I really don’t know anything about this, but I say that somewhat in jest. I do think it’s important to appear professional in some manner in the workplace. Although note some of the subtlety:
- West coast standards are very different from the East Coast (and both are different from the Midwest)
- Standards of dress are different from profession to profession (Compare a marketing executive to a geologist)
- Standards of dress are different even within professions (Compare a high school English teacher to a math teacher)
- Even within executive realms, there are many exceptions to what’s deemed “professional” and some of these folks are wildly successful in their casualness (e.g., Southwest and Nike executives)
So setting notions of Dressing for Success aside for a minute (though feel free to comment), I do hear a lot about dress code issues, which tend to rile lots of us up (because they’re rule! Rules that we need to follow!).
How to dress for success identifies four primary battles with dress codes:
Battle No. 1: Employees misinterpret the dress code or they don’t abide by it.
Battle No. 2: Companies have a code in place but don’t enforce it.
Battle No. 3: Companies don’t have a dress code but they still reprimand employees for wearing certain attire.
Or, Battle No. 4: There’s constant objection from certain industries along the lines of, “Why do I have to look nice at work if I don’t see anybody?”
Perhaps that’s the problem with working at home. Ahem. In any case, there are some tips for dressing for success, which include such gems as “Don’t dress for a bar.” I’ll have to try that.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:54 am
I know a few people at work that need to read that one line about dressing for a bar.
July 31st, 2008 at 5:02 am
But doesn’t your company have issues with #3?
July 31st, 2008 at 6:20 am
Our company has dress codes based on department and function. The people who work with the public must wear business attire but us in the IT department have to make sure we are covered with some kind of “cloth” to be at work. Though we usually dress neatly ie, jeans and a button down shirt.
Even though we don’t have to adhere to a dress code, it is still a good idea not to dress like a slob. Having a clean / neat appearance give the impressions that you have respect for yourself and the organization. This will make your working relationships more successful.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:28 am
That’s what people say. My favorite former colleague wore the exact same thing to work every day: chinos and a white oxford. Always neat, always clean, and always the same (clearly he had more than one pair of chinos and oxfords). I thought this was about as ideal as you could get, but then I’m a uniform dresser.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:50 am
The best advice on this I ever got was to dress like the person in the job I wanted to have, not the one I was in. Which is probably why I dress like a slob, cuz the job I want is to be sitting in my home in stretchy-pants and a huge t-shirt, writing. (And, when I work at home, that’s my biz attire!)
July 31st, 2008 at 6:54 am
Ha, ha. Indeed!
I’ve found that when I dress for the job I want to have in the corporate environment, I still don’t end up there. I’m wondering if there are elements of blaming the worker in this. Not that you shouldn’t always be presentable in some fashion, and I’m not saying don’t brush your hair, don’t bathe, don’t wear makeup, I’m just wondering about the idea that success is entirely within our reach…..
July 31st, 2008 at 9:36 am
Today the NY Times announced that men can wear shorts to work. Check it out–I’m sure there are some pics in the online version.
Sorry, but to me the “short suit” reminds me of little British boys with lollipops. Don’t know why…
July 31st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Again why I work from home. I just hate dressing up for other people…. call me lazy, but the money going into a work wardrobe cuts into my funds. I remember reading Your Money or Your Life and they said to add that into the loss of wages. That was when I was required to wear pantyhose.
Oh, and there was ALWAYS the better dressed woman with the perfect boobs and makeup that got promoted anyway. Sorry, not to be sexist, but it happens and I just never liked that woman!
July 31st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Here’s the shorts slideshow!
July 31st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
ck, yes! With the little sailor hats!
Ms T–I totally had issues with bullet point # 1 when I moved West to East. “Business casual” is not always equal.
My workplace has a policy, they just seem to have misplaced it. And they never say anything to anyone unless multiple people complain.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Fortunately, never having held an office job on the East Coast, I’ve had a lot of liberty in dress code. This helped back when I was Muslim (my mom was denied jobs in department stores because of her headscarf; she was relegated to the coat check room, if she was hired at all) - no one cared that I wore a scarf or even jilbabs. Later, I was one of the spiffier dressers at work. But that was easy given the overall attire of Northwesterners.