Ok, so the company’s performance in the last two years has been crummy (not unlike the economy in general or our industry…)
About five years ago, the office went from shirt-n-tie to business casual.
Now, CEO says that they are considering going back to shirt-n-tie businesswear, since it’s obviously an established fact that people who look professional tend to act the part. So the equation goes nicer clothes= more professional = more $$.
Overall, there are only a few sloppy induhviduals in the group, everyone else looks sharp in their dockers and polos.
To me, this sounds like psudeoscientific feel-good BS, but he accepts it as gospel.
Now, we’re not talking about salespeople who go meet with clients to make face-to-face sales, we’re talking about 8x5 cubedwellers like me who rarely see customers, much less talk to them. Am I going to work harder because I’m wearing a tie??
Are there any published research that definatively links the two?
The major problem with this philosophy is that it focuses on image, not substance. As you mentioned, this would certainly be important with people that deal with clients, but for everyone else I would think it’s irrelevant. The real issue is that it encourages people to think in terms of appearing to be professional, but not actually being so. Everyone’s been to meetings where flashy presentations of no substance waste time and money. Well, how do you think it got in employees’ head that that was acceptable?
If you do get a published report asserting that point, I would immediately look to see whether it was financed by Brooks Brothers or some similar outfit.
I have known some outstanding workers who dressed quite well. However, I have known far more spify dressers who were using their appearance to cover for their complete lack of competence. Alternatively, I have known a number of quite casual dressers who were outstanding workers (along with a couple of slobs who could not put together their work any better than their outfits).
If people truly worked harder when dressed up, then the 1980s and 1970s should have had far higher productivity rates in the U.S. than the 1990s, when casual dress began to sweep various industries. In fact, U.S. productivity has been steadily increasing right through the period of the abolition (or great loosening) of the dress code.One view of productivity and the work week, (dress codes not addressed).
I’d say that most people are happier in more casual attire, though there are exceptions. I think if you’re happier you’ll produce more. And sometimes it doesn’t matter much if you deal with the public, in my opinion. For instance, the major grocery chains (currently under strike in my area), traditionally require their clerks and other staff to wear dark slacks, and in some cases a dress shirt and tie. Over all goes an apron or vest. But the alternative chains like Whole Foods seem to be a little more relaxed. The workers still have to wear some kind of identifying vest or apron, but are allowed to wear jeans underneath. Be that as it may, I don’t form any different impression of the clerks or the service they render me in either type of store. Except, perhaps, they always seem a little happier in the more casual environment. All in all, I’d rather go to a store where the workers seem happier, though obviously many other factors contribute to making the choice.
As an interesting sideline, the strikebreakers currently staffing the major chains here are also allowed a much more relaxed dress code than the regular workers.
A theory I developed while reading this thread is that perhaps being uncomfortable (in a tie) would make me focus more, relax less and work harder, especially in hopes that I might not have to stay at work as long.
The trouble with your theory is that the more work you complete, the more work they give you to complete.
Anyhoo, here’s my theory: some people (me) will work well no matter what they wear. Some people will work badly no matter what they wear. Most people will work better when they are happy. Comfortable clothes make people happier than suit & tie. Any conclusions are your own.
I have read a lot that suggests “dressing the part” helps you play the part. If I wanted to act like a Renaissance lord, putting on tights and funny clothes would help. If I wanted to act like a hardcore businessman, I’d put on a three piece and sleep with my secretary (well, not really). However, I’ve never seen any research to back this up. It’s one of those things everybody thinks, but no one’s done any research on. At least, a quick search in my University’s database of research journals using “productivity dress” and “productivity clothing” didn’t turn anything up.
I can only report anecdotally that I am a sloppy dresser. I’m also the first in and one of the last out at my primary job. Fortunately, as a professor I can get away with this. I personally believe that the pink slippers I wear in my office are both great for my productivity and a good source of entertainment for my students.
The trouble with your theory is that the more work you complete, the more work they give you to complete.
QUOTE]
This is true. My last job had this idiot secretary who used to go on about how much work she had and how she would have to come in on weekends to finish it. What the hells the point? It’s not like there’s a finite stack of papers and once you file them all, you get to retire. We’ll just add more to the pile as fast as you take it away at the other end.
I never understood the “workaholic” attitude. I can’t fathom what some people find so fascinating about their white collar paper pushing cubical job that they think it’s a badge of honor to put in 70 hours a week. I’m far more impressed by someone like my neighbor who has managed to live a job-free Kramer-like existance for the past 2 1/2 years.
As for the OP, clothes, happieness, and other touchie-feelie bullshit don’t really affect productivity and yet they do kind of.
People’s productivity is dependent on:
Their inner drive to do a particular kind of work (iow, what kinds of tasks get you fired up)
How closely aligned your actual job is to your talents and interest areas (ie for some reason, I can work on a database for hours yet working on a balance sheet makes me want to fling myself off a building)
Your dedication to your company/team (do you feel like you are working towards a common goal or do you feel your are performing tasks just to do them)
The general sense of professionalism (this is where clothes can come in) - do people take their work seriously or does the company have a lackadaisical attitude.
Fear/ institutional pressure to succeed (are you worried that you will get terminated if you don’t work hard or are there no consequences for poor performance)
As for my own annecdotal experience, I tend to feel how I look. If I’m in a suit, I feel more professional. If I’m in jeans and a sweater, I’m more laid back.
All things considered, since I am going to be miserable at work anyway, I would rather be comfortible.
It seems to me that this is one of those issues which people are supremely unqualified to judge their own reactions to. What people may “think” has more to do with their pre-concieved notions than any real observations. A full blown study would be interesting and, from experience, this sounds like one of those areas where “established wisdom” turns out to be amazingly wrong.
I suspect there is some kind of truth in there, but it may not be exactly as it seems, for example:
A workplace where dress code is rigid may tend to repel prospective employees (and tend to expel current ones) that care less about their presentation and this may be related to a general attitude of non-caring about other things that the employer holds as important.
A workplace where dress code is rigidly adhered to could imply a general atmosphere of tight managerial control and this control could be the actual factor that keeps everyone on their toes.
Now whether these factors are significant enough to outbalance all the other stuff, some of which is random, I couldn’t say.
The company I work for has grown by assimilating other companies in the same buisiness, consequently there are (at least) four distinct cultures at various locations. At my ‘home’ office we are expected to do the shirt-n-tie thing though no customers get to see us. When I commute to office B it’s casual. The working atmospheres in both places are pretty much the same.
The only (ahem) “people” to wear the whole whistle-n-flute thing are sales.
But what the pro-dress crowd fails to be able to address is the guy who follows the letter of the law but not the spirit.
Does the guy wearing the lime green K-Mart shirt, 2 sizes too big, with the stained blue, gray and red striped tie, the wrinkled, never-been-washed, shiny-assed brown pants, the scuffed slip-on shoes and plaid socks, look (and feel) more professional than the business-casual guy?
To my mind, these kinds of policy decisions imply lazy management. It’s easier to define a clear standard for everyone (well, men anyway) that can be plainly measured, like tie/no tie. It’s harder to define and maintain a standard for business-casual. The guy described above would just lose the tie and voila, he’s b-c.
As for sales and meeting customers/clients. How many customers/clients would be turned off by someone not wearing a tie? In some situations, I think dressing down is less intimidating. Take for instance an auto sales showroom. A lot of people see a suit and think “shark”. Some guy in a polo shirt with the Dealer’s logo and dockers is going to make me more comfortable.
I wore a suit and tie for a bazillion years in business, as did everyone else, and I believe that in all those encounters, not one of us preferred being dressed that way. You dressed the way other people expected you to look, not in any practical way. If we’d all have thrown those silly “expectations” out the window, and dressed comfortably, I doubt business would have ground to a halt.
And what about those of us who can afford to buy shirts only from K-Mart? It’s my position that any employer who wants to establish a dress code should have to provide or pay for the clothing and the related tailoring and cleaning services over and above the negotiated wages. As far as grooming, I think it should be a constitutional right to wear your hair as you please regardless of what your employer would prefer.
For me, it’s gonna depend on the dealership. If I go to the Toyota dealership and see a suit, I think “shark.” If I go to the Mercedes dealership and see a suit, I think “Ahh, Mercedes.” Which reveals something about my own attitude, I guess.
But if the mechanic I never see is wearing a suit, I’d think “Dude, overkill” if I ever saw him.
I’m in the software industry. I have worked for 8 different companies over the past 18 years. Only a few cared about how you dressed or looked, and these companies were pathetic. They were a real-life Dilbert cartoon. You saw the silliest stuff come out of there, which I would claim comes from their priorities - they’d prefer to hire somebody who looks good rather than somebody who knows what they are doing.
Most other compnies I have worked for care only about one thing – are you good at what it is we need you to do. In fact, my current employer has no clue as to what I look like. I work from home, and have only met one coworker.
