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?

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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.

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!