Another thread got me thinking about this… pretty much my entire adult life has been working in a suit-and-tie environment. I have to wear ties - no choice - and I like to mix it up with snazzy bowties as well.
I have friends that have an option, and choose to wear ties; I have friends with the option that choose NOT to wear ties; and I have friends that swear they would never accept a job where they had to wear a tie.
So - what’s your story? Must you wear a tie (Ladies - substitute whatever is analogous)? If you had a choice, would you? If you don’t now, would you take a job that required coat and tie? Or would that be a show-stopper?
In broadcasting, nobody sees you but your co-workers. Only one station where I’ve worked had a dress code, and that was only a no jeans policy. At my current station, there is only one employee who wears a jacket and tie, but it isn’t the CEO. We’re all a pretty informal bunch.
I don’t see a time coming when I will need to take a job wearing a suit and tie, so I don’t have to worry about it.
My first year of teaching I always wore a tie. The next two years I wore a tie the first month of the school year, then a sports shirt for the rest of the year. Then it was tie first week…then tie first day.
Now I wear Hawaiian shirts every day of the year, and own two ties total (for the times I **have ** to wear a suit for something). In fact, I am known for my sartorial splendor!
Well, hopefully I’ll be working in suit-and-tie jobs for the rest of my career, which is fine with me. I like dressing up, I look sharp in a shirt and tie, and I feel more confident in a suit. Even when I run errands or go out straight from work, all I do is take off my jacket, unbutton my top button, and loosen the tie, which is the perfect look for me – the “off-duty” look. Sometimes I roll up my shirt sleeves if it is hot. I just need to get buttons sewn into my suit pants to start wearing braces, and find a good fedora or a pork pie hat and I’ll really be stylin’ and profilin’.
The only problem is working in Florida, the humidity is often sweltering, and it doesn’t take much to soak through a nice pair of slacks or a suit with sweat. If I worked up north, I wouldn’t mind wearing trench coats with my suits too, but that just isn’t an option down here.
Well, I’m a female in engineering and our dress code is pretty much business casual. So the guys wear Dockers and golf shirts unless they have a client meeting. I could wear capri pants and Birks if Iwanted but khakis make me break out in hives so I stick to pencil skirts and heels. I look a lot dressier than many people in the office but I’m comfortable.
I’d have to be really, really hungry or really, really love a job that required me to wear a dress or skirt and hose. I’m allowed to wear jeans and khakis now, and I could adjust to pantsuits if necessary, but I do so HATE anything that requires pantyhose and dressy shoes. I will don a dress for formal presentations, but I would not be happy if it was the standard dress code.
Right now I’m wearing scrubs and saftey shoes I provide at work. I’ve lost t-shirts and boxers to the dreaded month of decay when they get contaminated with radioactive material. I see no use for a tie at my current position. Or pants for that matter.
I just interviewed for a job at a library that deals almost exclusively with interlibrary loan type things, so that there are may three in-the-flesh patrons in a week. Nobody really sees you except your coworkers (and then not all that often), and you end up working on ladders and doing a lot of stuff with books experiencing leather rot and other such dusty activities, so everybody dresses in jeans and sneakers and T-shirts. This applies to everybody from the head honcho on down, as far as I’ve been able to tell.
In my somewhat limited experience, having to dress up for work doesn’t bother me, but I’m much more of a jeans-and-T-shirt girl in general, so this fits in better with my normal life of classes and studying at the library. Also, since I’ll be schlepping a fair distance to work, it’s nice that I won’t have to carry an extra pair of shoes with me to change into once I get there. Assuming I’m hired, of course.
Down the line some, I see myself in jobs that require nice attire, possibly but not necessarily including suits some or most of the time. Dunno for sure yet, though. I’m fine with whatever.
I would describe my office dress code as being a conservative business casual. I typically wear dress pants and a blouse or sweater. Men usually wear khakis and golf shirts, but rarely do I see suits and ties. When I have meetings with clients or vendors, I’ll wear a pant suit, but nothing too formal. Jeans or denim of any kind are a big no-no around here.
I used to work in a “professional” dress atmosphere where suits were mandatory. It sure was uncomfortable sitting all day at my desk in a suit and panty hose. Fortunately, they changed the dress code later on to business casual.
I don’t think dress code would impact my job decision. While it would be nice to wear jeans to work, it’s not that important to me. Of course if I had the choice between two equal jobs, but one required suits and the other business casual, I’d take the job with the more comfortable dress code.
Apart from casual Fridays, we have a business casual, no-jeans policy, but it’s not explicitly enforced. I’ve been routinely wearing black* jeans to work on at least two of the first four days of the week. The other days I wear suits, over either turtlenecks or Gap T-shirts. That last bit sounds really weird I know, but it does work–the shirts are of thick material and don’t really look T-shirty.
*now fading to grey. I have got to do some shopping soon, but it’s so hard to find black jeans that I like.
I’m pretty sure that the female equivalent to the necktie is pantyhose and I will eschew any job that requires such. (Makeup and heavily-styled hair too.) I am trying to never have to wear a skirt again; job interviews are the only place I would consider such a thing.
We are definitely casual here (service center at a Univ hospital); my “uniform” is khaki pants and a dark stretch T-shirt kind of deal (one step up from an actual T-shirt). I usually wear Danskos (to not show toes at work) but since it’s Friday I have bright-colored Birkis on.
Our big boss doesn’t wear ties except when interviewing candidates; otherwise it’s Dockers-type pants and an Oxford-type shirt.
I free-lance now in television and film production and you never know when you might have to climb a tree or roll in the dirt for a shot. So jeans and a rugged cotton shirt are the norm.
Used to work at a network where the tree and dirt scenario was still a possibility but the idiot administrators wanted us to wear tie and slacks. We kept work clothes handy but we needed them pretty often. My recourse was to wear Gaultier, Karan, Gucci et al while the bosses were 50lbs. overweight in their Men’s Wearhouse specials. They hated that.
Hi-tech (programmer). Cotton pants, sometimes (rarely) even jeans; long. Shirt - either a cotton button-down or a pull-over, but always with a collar. Long or short sleeve, depending on the weather (or, in other words, how well I expect the A/C to be functioning…)
And I’m considered well-dressed here. One of the guys routinely shows up in sandals, bermudas and a T-shirt.
And what is this “tie” thing some of you have been speaking of?
'Course, this isn’t the U.S. Israelis tend to be more casual dressers in general (I don’t own a tie, and have never needed one, even for the most official of occasions)
I don’t have an official dress code, but I think my boss would raise an eyebrow if I came to work in a flannel shirt and jeans, so I’ve never tried it. I tend to wear cheap slacks and long-sleeve non-Tshirts.
I don’t like how ties feel, but if I got a job where one was necessary, I suppose I’d get used to it. I used to despise dressing up; now I very vaguely enjoy it, but don’t do it much as it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
I was always impressed at how comfortable members of the Knesset dress.
Yep, we’ve got a ways to go. I abhor ties for work but for formal affairs or out on the town they have their place.
