When I started working here, it was a suit-and-tie place, with casual Fridays (which were nicknamed “Grunge Fridays” because that’s about what people wore). After a couple years, we shifted to business casual all week, with the understanding that we need to keep a suit here at work in case something unexpected comes up that requires you to look like a grown up.
I don’t mind wearing a suit; it’s almost easier than having to decide what casual clothes to wear. But if we went back to all business, all the time, I’d have to go shopping.
The hospital where I work recently went to a new dress code for patient care staff, with an emphasis on the ‘code’ part:
[ul]
[li]Ceil Blue or White scrubs for nurses[/li][li]Royal Blue for respiratory[/li][li]Navy for non-licensed staff (nursing aides, etc.)[/li][li]Surgical Green for surgery[/li][li]You Get the Idea[/li][/ul]
Supposedly, this makes each caregiver more identifiable to the patients, but I’ve never seen any sort of decoder provided to clue them in; most probably don’t look at us that closely anyway.
My opinion of all this is “Fine, I’ll wear whatever you want me to when the office people also have to adhere to some minimum standards for dress.” As germy as hospitals can be, I’m amazed how many people show up to work in capris and slip-on sandals. I’d also like to see the big boss in a suit and tie."
I sometimes show up in my pink scrubs and offer to be sent home since I’m inappropriately attired. Will never happen as long as there’s a nursing shortage.
IT monkey here, working for an extremely conservative real estate investment trust. We have to wear suit-and-tie, except for Fridays, which are business casual. I actually don’t mind it that much, though the ties become annoying when crawling around under desks and whatnot. I actually prefer dressing somewhat more conservatively in my daily life – business casual is about the most casual I’ll go. I haven’t worn shorts in public in years.
i went to a private college prep school growing up, which had a dress code, i was forced to wear a shirt and tie and blazer against my will…
coincidentally, i have an irrational hatred of them, i HATE suits/shirt and tie/tuxedos/whatever, and have promised myself i will NEVER voluntarily wear that crap ever again, i plan to be buried in jeans and a sweatshirt, i also don’t understand why anyone would voluntarily wear that crap if they didn’t have to
i know it’s a totally immature, irrational hatred, but just seeing someone voluntarily wearing that crap irritates me
so to sum up, no, i’d never work a job with a dress code, i find that stuff to not only be extremely uncomfortable, but i look stupid wearing it, they say you work better when you feel good about the way you look, and wearing a suit/tie/whatever does NOT make me feel good
i believe Scott Adams said it best in “The Dilbert Principle”
"clothing is the lowest priority for an engineer, as long as basic decency rules are satisfied and there are no genitals or mammary glands on display, then the purpose of clothing has been achieved
you are the only one that doesn’t have to look at yourself (barring the time spent looking in a mirror)
Engineers (technicians) realize their appearence only bothers people and is therefore not worth optomizing"
There isn’t a dress code where I work, but all but one or two of the management staff wear business casual anyway. Given how young I look, not wearing jeans helps a little to convince the underlings that I’m really a grownup who’s in charge
I used to work in a quasi-Civil Service place and the vast majority of blokes wore ties. Then we got a new Chairman who had previously worked for the Virgin Group, which is headed by the oily Richard Branson who famously slops about in a jumper. So the new Chairman never wore a tie either - even when he met with the Prime Minister.
On the first occasion the new Chairman addressed the troops, one pillock asked whether he expected the workers to wear ties. He said, “Wear what you like”. After that, the majority of blokes continued to wear ties. The fools!
What’s the point of a tie, anyway? On the occasions I wore one, I would always tuck it stylishly into my shirt pocket when sitting at my desk to keep it off the keyboard and out of my tea.
I have a choice and choose not to wear a tie. I have worn one with a particular shirt that looks unfinished without a tie and people were wondering if I was interviewing for another job.
My current job is business casual dress. I wear jeans to work.
I’ll wear a tie if I’m interviewing for a job. I’ll wear one if SWMBO threatens to hurt me if I don’t. Otherwise, I hate the damn things. I can’t think of a more useless piece of male dress. Well, we don’t wear codpieces any more, so I guess I should say current male dress.
And usually if it’s wintertime, I can get away with a turtleneck and no tie in a “dress-up” occasion. But summertimes, no such luck.
In most of the news rooms I have worked the rule has been Publisher - suit, editors - shirts and ties for men and something comperable for women, reporters - collered shirts.
Casual. My boss has been known to wear Hawaiin shirts.
99% I wear jeans. In the winter I usually wear casual sweaters.
In the summer, I often wear casual sweaters (air conditioning).
Our CEO (who is a billionaire) says that the only purpose of a tie is to protect one’s buttons from soup. The only time I wear a tie is when up on the stage of a big conference. Half the presenters don’t wear ties anymore.
I wear button down shirts and dockers and real shoes, and I’m overdressed around here. Course I work in Silicon Valley. But even 25 years ago, when I started at Bell Labs, almost no one wore ties.
One of the brilliant things about working in Higher Ed is that you can establish yourself as a quirky dresser and it adds to your street cred. I work in adminstration, and we’re tacitly expected to monitor ourselves and dress appropriately if the situation calls for it, but if my calendar is clear of any meetings with folks from the outside world, I can more or less wear anything I want. A while back, someone had a question about the “official” dress code, and it took us about two weeks to find a copy of it. The gist was that people should dress appropriately for their specific office, but it didn’t specify what that was.
The b-school is a big exception – corporate dress is practically required, even for undergrads. I’ve been in many meetings with business students who are definitely dressed better than I am.
It’s funny to realize that there are unofficial dress codes that people adhere to at the university – ratty tweed jackets that haven’t been dry-cleaned since Nixon was in office are perfectly fine, but plaid golf pants (new and clean, even!) would be decidedly frowned upon.
I will either wear suits, of the skirt and jacket variety, or something slightly more casual, but always being a skirt, depending on what I’m doing on a given day. I never wear something so casual that I’m not prepared to meet with just about anybody because my days can sometimes be unpredictable.
And yep, I know how many women feel about pantyhose/nylons/tights; and I can honestly say that I find them very comfortable. Which is a lucky thing, I guess.
I wear sweats and white T-shirts. That way, I can bleach the T-shirts when one of the kids pees or barfs on me.
I used to wear nice clothes, including pantyhose, high heels, and dresses. I loved that. I always felt so feminine, ladylike, pretty. I love the way pantyhose feel against my legs, and I like the extra height I get from high heels. I like being a girly-girl, but it just isn’t practical, chasing after two little boys at home.
I still put on a dress and heels, every now and then, just so I feel like a girl again. My SO is always pleasantly surprised.
Dress codes have always bothered me. First of all, I hate the “subtle” hints behind a dress code. If I am supposed to show up at work every day in a tie, then just tell me to wear a tie everyday. I also go nuts with the constantly changing dress codes. It really sucks to have to buy a bunch of work clothes over the weekend because the dress code is changing. I’d just be honest, “We have a casual dress code, but there are X number of days per year in which we expect you to be in business dress as we have clients visiting on those days.” “Our casual dress code allows jeans, but we don’t want anyone showing up like they’re ready to work on the yard. We don’t allow: shorts, skorts, capris, or anything else that looks like it might be shorts.”
Currently working in an office where we pretty much only see our co-workers, It’s ‘office with an emphasis on casual’ - no T-shirts, but a button-down shirt or nice sweater, with nice jeans or khakis. Shoes are, oddly, an ‘anything goes’ area there, and I usually go with my chunky black not-quite-sneakers (sorta imitation Doc martins), mostly because they give me an extra inch of height.
I don’t like it, but I’ll (hopefully) eventually end up in a much more formal environment, due to the nature of the career I’m hoping for…
I have two jobs. The first requries me to roll out of bed put on my uniform and get there. The second requires starching and pressing of my shirt and pants, and tying a full windsor knot. One job requires that I am certified to save lives, the other requires me to be efficient and pleasant. I often wonder about the value that people place on attire. I suppose that there is an image projection issue here, but really, isn’t it all about what someone knows or can do?
Skirts, dresses, pants suits or dress slacks and blouse where I work. No denim --except white denim-- no open-toed shoes, sling-backs, or sandals, no skirts or dresses more than two inches above the knee. Must wear stockings or trouser socks. Not sure if I can do capris and polos this summer at this place (first summer here as a “real” employee and not a contractor), but I’ll find out, because I live all summer in polos of many colors, and I love capris.
It’s cool with me; I work three days a week and this is a pretty fun job, so who am I to complain?
I work for a technical consulting company which is partly located on an Air Force base. The de facto standard is usually Dockers and a dress shirt or polo shirt, but there are a few old farts and a couple of young farts who wear suits. The “tenured professor” look also occurs among the older crowd (jacket, preferably threadbare and corduroy, but no tie). The president of our company is said to be picky about clothing, and your correspondent keeps a tie in his desk drawer in case Mr. President comes calling. He also decreed that we should not wear jeans or tennis shoes when meeting with outside people, but there is no enforcement.
There’s one old hippie in the IT department with a beard and long hair who wears a ratty old sweatshirt, shorts, and sandals every day. I guess he’s pretty good, because nobody ever hassles him about his outfit. He never has to deal with people outside the company, so I guess it’s OK. It reminds me of an Onion headline that went something like, “Company Forced To Tolerate Computer Guy’s Wolfman-Like Beard”.
I work for a financial services company. Those of us without client contact have a business casual dress code. We went to it about 5 years ago when we couldn’t get good IT candidates to accept our offers. Management wasn’t willing to pay them the market wage, but they were willing to give them a business casual dress code. After a while, it was stupid to have half the office in business casual and the rest in suits so we all went business casual.
I like it, but I’d never take a position based on dress code (within reason–I suppose if the dress code was pasties and a g-string I’d pass on that offer). I’m always amazed that people won’t take a job because they have to wear suits. I respect their opinion. It’s just very different from mine. How I dress isn’t that important to me.
