Less formal attire is a sign of working…harder?
In a recent Wired article entitled “Dressing for Success Means Looking Like Hell“, it was suggested that a relaxed dress code at work was often a symptom of working too hard. From the article:
Before sitting down to write this, I e-mailed a bunch of friends in various professions and asked them about their work wear. The men overwhelmingly responded with an affinity for the aforementioned stiff shirts from Brooks Brothers, as well as half-brags about their disheveled appearances at the office. “I wind up wearing my lunch more often than not” one wrote [subtext: because I eat at my desk every day]. “I wear pleated-front pants because they’re more comfortable,” another admitted [subtext: I eat at my desk every day—and every night].
Source: Wired Magazine, “Dressing for Success Means Looking Like Hell” by Ashley Muldoon
This reminds me that last year, Google employee Jason Warner mentioned in the “Brazen Careerist” blog that the average Google employee’s attire tends to be laid back, with most of them wearing jeans and t-shirts to work. It’s no surprise, since Susan Wojcicki, Google’s VP of Product Management actually said that the company’s official dress code was “You must wear clothes”. From a traditional perspective, it looks like Google encourages slacking off, but anyone who is familiar with the company knows how hard their employees actually work.
With the rise of start-ups from Generations X and Y (such as Facebook), it seems like dressing down is becoming a trend for most workplaces. It’s not such a big surprise that this has happened, since formal business attire tends to consume so much time and money - time we’d rather spend working, and money we’d rather save because of the current economic outlook.
How about you, what do you think of this trend? Do you pay attention to what you wear at work? What are your company’s policies and attitudes regarding office clothes?
Photo Credit: Image from Manu M from stock.xchng
My workplace is still pretty old-school and traditional about office attire, probably because we interact with donors at a moment’s notice (I am in the field of healthcare philanthropy.) I generally feel like I look like hell, but I’m still wearing heels, a dress or slacks & blouse, and I try to wear a blazer at least once a week. I hate it, because it doesn’t reflect my style at all, but I’m the youngest one in the office, so my “style” is generally considered upstart and informal. *sigh*
it’s hard for us, who are in the “soft” industries. I work in grant management for government organization and I work with non-profits every day. I have to look certain way, so I don’t look like I am a random college student (I look younger than my age, it’s hard to try and look my age at this point). and I have to look not too fancy, so people don’t think we have way too much money. Jeans/t-shirt and Armani business suits don’t work at all. our style is hard to define. but I do try to look presentable. but I do like the regular office uniform - white shirt, black pants. it goes well with everything. it’s not my style, but it works in funding meetings.