Workplace dress codes....is it even relevant anymore?

[Chigimus]

Saw this topic on a more local forum and wanted to bring it to this community to discuss as well. It's safe to say that traditionally if you were working in an office setting then the expectations were that you had to wear a suit and tie (as a male) or full length skirt (as a female) in order to be deemed "appropriately professional".

But over the last 10 to 15 years so, it's quite evident that many modern day offices have embraced the "business casual" approach. Men wear golf shirts, khakis, even jeans paired up with a collared shirt to some extent. Women get away with even more flexibility: capris, sandals, low cut tops, skirts showing bare legs and as short as can be as long as their asses aren't hanging out. To that end, does it even matter anymore?

I've read arguments in favor of enforcing a dress code because the type of position should reflect it. As an example, some have said they expect higher standing professionals to be suited up still: lawyers, doctors, financial advisors, etc. Whereas someone else less likely to deal with clients can get away with less like call center agents, administrative staff, etc.

I think it's all BS nowadays. I don't care if you're a slob or you're dressed to kill like James Bond. How the other person looks tells me nothing about how competent they are at their job. I've heard the argument that a person who dresses like a slob is indicative of their personality and how that can be reflected in their quality of work. While that is not an invalid argument, it's not a direct correlation either as I've seen first hand some people that are quite high performing individuals and quite frankly get themselves wrapped up with so many projects at once that it's not hard to see why they don't give a damn about what they look like because they're busy working hard.

Some of the most skilled people I know are dressed fairly casual, and when the going gets tough, they look even worse but I would rather have them on my team any day and get things successfully accomplished than to bring on some well-dressed brown-noser who lacks experience or the charisma to deal with people.

At the end of my rant, I guess what I want to know is if there is still a need in today's society to even bother with a dress code when the typical interpretation of such guidelines are pretty loose as it stands anyway? Are people still that pretentious to judge a person's ability to do their job based on their appearance? Or are we truly less discriminating as we would like to think or claim to be during this modern-day aspiration to behave with political correctness among all things?

[jjwankenobi]

Khakis, Blundstones, short sleeve collared shirt or polo. That's my unofficial uniform at work. I often meet with internal clients/external vendors so business casual is a policy for my department. Fridays I go casual, once raising some eyebrows with my "Me Grimlock No Like You" t-shirt. Whatevs.

Personally I think a uniform would be great at eliminating decisions on what to wear. Outside of the office I'm a jeans/shorts/Chuck Taylors with either a U2, STAR WARS or Transformers t-shirt so choosing my office wear for the day gets tedious when truthfully I really couldn't give a shit how I look at work.

[Sideswipe]

In my experience, even if the bar is set low for a standard in relation to proper attire, you still need a bar. Because someone will go under that bar and they need to know what an acceptable standard is. No matter how low it may be or how knowledgeable a person is.

[JLvatron]

Originally Posted by Sideswipe

In my experience, even if the bar is set low for a standard in relation to proper attire, you still need a bar. Because someone will go under that bar and they need to know what an acceptable standard is. No matter how low it may be or how knowledgeable a person is.

Good point.

[Chigimus]

Originally Posted by Sideswipe

In my experience, even if the bar is set low for a standard in relation to proper attire, you still need a bar. Because someone will go under that bar and they need to know what an acceptable standard is. No matter how low it may be or how knowledgeable a person is.

Fair enough, I suppose, in terms of setting a bottom line rather than enforcing everyone to be at the "upper" cap. But if someone is going to be "that guy" who's going to go in with just their birthday suit or PJ's, well then that's just lacking common sense altogether, lol. And I've also noticed that when women are accused of dressing in "questionable" attire, these accusations are often coming from other women. The fault is on the accuser for being distracted; how the accused was dressed is an irrelevant metric to weigh their performance.

Just as dressing below the "floor" would be frowned upon, I also think dressing up above the "cap" is inappropriate. Now don't get me wrong, I personally have no issues with wearing a full suit and tie. I just don't think that suiting up for a job is the right call. I'll gladly suit up for weddings, graduations, award galas, etc. Basically those events warrant the need to suit up because those are situations are where the whole point is to dress up to impress. Suiting up for work also does nothing to prove how well you can perform your job.

[Sir Prime A Lot]

I read Beyond too.

[Chigimus]

Originally Posted by Sir Prime A Lot

I read Beyond too.

Yup, you busted me, lol. I'm much more of a lurker on Beyond now, compared to 10 or 15 years ago, haha.

[Team Jetfire]

I wear a suit and tie Monday - Thursday with no tie on Friday. It's a bit silly, but anything less would make me feel very underdressed when meeting with my colleagues.

[Sun Swipe Prime]

Expectations are set by the people in charge, if not formally, through example.

Even if they have a casual dress code, if your boss comes in every day dressed in a suit and tie or pant suit, people will start to feel uncomfortable when they have to deal with them and are dressed down too much in comparison.

In some fields and situations, if you dress like your boss, you will make a good impression. There's a guy who cares about their looks, just like me. They must care about their job and this company as much as I do.

Like it or not, people do judge a book by its cover. Obviously you still have to bring the goods, but if you have two people of equal skill and temperament, and one is dressed in a suit and one is dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, the one dressed in the suit will be perceived by outsiders as being the one with more skill.

Obviously, different fields have different expectations, and different perceptions on dress style. A programmer in a three piece suit would stand out as odd, where a lawyer wouldn't.

[Team Jetfire]

Apparently ties are terrible or your health in general.