The dress code concept got me thinking about the deterioration of the work place dress code. Now, I'm no fashion plate, which is an obvious statement for me to make. But, while I might not abide by the latest fashion trends, my clothes are always neat, clean and ironed. Exception to that statement is when my kids were babies and I occasionally showed up at work with spit up on me, which, SURPRISE, I didn't know was there.
When I worked at the Midwestern book publisher, there was no dress code at all. There wasn't even a common sense dress code, which resulted in people showing up to work in sweatpants, flannel pajama pants, old T-shirts and my personal favorite: cut-off sweatpants. Back at Prison Media, we had the tramp offenders who showed up to the office looking like they were ready for their pole dancing shift. Numerous emails went out about appropriate work attire, yet the ho-bags at fault never seemed to catch on. (Another corporate America pet peeve is the mass email about a few people causing a problem. Why not just go directly to the people at fault and leave the rest of us out of it? Too logical, I suppose.)
I recently received an email from a former coworker, let's call him Mr. Michigan, complaining about men in sandals. Here's an excerpt:
I'm all for comfortable, casual dress at work, especially during the summer, but I think men wearing open-toed shoes at work (sandals, flip-flops, and variations thereof) is just gross. Not that I care, but women pay attention to their feet and generally make sure that they're at least presentable to look at. Men do not. I really don't want to see hairy toe knuckles and overgrown, yellowing toe nails.
He does make some good points, yes? Even though I'm very casual and doing my best to keep Levi & Strauss in business, I'm all for a business casual work environment. How you look is a direct reflection of how you are perceived. How is the guy in cut-off sweatpants and an old T-shirt perceived? Picture it and decide on your own.
Now, in my new career as a freelancer, I'm constantly rocking the shorts and T-shirt. But today, I have an actual interview and client meeting, so I'm dressed in my business casual duds, ready to impress. And I have to admit, it felt really good to iron my pants this morning and get dressed for success. Am I ready to do it every day? Heck no! But once in awhile, it's definitely nice to get dressed up, leave the house and feel like part of the work force again.
I'm sure when I get home tonight, I'll follow the Girl's rules and immediately change my clothes. I think my Colts T-shirt is calling for me right now...
3 comments:
Me:Dude, you are wearing pajama pants to work!
Long-haired co-worker who's perpetually thinking Arby's: They're not pajamas - they have pockets.
Me: There's no zipper in the fly!
I hate dress codes. I get your point about pajamas... I mean, no one does their best work in the pjs, but I do very bad work in panty hose. I do believe I read recently that there are still businesses that require women to wear hoses at work. I think this was in a Yahoo article, so who knows if it was true, but they'd have to pay me a lot to wear hoses. I mean, A LOT.
Comment above hilarious. :) hope I'm not the ho-bag you speak of. I swear I thought fishnets were in!
It's funny you write this because I was at Dr.'s office recently and thought everyone looked way too casual. I think when you work in the front and have clients, you need to step up from a Broncos t-shirt but maybe things have changed since I left the office environment.
Do you watch Mad Men? You'd get so many blog ideas!
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