Do We Need Dress Codes?
Dressing for work was once a simple blue-collar and white-collar decision. Dress codes took the guesswork out of dressing by giving us direction. You always knew what was or was not appropriate. And you always knew who the decision makers were by their selection and quality of clothing. This has changed in most industries with the popularity of business casual, and the new roles of management. In fact, many organizations have renamed their managers “team leaders,” and casual dress is the norm for all levels. The business dress line started to blur during the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s when a record number of companies were “downsizing.” The “casual Friday” custom was instituted as a way to build morale at a time when pink slips were rampant. Eventually, casual dress became the norm for the entire week at many companies. The risk was in the interpretation, especially during warmer weather and when the fashion industry was promoting a new fad that found its way into the workplace.
Then the dotcom boom took business casual to business grunge. With fewer people in the workforce, more people had to work extra long hours. Dressing for comfort simply was not argued. It didn’t matter how you looked as long as ideas prevailed. This is now changing. How you present your ideas is just as important as the ideas themselves. Ideas need visual reassurances and support. Casual dress was also a contributing factor toward leveling the playing field. Prior to the business casual trend, if a man removed his jacket and tie he was “getting down to business.” When a woman removed her jacket, she was considered a weaker player. With everyone dressing casually it was often difficult to separate management from staff; consequently, it put everyone at the same visual level. However, when it went to the extreme, it weakened the playing field for both men and women.
Today there is a movement toward returning to dress codes as a way to better define appropriate and inappropriate business apparel. It is all about dressing to complement the corporate brand to help support and gain the competitive edge. Business casual is being upgraded and better defined. In some instances, the higher the position the more traditional the business attire expectations. Most importantly, you should dress the way your clients or customers expect a person in your position to dress. This often appeases the “in my day” mindset of your clients. Dress codes provide direction. There have been too many mixed messages from society and the fashion industry. Plus, employees coming from a more relaxed industry may easily assume that their interpretation of casual dress is appropriate in yours. People today need standards and are looking for guidance. In fact, the interview suit is back. Even if the human resource department is dressed casually, most expect an interview suit on the first interview.
This is a strong sign that the relaxed side of business casual is weakening and a focus on a more professional dress is strengthening. Men are asking how to tie a tie because, until recently, they did not need to know. Women are asking whether the length of their skirt is professional, and if they should wear hosiery. More and more companies are eliminating “jean days” at work and those that remain are using a jean day as a fundraiser. Personally, I feel this “perk” is best practiced by low-profile individuals. Decision makers, trainers, and highly visible individuals should dress a step up and avoid jeans; however, they still contribute to the “cause.” The effort to take business casual to a more professional level will take time. Workplace attire is still moving in many different directions and will always be influenced by fads or trends. It is up to each individual to select the style of dress that best matches their goals.
What are your thoughts appropriate workplace attire? Your comments will help us create a Professional Appearance Style Code that best meets industry standards.
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Do you choose your attire to meet your personal (casual) comfort level or to best reflect the corporate brand?
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When you are the customer, how do you react to someone’s appearance when it is too casual or inappropriate? What do you consider inappropriate?
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How do you dress when you want to exude power, credibility, and authority?
Or just weigh in on your experience with dress codes and their effect on the workplace. If you are a corporate decision maker, please identify your industry and comment on appropriate and inappropriate workplace dress and grooming.
April 27, 2007 at 1:32 pm |
I dress to “beat” expectations. I always dress to mirror the managers one or two levels above me because it gives me an edge with upper management. Since I dress in ways that look like I belong in their circle….I often get included in conversations with them on a business level and personal level. I believe it gives me instant credibility and visibility that my work product alone wouldn’ t necessarily bring to light in the C Suite.
When I’m in the customer role…I shy away from sales people or other staff that look unkept or too casual for the environment. Like it or not, people make snap judgements on others based on first impressions. In order for someone to win my business they must appear professional, like the experts in their field and then be articulate. Many of the people I shy away from might very well be articulate but they look so opposite that I just don’t waste my time.
I’ve worked in the high tech industry in California and have experience with business causal meaning “jeans all day every day”. I find that business causal is a very wide target….from jeans to dockers to rock t-shirts to lacey tank tops. Even in that industry telling the difference between a true software professional and someone who might be “genius” but works out of their basement with little formal education was difficult, but who would you engage with if you had a computer problem? The leaders in the field such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates aren’t rigid blue suit types, but rather have set a new style of casual that High Tech has moved toward and I for one applaud their standards.
At my current employer, we have all ages making up our staff – from right out of college to ready to retire. The baby boomers remember when women weren’t allowed to wear pants to work at all…and the college staffers have bought into the notion that wearing lingerie to work is perfectly acceptable if it is under an unbottoned jacket. Dress Code you say? We do have quite a specific written policy but it is not enforced. None of the managers want to have that dress code chat with an offending member of their team – lest discrimination or sexual harrassment be threatened. Our CFO, Monday through Friday dresses right out of IBM’s play book of the 80s, but on casual Friday’s wears the “rattiest” old grey hooded sweatshirt that hasn’t fit him since his college days!
I’d like to see a swing back to business professional and casual being carefully defined and enforced. I have even encouraged businesses to provide logo polo shirts for staff to wear on casual days to eliminate the overly broad personal definition that some exhibit when facing their closet at 6 a.m., on casual days. If one dresses for work the same as if they were going out with friends on weekends, I see that as a problem. I know telecommuters who probably wear fuzzy slippers and flannel robes all day long at home, but when there is a business meeting at the office, they are the model of professional and that’s what I want to see across from my desk…..Felix Unger not Oscar Madison…..Condi Rice not Brittany Spears.
April 30, 2007 at 8:38 am |
I’m in the corporate special events field. We have a very small office where we rarely meet with clients so we dress for comfort – khaki almost every day (jeans on weekends only).
We do dress when we meet with clients. We’re the professionals. Our clients pay us for our expertise. We dress out of respect for them.
My primary reason for response, however, is not to express an opinion on office attire, it’s to plead a case for attire during travel abroad.
We plan incentive programs for our clients, many which take place in Mexico and Caribbean where evening attire is dressier than here in the states. I can’t tell you the amount of resistance we get from our clients when we recommend that their attendees follow the local custom where men are expected to wear long pants and closed toe shoes at dinner. I’m amazed at the resistance. Since when did Americans become so oblivious (disrespectful?) to other nationalities?
It’s discouraging to me.
August 5, 2007 at 9:16 am |
Interesting that I am the first male respondant. Does this suggest women are generally more attentive/sensitive to appearence than men? Maybe, but more likely is the way we percieve the world – some place greater emphasis on looks, some on the audio (sounds/tone/clarity of speech), some by content, etc. But where first apppearences count (that first meeting with the customer/client) then there is no doubt that, to some degree or other, first impressions count – big time.
I am British and I can say that, the (US) business-attire trends Gloria has described are pretty much what has happened in Europe as well. I always enjoy playing “spot the nationality” at airports. Males of all nationalities can hide behind a uniform dark-blue business suit. But where individuals are being a little more, well, individual and wish to make a “I’m unique and have innovative ideas” impression, here are some EU generalities :
# German men wear quite bright colours and well coordinated, slightly casual trousers (called “pants” in US) and shirt, often with a linen jacket. Missing ties do not indicate poor dress sense as the rest of the ensemble works so well together.
# French, Italian, and Spanish take this look a bit further but always accompanied by great shoes and accessories. Ties are often bright but always well coodinated.
# British men sadly tend to stick to the dark-blue uniform, though some of us are adopting the “mainland Europe” look.
By contrast, women have a much wider range of options open to them and European business women (the numbers of which still lag the US as a % of the business community) usually go for the business-skirt-suit.
But of course, the one key thing for men & women is to dress to suit the situation AND to suit yourself. There are far too many sad examples of people wearing the prescribed business uniform but it clearly does not fit their body or their style. In those cases, they need to buck the trend.
In my line of automotive engineering, even most managers have an engineering background and are less disposed to place substantial emphasis on looks. This is encapsulated in the strong distrust of, what our engineers would call, the “slimey salesman look”. If someone is too sharply dressed, it almost suggests more form than content, and would be viewed suspiciously. However, they’ll always be given time to show their smarts, or enough rope to hang themselves if they are devoid of content.
In conclusion, the adage I operate by, as an engineer now director, is to always dress up one level because you may meet someone more senior than you had expected to meet. It’s easier to talk amicably to engineers in your jacket and tie and win them over, rather than trying to convince a VP that your Black-Sabbath T-Shirt is no reflection of your busniness acumen.
November 20, 2007 at 1:10 pm |
Yesterday, I met with a young man identified as a future president of the company, on a 10 year plan. If he continues to dress the same way, it will never happen. Or should never happen.
As a Communication Coach, you might ask what does his dress have to do with his leadership style? Only everything. Even today, the world, his world, has not changed THAT much.
I have a different way of dressing. In advance of meeting this young man, his CEO said to me he did not know if my style would mesh with the young man’s style. My answer was that today’s leaders need creative ways to resolve challenges, period. My style of dress reflects my creative approach. I have a 100% rate of confidence in the way that I dress. Do you? Does this young man?
If the way you dress reflects or supports your message, yeah. How many of today’s casual or grunge dressers have no idea of the message that they are communicating? No idea, no good.