# Are you required to dress up at work? Pressured or encouraged to? Do you resent it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206 "2013-02-13T19:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/121 "2013-02-15T01:37:48Z")
> [@solosam](#): > > Irrelevant. Even if the dress code at the workplace is casual, you still look your best for the interview. The last time I interviewed I wore the same clothes I always wear, a collar shirt and khakis. I work in Silicon Valley, have a good bit of experience and somewhat of a reputation, and if I wore a suit I would seem quite clueless. (I got the job, no problem.) College students get dressed up for interviews, experienced people don’t. Hell, even the salespeople who call on us don’t wear suits anymore. Around here anyone who thought he was outcompeting his colleagues by dressing better would be considered quite odd. Never run into anyone like this I’m happy to say. In the current and previous company, no one in the management chain up to and including the billionaire CEOs wore either suits or ties. In fact, one of the first pieces of information I got was a news story about our CEO hating ties, and wearing a suit under protest when meeting with the Premier of China. Back 20 years ago at Bell Labs the second level managers wore suits, but they were a dying breed. My last one had pointy hair anyway. No, around here you get credit for what you do, not what you wear. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/122 "2013-02-15T04:38:29Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Yesterday I did an exit interview with a subordinate who’s leaving the company because his wife got transferred elsewhere. “Mike,” who is in his mid-twenties (almost two decades my junior) is a middling employee: not great, but not bad. As we were going through the checklist, Mike asked if I minded his making a personal observation. When I said it was okay, he commented that he’d always been bothered a little by the fact that I wear a coat & tie to work every day. Our division has a business casual dress code, you see, and the fact that I’m usually in a suit made him feel slightly uncomfortable; that, and the fact that I’ve often advised people that if they’re looking for a promotion they should dress for the job they want, not the one they have (hardly an original observation on my point.) I can kind of see his (Mike’s) point, you know? If you’re the only one wearing a suit and tie in an environment where the dress code is business casual, it might come across as if you’re trying to set yourself apart from and above everyone else. And if you’re advising people seeking promotion that they should go above and beyond the dress code, it comes across as if you’re saying that, “well, the company may have its dress code, but I have mine, and in addition to doing your job, even doing it brilliantly, you’ll have to measure up to my standards of fashion.” Look, I don’t know you, and you’re probably not meaning to seem like that at all, but I can see this guy Mike’s point. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/123 "2013-02-15T14:16:03Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I work in Silicon Valley, have a good bit of experience and somewhat of a reputation, and if I wore a suit I would seem quite clueless. […] College students get dressed up for interviews, experienced people don’t. Hell, even the salespeople who call on us don’t wear suits anymore. > > No, around here you get credit for what you do, not what you wear. These sentences seem to contradict each other. Your post implies that wearing a suit would damage your reputation, and that you do get credit for wearing khaki. Here in Northern Virginia, the work apparel situation is slightly schizoid, because this is the technology corridor for the federal government, so you get casual techie styles overlaid on the Washington, DC area, which is one of the dressiest areas in the USA. I like living here because I like to dress nice and fortunately in DC I don’t appear weird for doing so, but there was that one interview at a tech company out near Dulles Airport where they made me feel so overdressed in my best suit. (I’m not a techie, I’m a linguist, but somehow in federal contracting the linguists are always lumped in with techies.) My very stylish GF is from Pittsburgh and when we talk about clothes she often recalls how in Pittsburgh people not only do not dress up nice, they go shopping in their pajamas. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/124 "2013-02-15T16:05:30Z")
In my case it depends on the specific project and where it is located. The current project means I’m working in a factory; everybody with one exception wears either jeans or company-provided protective gear. In fact, the lumberjack shirts you often see around are company-provided, being considered “safety gear”. The one exception is a consultant (not from my own contractor) who wears suits because his company requires it; so far he’s been asked “why don’t you wear jeans like normal people?” by: - the factory manager (two factories, actually), - the finance manager, - the production managers of both factories, - one of the lab techs, - and three of the four “admin” ladies. In a previous job for the same customer, I worked in their Home Office, in a city whose women don’t so much dress to kill as to make mincemeat of anybody in their path. As one of my coworkers would put it when he proposed we finish our lunch break sitting down in the patio, “let’s go watch the catwalk”. While suits were rare (hallellujah, these hips were not made for pencil skirts), bet cher ass I dressed up. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/125 "2013-02-15T16:14:33Z")
I work for a small internet based business and its basically ruined me for life. I can wear jeans and t-shirts every day if I wish even if some of the shirts are borderline offensive. I’m rarely near the general public and outside the normal flow of the other staff so as long as I keep making my boss wealthy, he couldn’t care less. For shits and giggles I dress appropriate to the holidays sometimes when asked to work them (I got my Rev War uniform ready for Monday and last year I got a wig and dressed at Taft) and every now and then I’ll wear a tux or suit. Like I said - ruined for life. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/126 "2013-02-15T16:19:57Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The last time I interviewed I wore the same clothes I always wear, a collar shirt and khakis. I work in Silicon Valley, have a good bit of experience and somewhat of a reputation, and if I wore a suit I would seem quite clueless. (I got the job, no problem.) College students get dressed up for interviews, experienced people don’t. Hell, even the salespeople who call on us don’t wear suits anymore. A lot of business people out there dress what I call “Palo Alto business casual”. Jeans, sports jacket and casual button down. What was weird was in the last tech company where I worked, the NY office dressed casual to outright embarassingly sloppy while the Silicon Valley office was more corporate. > [@Saintly Loser](#): > > If you’re the only one wearing a suit and tie in an environment where the dress code is business casual, it might come across as if you’re trying to set yourself apart from and above everyone else. Or it looks like a weird affectation. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/127 "2013-02-15T16:21:09Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Also, if my boss’s boss (soon to be simply my boss, yay!) is scheduled to visit, everybody has to dress up, though that may change soon. Heeey, I hadn’t seen that before answering! Congratulations 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/128 "2013-02-15T17:05:36Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > We seem to be seeing the same trend in professional environments. The organization is supposed to focus only on what the person thinks they’re good at, rather than expect a well-rounded individual that can do the job and look professional, behave properly around other adults, or have a host of other skills that are just as vital to creating a solid work environment as their productivity numbers. It’s just another way we’re being asked to lower our expectations from people. …what? Trust me, our clients love our work, attitude and communication style even though we’re meeting with them in t-shirts and jeans. We can do our jobs, behave courteously around other adults and communicate effectively without wearing business clothes. In fact, most of the sources of drama in the office are from the business side where everyone dresses professionally but acts like inappropriate characters from Mad Men. BTW, I work in the tech/creative department at a marketing agency. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/129 "2013-02-15T17:08:25Z")
Uniforms of course for those on the road. Currently as a detective during non-summer months I wear dress shirt and tie. In the summer we are allowed to wear department polo shirts. On court days (which are much less frequent than TV) I wear a suit. I hate ties and would get rid of them if I could. But I do have to admit I look better wearing one ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/130 "2013-02-15T18:24:34Z")
This thread reminds me of the day an employee suggested we have casual Fridays. I thought the idea was ridiculous and told her no, that I didn’t think it was necessary. Yes, we have a very strict dress code. We are a medical facility and clinic employees are provided with scrubs with the company logo in assorted colors and they must wear white sneakers. Business people have a choice of business casual or scrubs. I found the casual Friday request odd because what could be more comfortable than scrubs and sneakers? I along with other management wear business suits every day by choice. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/131 "2013-02-15T18:39:56Z")
> [@Foxy40](#): > > I found the casual Friday request odd because what could be more comfortable than scrubs and sneakers? Wet T Shirt Wednesdays?😛 ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/132 "2013-02-15T19:30:19Z")
My company has been around for nearly 2 centuries and will undoubtedly be around for 2 centuries after hajario’s company goes the way of the Boombox.\* At the company’s HQ, the dress code is formal, as you’d expect in an executive wing: suits and ties, or the equivalent. At the technical centers, where the Geeks live, it’s much more casual. Most of us wear pressed trousers or skirts and a nicer top or sweater. Basically something you’d wear to church. A few put on a tie. I will say that the Engineers tend to look the least put together of any group. I’m pretty sure that there’s a correlation between the number of wrinkles in their brain and the number of wrinkles in their Dockers. Because, without fail, they WILL be wearing unironed Dockers, unpolished shoes, and a collared shirt, faded by too many washings. You can see a Marketing person coming a mile away because they will be dressed in something edgy and trendy, something that will make them cringe in 20 years when they look back at photographs. For the men, it means that their pants and jackets will, by design, be either too tight or too short. I’m talking jackets that gape or pants that end before the shoe starts. If a man is wearing skinny jeans, you can bet he’s in Marketing. I think they’re trying to look European or something. The Marketing women follow whatever’s trendy, no matter how ridiculous it looks. If pairing a sleeveless sun dress with knee high leather boots is “in” then that’s what they’ll be wearing. En masse. Ironically, their trendy garb distinguishes them as marketers more successfully than any polyester uniform could hope to do. \*Relax, I’m kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/133 "2013-02-15T21:39:40Z")
I just searched on my company’s employee site for “dress code” and got a message I’ve never seen in 19.75 years employed here: No Results Found. A guy in my group once came in wearing a sport coat. He was asked by various co-workers if he was going to a funeral, an interview, or a costume party. It’s a big company though, and some people - mostly in the HQ building - do dress up more. I’m sure our CEO wears a suit and tie when he meets with heads of state, for instance. But we’re just mapping data into the warehouse and designing reporting tools so we pretty much wear clean clothes which cover our bodies appropriately and leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/134 "2013-02-15T21:45:50Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The last time I interviewed I wore the same clothes I always wear, a collar shirt and khakis. I work in Silicon Valley, have a good bit of experience and somewhat of a reputation, and if I wore a suit I would seem quite clueless. (I got the job, no problem.) College students get dressed up for interviews, experienced people don’t. Hell, even the salespeople who call on us don’t wear suits anymore. > Around here anyone who thought he was outcompeting his colleagues by dressing better would be considered quite odd. Never run into anyone like this I’m happy to say. In the current and previous company, no one in the management chain up to and including the billionaire CEOs wore either suits or ties. In fact, one of the first pieces of information I got was a news story about our CEO hating ties, and wearing a suit under protest when meeting with the Premier of China. > > Back 20 years ago at Bell Labs the second level managers wore suits, but they were a dying breed. My last one had pointy hair anyway. > > No, around here you get credit for what you do, not what you wear. Good lord - I think we work at the same company. I edited my last post to read “heads of state” from “Premier of China”. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/135 "2013-02-15T21:46:52Z")
I’m an engineer at a federally-run, nationally-renowned R&D lab. I make good money and have my own office. Six people report to me. Most of the other engineers wear dress clothes. About half wear ties. I wear jeans, tennis shoes, and a non-collared, long-sleeved shirt every day. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/136 "2013-02-15T23:38:03Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > My company has been around for nearly 2 centuries and will undoubtedly be around for 2 centuries after hajario’s company goes the way of the Boombox.\* At the company’s HQ, the dress code is formal, as you’d expect in an executive wing: suits and ties, or the equivalent. I used to work for a company that has been around for more than two centuries\* and the dress code was the same. \*technically a wholly owned subsidiary of said company ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/137 "2013-02-15T23:59:42Z")
There’s not a detailed dress code, but we are expected to dress at least semi-formally: slacks, shirt and tie for men; slacks, skirt, or dress for women. Japan has this thing about shoes, as in you often have to change them to “indoor” shoes, depending on the location. A lot of people end up with incongruous footwear for indoors. Many of my co-workers wear sneakers or sandals with their suits. I bought decent semi-formal shoes so that I don’t look like a peasant playing dress up. I wear a full suit on days when I have to interact with the public. I wear slacks or dress pants and a button-up shirt with a collar every day, and almost always wear a tie also. I often wear a sport coat or similar jacket, except in summer. Summers in Japan are brutally hot and humid. Some places don’t use air conditioning except on the hottest days, and those that do use it will often have it set between 26ºC and 28ºC (78ºF—82ºF) per energy-saving recommendations. They sell “summer suits” here, but frankly they almost always look shitty. They aren’t seersucker or linen or good summer-weight wool, like you see for formal wear in the South and the Caribbean. They just look cheap most of the time. I actually dress better than we’re tacitly required to, most of the time. Even when I’m “dressed down” compared to my co-workers, I tend to pick classic styles instead of trendy things, and quality over quantity, so I often look better (at least I think so) in slacks and a sport coat than they do in their cheap “fashionable” suits that will look dated in a year or two. My thinking is, if you’re going to do it, do it right. If you’re going to dress up, buy good stuff that will still look great in 10–20 years. Of course, my comfort clothes — what I change into when I get home and hang up my nice things — are jeans, khakis or 6 pocket pants; t-shirts (usually plain); casual button-up shirts; and, as cold as it is right now, a nice wool sweater. But even on my (rare) days off, I tend to dress far less casually than I did when I was in my 20s. Part of that is due to maturity, being accustomed to more formal styles, and part of is is that I can actually afford to dress well. Thirty-dollar jeans and a $20 shirt used to be “dressed up” since I couldn’t afford a suit that cost hundreds of dollars, even if a good suit would last for years. Now, I can buy that suit, and since I can afford it, I buy better quality things that last longer even if I am buying casual clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/138 "2013-02-16T00:23:06Z")
Women are required to wear pantyhose with skirts or dresses. My boss never does in the summer. I can’t wait for her to get busted. Jeans are forbidden, but I’ve been wearing jeans every Friday for more than five years without drawing complaint, because they aren’t blue jeans. I alternate black and tan jeans. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/139 "2013-02-16T18:33:55Z")
In my court, we’re all expected to expected be in jacket- or suit-and-tie for men, and equivalent businesswear for women. Secretarial and support staff can be in “business casual,” loosely defined. There are dress-down days as fundraisers every month or two, but I don’t take part, because I never know when I might have to take the bench. I don’t mind it. I prefer and am more comfortable being formally dressed for my work for the reasons stated in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206/140 "2013-02-17T19:59:02Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I can kind of see his (Mike’s) point, you know? > > If you’re the only one wearing a suit and tie in an environment where the dress code is business casual, it might come across as if you’re trying to set yourself apart from and above everyone else. > > And if you’re advising people seeking promotion that they should go above and beyond the dress code, it comes across as if you’re saying that, “well, the company may have its dress code, but I have mine, and in addition to doing your job, even doing it brilliantly, you’ll have to measure up to my standards of fashion.” > > Look, I don’t know you, and you’re probably not meaning to seem like that at all, but I can see this guy Mike’s point. I’m not the only person who wears suit & ties, though I’m probably the most consistent. As I said, I find them comfortable. As for the promotion issue: it’s more that I’ve told people, “I know the hoops you’ll have to jump through to get promoted to field sales. You’ll have to impress not me --I won’t be the person interviewing you for that job – but my boss. If they notice that you’re consistently dressed like a field sales person, they’ll give you more credence when you’re applying for that sort of job.” That does bring up an issue, though. As of the first week of March, I’ll be in my current boss’s position (which is both good news & bad). I’m not sure what attitude I’ll take about the casually dressed young folk then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-required-to-dress-up-at-work-pressured-or-encouraged-to-do-you-resent-it/650206.md?page=8)