How Do You Fight A Dress Code?

Borealis, would like to take off his tie, step up to the soapbox and put this question to the Slashdot Collective: "I work for a company (to remain unnamed) which is trying to implement a dress code throughout the company. While the code is not the worst I've seen, it does prohibit shorts, sandals, jeans and t-shirts. With the understanding that there are cases where a dress code does make sense, we are not one of those cases. Clients do not visit our site, nor are they more likely to if we have a dress code. We are located in a warm area of the USA and not having shorts and sandals makes the summers look a little less welcome. Further, all the present programmers were hired on with the specific mention that there is 'no dress code' (some as recently as a few weeks ago). Basically I would like to try to fight this move, but I need ammunition. Has anybody fought this battle and won? If so, how did you convince management to drop the issue. Are there any studies that show the negative impact on morale of forcing a dress code on techies? Does anybody have verifiable horror stories about companies losing out because they tried to force a dress code?" Of course, being hired under one impression, doesn't mean the rules can't change at any time and yank the rug out from under your feet. There is also quitting, but I'd like to think that companies can be sensible about such things. Hell, it's the 21st Century! I'd like to think that there can be companies that can implement an agreeable "dress code" that includes jeans, T's, shorts and sandals when appropriate. Note: This does not condone shirts with obscene language or imagery. Sure, there are limits, but why can't workers be comfortable when the work, as long as what they wear doesn't (reasonably) offend anyone else?

Comments

The long-term effect of wearing T-shirts

[Tony Shepps]

The following events are true. Only the names have been changed.

Scene One: a small liberal-arts college in Pennsylvania, May, 1983.

George: I just got back from California. I interviewed to be a programmer at 3 companies out there, and do you know, I was the only one to wear a suit to interviews.
Me: No kidding! That's outrageous.
George: I'm gonna move out there. They just have a better attitude.
Me: Sounds like it. Good luck.

Scene Two: Philadelphia, 1991.

Jeff: The east coast is no place for gay techies. I've moving to California.
Me: Seems like a lot of my tech friends have moved there.
Jeff: Well they just have a better attitude.
Me: Sounds like it. Good luck.

Scene Three: Philadelphia, 1994.

Jim: I'm moving to California.
Me: That makes a definite majority of my tech friends who have moved there.
Jim: Well they just have a better attitude.
Me: Sounds like it. Good luck.

Scene Four: The Philadelphia suburb branch of a big-5 consulting firm, 1998.

Manager: You don't have a collared shirt on.
Me: Yeah, I'm wearing a T-shirt under this $100 sweater.
Manager: That's not the code, you have to wear a collared shirt.
Me: OK. By the way, our recruiter can't find any good candidates.
Manager: She should try harder.

Scene Five: Philadelphia, 2001.

Philadelphian: I wonder why Route 202 hasn't really become the "Silicon Valley East" like we always thought it would.
Me: Yes, somehow California has become the new economic capital of the world.
Philadelphian: I sure wish that kind of thing would happen here.
Me: I guess we don't really have the right attitude.

Postscript. Of course wearing T-shirts didn't make the Valley the new economic capital of the world. Being open about dress, however, is part of an attitude that allows for more individuality.

In a world that is so much smaller than the world of fifty years ago, when intelligent people can move thousands of miles and even cross borders to find the lifestyle they want, demanding rigid conformity is an indicator that a company values style over substance. It doesn't stop at dress code, either; and in the long run, it *will* be detrimental to the health of the company.

It only seems like a small thing. In the 80s, the most notoriously dress-code-happy company in the country was IBM. They enjoyed an incredible run of success for decades; they were the "old Microsoft"; and then, suddenly, the world moved and IBM failed to move with it. Stuck in their old ways, worshipping their own internal culture, they failed to develop new practices. Within five years they went from the elite rulers to a company that many felt might not even survive another decade.

It wasn't their infamous dress code that led to IBM's woes. But the dress code was a benchmark for their attitude, and a management style that did not value innovation and wasn't ready for change.

Today it's very obvious that any company has to be prepared to change 180 degrees in order to survive. Products can't take 3 years in design; 3 months is often too long. Innovation has to be a part of the mix. Finding good people at any cost is critical. And enforcing a no-jeans policy for tech people is not a good start to accomplishing the above.

Anathema

[maggard]

While many /.'ers will disagree the general perception in many businesses these days is that professional attire leads to professional conduct. Not simply in regards to clients & their interactions but on all attitudes & interactions within the workplace.

The argument is that your workplace isn't your home where casual dress / behavior is acceptable but rather a different place where folks are paid to conduct themselves in a specific way and work towards a specific set of goals. Thus by having folks dress in a style that communicates this the message will be brought home to the staff and to those they deal with.

Along with this philosophy comes the no-dogs rules, getting rid of distractions like game rooms and ceasing to bribe employees to attend meetings by offering them food (it's part of their job to attend; they can feed themselves on their own dime.)

Part of the 90's Silicon Valley mantra was "We're here to have fun / let's bond together / we're one happy family / we're a different kind of company in a different kind of world breaking the old paradigms / we need do everything we can to hang on to employees they're our most valuable asset / we're not one of those stodgy old East Coast corporations with rules & hierarchies & parking spots assigned by seniority / we want you to grow as a human being / blah blah blah."

Part of the post-Internet-Bubble world is the focus on the bottom line / we're here to run a business / we'd be sorry to see you go but you're not irreplaceable-mindset. Three years ago the bubble was sucking in techies & everyone else to the extent that everyone had to adopt the startup's philosophies in order to compete, or at least look up-to-the-times.

Now without that pressure to compete and the "New-Economy" image tarnished many businesses are going back to the old ways. Sometimes they're doing it because they honestly do believe they're better, other times because they just want to present a more sober image internally & externally.

Now I can just hear everyone getting ready to rebut all of this with irate tirades: I'm just the messenger. My own views are below.

I have seen the effect that "dressing up" can have on interactions. The best dressed person gets listened to at meetings. The person in the T-shirt, no matter how knowledgeable & no matter how right they may be is operating at a tremendous disadvantage: We all may consciously know better but evolution tells us that the one with the shiny coat is the Alpha Male & should be listened to.

I once held a position that required me to visit branch offices around the USA, a new one every week or so. I'd fly in, spend a week or two on-site then move on. I quickly learned that how I looked made a profound difference in how I was treated. Show up in the $1,000 suit & the receptionist would buzz the General Manager to walk me around & ask if there was anything I needed. Khakis & blue broadcloth shirt got me a chatty receptionist who'd have a secretary come & show me my office for the next week Jeans & anything would get me waved in & asked to take a look at the fax machine when I had a chance. The difference remained to some extant even after I was familier to the locals or even back at my own office.

This can be easily tested by anyone: "Dress up" for a week at work and see if your interactions with folks change. Sure you'll spend the first day or two being asked if you've got an interview - smile it off. But notice how folks respond to you once the shiny new outfit wears off & you become just another person to deal with. Many folks report that their words gain weight, their opinions suddenly become worth more, and random folks in the halls are more deferential. Oftentimes people find themselves behaving somewhat differently too, being more "businesslike."

Of course none of this may be true for you and you may be in an enlightened place where things like this don't make any difference. Academia, R&D, theater, are all environments where dress (and many other social conventions) are less important and indeed casualness & even eccentricity may be respected or possibly encouraged. However outside of these places, and increasingly even in them this is not the case.

So what's my advice?

First decide for yourself how important this is to you & discover how flexible your employer is likely/able to be.

Sound out those above you, get a feel for how strongly this is going to be implemented. Will it be a memo that goes out where everyone plays along for a month then lets the whole thing slide back into obscurity? What kind of attire is expected - good jeans & a shirt with a collar / "business casual" / or the suit-'n-tie route? What can you live with?

Next how will opposition be viewed? Will dissent be respected or will non-conformists be directly rebuked or more subtly considered a "non-cooperative" employee and become marginalized, eventually passed-over for advancement or even candidates for RIFfing? Could it all become a learning-experience where the company listens to the will of it's empoyees? What do you expect from this place and what are your priorities, how important is this to you?

Once you've got this all figured out then make you decisions. Frankly the most important thing I can say is keep it in perspective & remember this is about you - esprit de corps is a lovely thing but all said & done this is your employment you're affecting along with your attire.

Not too difficult

[MSG]

This shouldn't be a difficult issue to resolve. Just pose two questions to your managers and see if they will reconsider:
1: Will the change improve their core competency?
2: Will the change enhance their revenue?

My experience with managers in companies large and small is that if neither of those two questions can be answered "yes", then that alone will prevent any change from happening. Change costs money. If change won't make money, it won't happen.

If the lack of good reasons doesn't stop the proposed change, argue (as I'm sure you would) that it will hurt morale and productivity. Write up a petition of protest, and have your coworkers sign it. I don't know where to find any studies suggesting increased productivity in comfortable settings, but they can't be hard to find. I even recall one that suggested that students are more apt to learn if they're reclining than if they're sitting in uncomfortable desks. I spent some time working from home, and I accomplished *easily* four times as much per day as when I was working in the office (and I've got LOC counts to back it up).

Dry Cleaning

[kruczkowski]

Get all the Techies to ask and bug the managers about dry cleaning. Ask if you can get a loan/rase becouse you need to buy new clothes. Also open up monster.com and leave it wide on you screen, work on your resume, and make sure the boss notices. Complain that you don't know how to tie a tie. Come in dressed like a compete fool.

Of course you have to do this all casualy and its better if you do it all together.

And when the mention something about your clothes, ask about the WAN link that goes to there, or the documentation for something... Look busy and lost!