer executives and over-60 members of the Bundestag?).

A designer bag, on the other hand, demonstrates status awareness: Don't be falsely modest; if you've made it in your professional life, you can afford a little luxury now and then! (Beware: Those who strut into the office wearing Gucci or Bottega Veneta are often as sensitive to bad news as calfskin is to rain.)

And a backpack? Well, that's the go-to accessory for anyone who likes to call their company a "family" and/or rides a racing bike to work to prove their performance credentials before the first email arrives at 7 a.m. (Better not make friends with backpack-wearing bosses, otherwise the next executive retreat will be moved to the north face of the Eiger!).

Oh, and then of course there are the candidates (also almost exclusively men) who don't carry a bag at all; after all, all they need to get through the day-to-day business world is a Tesla card, a cell phone, and their brilliant minds. And anyway, who prints documents anymore when there's Slack, so old-school! (Anything else you might need in the office, from pens to chewing gum, can be borrowed from the trainees, no problem.)