thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 23, 2015 19:31:17 GMT -5
I still dress professionally for work. I am on the casual side of traditional - I don't do suits most of the time. Some of my clothes are probably on the dressy side of corporate casual. My company has always been a mixed bag, but this week we had a meeting with a bunch of people who traveled in. Jeans - yoga pants - sandals - flip flops, and here I was in a dress, heels and a jacket.
Do I look like a relic? An uptight reminder of the values of a previous generation? Do I need to just bite the bullet and buy a bunch of clothes that look more like you are going to take a nap than analyze a multi-billion dollar company?
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obelisk
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Post by obelisk on Sept 23, 2015 19:36:18 GMT -5
Depending on the industry and location its is hard to judge.
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engineerdoe
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Post by engineerdoe on Sept 23, 2015 19:53:56 GMT -5
So they traveled wearing jeans and yoga pants or that is how they showed up to the meeting? As an engineer I get to be forever in blue jeans but I do dress up every now and then but the first requirement of all my clothes is I must be able to sleep comfortably in them. So that also means wrinkle resistant.
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Anne_in_VA
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Post by Anne_in_VA on Sept 23, 2015 20:01:17 GMT -5
If your industry standard reflects how you normally dress, then they should have dressed more professionally.
I'm allowed to wear jeans on a daily basis, but if I'm meeting with suppliers or going to a meeting then I dress in a suit or similar business casual type clothes.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Sept 23, 2015 20:05:55 GMT -5
Most fashionable ladies at my work where nice pants/shirt (not jeans or yoga pants) and, if they dress up, a skirt or something. They are looking pretty fashionable though.
The older ladies also wear mostly skirts/heels, but they aren't really fashionable...they look like dresses from the 90's maybe.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Sept 23, 2015 20:12:58 GMT -5
So they traveled wearing jeans and yoga pants or that is how they showed up to the meeting? As an engineer I get to be forever in blue jeans but I do dress up every now and then but the first requirement of all my clothes is I must be able to sleep comfortably in them. So that also means wrinkle resistant. [img src=" syonidv.hodginsmedia.com/vsmileys/yeahthat.gif" src="http://images.proboards.com/new/cool.png"] this. I always travelled in yoga pants, sneakers, and layered t-shirt and hoodie. when I got to my site, I would either be business casual (common for worker bees in my industry) or in construction site-friendly clothes, depending on why I was travelling. I'd save those yoga pants and hoodie to pair with a clean tee for the flight home. now, I'm in QA. I still wear flip flops in the office area (nicer than the $2 rubber Old Navy specials) but have steel-toe shoes for the manufacturing floor. my clothes are still business casual. OP, what industry are you in? I have friends who work in finance that have to wait for "casual Fridays" to be able to dress like I do when I'm dressing up for work. dress code, even unwritten, varies widely.
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MJ2.0
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Post by MJ2.0 on Sept 23, 2015 20:17:30 GMT -5
We do corporate attire M-Th and can do casual on Fridays. Friday dress can't include sneakers, ripped jeans (even the fashionable ones), t-shirts, sweat/yoga pants, sweatshirts, or leggings.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Sept 23, 2015 20:23:38 GMT -5
Fridays I wear jeans. Meetings and on site reviews/audits require a jacket and tie for the men. In the office I tend towards dressy business casual. I could wear khakis and a polo daily but I'd want to die. Summer it's dresses and skirts and nice tops and heels. Winter I mostly wear dress pants and sweaters or button downs and cardigans and by the time warm weather returns I'm so sick of all it I want to burn it all. I just find it easier to get variety in my warm weather wardrobe. And I get plenty of use out of it but I'm never ready to burn it when cold weather comes.
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msventoux
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Post by msventoux on Sept 23, 2015 20:24:57 GMT -5
Most of the professional staff in our small firm wear business casual clothing, which I think is appropriate for our size and clientele. We serve a lot of small business clients who can be intimidated when having to deal with a professional for the first time. I went to a client site once wearing slacks and a cardigan, so pretty casual, and the owner's wife was almost in tears because the guard dog they kept on site came over and got hair and slobber all over me and my "nice" clothes when I was petting him and she was insisting on reimbursing me for my dry cleaning bill. I had to show her pictures of my multiple fur faces to convince her I didn't care and didn't wear anything that I couldn't just throw in the washing machine. As far as our interns, I consider it a victory if I can go a day without seeing someone's over sized muffin top peeking out, or their tramp stamp and butt crack when they bend over to file something in their too tight skinny pants that are at least 3 sizes too small. I actually wish our office was a bit smaller so the interns couldn't be kept away from clients and might be forced to dress a tad more professionally.
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Waffle
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Post by Waffle on Sept 23, 2015 20:32:27 GMT -5
thyme4change, I'd be less concerned with how visitors dress than how your colleagues dress and what your job entails. There is only one woman at my job site that I ever see in a suit - but she is the HR manager. She wears jeans, like the rest of the staff, most of the time, but if she is interviewing, she'll pull out more professional wear. I don't think that makes her a relic.
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sarcasticgirl
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Post by sarcasticgirl on Sept 23, 2015 21:06:13 GMT -5
Do you not have a company dress code? Jeans and yoga pants are against our dress code. They don't get a blind eye turn like capris do, which are also against dress code. We are business casual, there are no casual Fridays. We have about 2 days a year where we can wear jeans but only if we donate to a charity. I work for a pretty huge law firm so I see a pretty broad range of attire. Always people in suits. Even among.my floor which is mostly accounting related, there are people in suits mixed amongst people in khakis and polos.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 23, 2015 21:07:56 GMT -5
So they traveled wearing jeans and yoga pants or that is how they showed up to the meeting? As an engineer I get to be forever in blue jeans but I do dress up every now and then but the first requirement of all my clothes is I must be able to sleep comfortably in them. So that also means wrinkle resistant. They wore that to the meetings - all 3 days. As far as my industry - I am in finance, but I work for a consumer packaged goods company. I don't really have exposure to anyone except employees of my company. It isn't like I am out interacting with all the other CPG companies. The average in my office used to be more professional, but they laid off or relocated most of our "power positions." We have 2 directors, a handful of managers and a bunch of worker bees. We have 2 VPs that spend 4 days (in a row) per month at the building. I dress as I always have, but as the higher level people have slowly drained out of my location, I am now realizing I may be out of place. I thought when all the people came in this week I would be surrounded by professionals - and they are - but aren't dressed like traditional professionals. I didn't know if it was just my company/experience, or if the world changed and I was left off the memo. I guess I get to go shopping.
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Sept 23, 2015 21:12:01 GMT -5
I have totally embraced the more casual corporate environment we work and it is extremely liberating. I haven't gone so far as to wear jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, or leggings as pants, but I don't wear suits anymore. But, if you like what you wear and it is not inappropriate, keep wearing it. That said, I hate to be judgey, but if there was one person wearing a suit everyday despite a more relaxed dress code, I would think they were pretentious and deliberately trying to send a message.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Sept 23, 2015 21:32:50 GMT -5
What you described is pretty much my summer attire minus the jacket. I think 100% of my dresses are sleeveless so I have a little casual light sweater type thing to go with it. If higher ups are in or I'm on site, I swap for a jacket.
I'm in training this week and it's a mixed bag. One guy showed up in jeans. I wouldn't do it just because that's not my dress code on a Wednesday. One guy besides the instructor had a tie on. Turned out that was bc he thought his white dress shirt just looked like crap without a splash of color from the tie.
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imanangel
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Post by imanangel on Sept 24, 2015 6:02:43 GMT -5
I wear professional attire daily. I am the first person people see when they walk into our office. We are not ever allowed to wear jeans. Ok, I take that back, our office is moving to a new building in November. I get to wear jeans the days we help move stuff.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Sept 24, 2015 6:48:22 GMT -5
Between the two jobs the grocery store is the only one that has and enforces a dress code. Pants have to be the business casual type in either khaki or black and can't be capri or ankle length. Yoga pants would get someone written up and sent home, seriously. At the engineering company most days I am happy that they wear clothes.
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on Sept 24, 2015 7:40:23 GMT -5
I still dress professionally for work. I am on the casual side of traditional - I don't do suits most of the time. Some of my clothes are probably on the dressy side of corporate casual. My company has always been a mixed bag, but this week we had a meeting with a bunch of people who traveled in. Jeans - yoga pants - sandals - flip flops, and here I was in a dress, heels and a jacket. Do I look like a relic? An uptight reminder of the values of a previous generation? Do I need to just bite the bullet and buy a bunch of clothes that look more like you are going to take a nap than analyze a multi-billion dollar company? Is this a generation difference? Prior to the new director taking over, we all dressed nice (no jeans) but fairly casually and practically since we are doing some physical stuff like hauling boxes of books to the basement (no heels). I was also the youngest one at the time. When the new, much younger, director came on board I immediately felt the need to dress more professionally. She wore dresses, sometimes with a jacket or a scarf/wrap, everyday. Even on kid-program days! Lately, though, she has surprised me by wearing jeans (yes, fashionable, but ) and stretchy polka-dot capri leggings. Those both screamed "unprofessional" to me, and they are such a departure from her normal work attire. I thought I had the wrong date Monday when I saw her in the polka-dots on the night of the quarterly Board of Trustee meeting. Really, you dress up for toddlers, but address the Board in that? Either it's a generation difference in what is appropriate where, or she has gotten comfortable in the position and is relaxing her personal dress code. I'd still dress to impress the Board, though.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 24, 2015 8:34:11 GMT -5
We only have 2 younger workers on my floor (I never see anyone on the other floor.) One is a terrible dresser. She needs a full-on make-over, as in brushing her hair. I know she thinks she looks great, but she does not. The other one is very put together and wears nice stuff. She is one of the more professional dressers, but still looks more casual than me, I think. She wears her sunglasses on her head - a lot. That takes her outfits down a notch because it looks like she is going to bolt out and go to the beach or something.
I will go buy a few ankle pants, some lower heels or ballet flats and some sweaters.
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grumpyhermit
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Post by grumpyhermit on Sept 24, 2015 8:52:05 GMT -5
We are business casual, jeans (not ratty ones) on Fridays. For the most part everyone follows that dress code, but a few recent hires are definitely pushing more towards the casual (jeans multiple times a week). The two new hires are both on our senior staff, and men, so I doubt anything will be said.
The only person that routinely wears business suits is one of our older female employees. She does have a lot of outside contact with people and doesn't really ascribe to the "casual" Friday thing because of that; given her position, and her work duties - it makes sense. I am also sure she would love to see casual Fridays done away with entirely.
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Cookies Galore
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Post by Cookies Galore on Sept 24, 2015 8:56:03 GMT -5
We are business casual. No casual Friday, no jeans. We do have a lot of in-house meetings with external people, so we can't be traipsing around in jeans. I typically wear black pants or a skirt with some sort of sweater/cardigan/top combo. When my team has its meeting weeks then I wear dresses and heels.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Sept 24, 2015 9:20:49 GMT -5
I think dress codes have gotten so broad within industry that it's really on a company by company or even location by location deal.
I work for a very large financial services firm. In the last 10 years we've gone from dress pants and a collared shirt with dress shoes every day to allowing jeans and sneakers during "summer months", with lots of "casual days" that include t-shirts. That's progressed to allowing jeans and sneakers every day, with occasional "casual days" with t-shirts, and sometimes "business casual" days where we revert to dress pants and dress shoes (typically only when high level execs are visiting).
Other locations within the same company, same department, and under the same managers have to dress in nice pants and dress shoes every day. It's really determined by the location. Other locations are suits and ties every day. When we travel we basically adopt the dress code of whatever location we are traveling to. It's kind of a pain to figure out "ok, where am I going, and what rules do they have".
I have to say though, the dress code is probably what keeps me around here. There aren't a lot of good paying jobs in a professional environment around here where I can wear jeans and sneakers to work every day (particularly in financial services).
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Sept 24, 2015 9:42:23 GMT -5
I work in a small office. We lease industrial property and do some construction work. We don't really have a dress code, but people dress according to what is on their personal agenda for the day. Our corp attorney may dress casually if he has nothing planned, he often wears jeans - but if he is going to court, he will have a suit on.
Our Real Estate agents it is usually Polo shirts and Kakis or dress pants, on Fridays almost everyone wears jeans, but no one bats and eye if you wear jeans during the week.
I tend to wear jackets and dress pants. I am the Controller and there are several staff that loosely report to me. The number one reason I dress in (mostly casual) jackets and dress pants is that I am always cold and I like to dress in layers. I also dress up b/c I feel it shows I care about my job. I notice that the other executives pretty much hold themselves to the same type of standards.
I wore jeans with a jean jacket on Monday, b/c I felt like it. Dress pants and a summer jacket yesterday. Today I have Black pants that could pass as jeans and a jean jacket on.
I see a variety of auditors during the course of the year. I usually mention that we dress casually and if they will be in the office I let them know that we will mostly all be wearing jeans. I figure even if their dress code does not allow jeans, they can dress more casually and not feel like they stick out like a sore thumb.
I agree with Hoops, I appreciate the casual dress code, and it is one of the perks of working here. Not real interested in going back to a formal dress code environment.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Sept 24, 2015 9:44:06 GMT -5
My workplace is business casual. I usually wear dress pants/skirt, a nice top, and heels. However, I sit at a desk all day and don't interact with clients. I would love to wear jeans every day. It would make my life so much easier!
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nogooddeed
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Post by nogooddeed on Sept 24, 2015 9:47:05 GMT -5
Saw a promo for the new Anne Hathaway/Robert de Niro movie "The Intern". The Hathaway character is the founder of a fashion related web site and de Niro, a bored retiree, is the intern. In one scene, the Hathaway character looks at several of her male employees (dressed in jeans, sloppy shirts, etc) and makes a comment to the effect, "How in one generation have we gone from Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford to ?" with the question mark referring to her male workers. Have to laugh because so many workers have gotten a bit sloppy in how they present themselves.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Sept 24, 2015 9:56:18 GMT -5
Saw a promo for the new Anne Hathaway/Robert de Niro movie "The Intern". The Hathaway character is the founder of a fashion related web site and de Niro, a bored retiree, is the intern. In one scene, the Hathaway character looks at several of her male employees (dressed in jeans, sloppy shirts, etc) and makes a comment to the effect, "How in one generation have we gone from Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford to ?" with the question mark referring to her male workers. Have to laugh because so many workers have gotten a bit sloppy in how they present themselves. My wife and I were talking about this the other day after seeing the same preview (she likes to dress up a little, I don't). Part of my argument was that perhaps this is a good sign. Maybe this means we're valuing substance over style more than in times past. Maybe we're moving away from schmoozing your way up the corporate ladder by dressing nice and being slick and more into cheapening the benefits of how you look while increasing the importance of what you contribute. Isn't that kind of what we learned from the tech boom? People walk around in flip flops and t-shirts and make millions/billions because they provide value, not because they sweet talk someone into believing in them because they are attractive and dress nicely. (I know, there's an argument you can dress nicely and still provide value that's perfectly valid).
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 24, 2015 10:06:01 GMT -5
We only have 2 younger workers on my floor (I never see anyone on the other floor.) One is a terrible dresser. She needs a full-on make-over, as in brushing her hair. I know she thinks she looks great, but she does not. The other one is very put together and wears nice stuff. She is one of the more professional dressers, but still looks more casual than me, I think. She wears her sunglasses on her head - a lot. That takes her outfits down a notch because it looks like she is going to bolt out and go to the beach or something. I will go buy a few ankle pants, some lower heels or ballet flats and some sweaters. I'm wondering if her sunglasses are prescription ones. Before I had my eyes den I wore those all the time because I was too vain to wear regular glasses!
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nogooddeed
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Post by nogooddeed on Sept 24, 2015 10:08:31 GMT -5
Saw a promo for the new Anne Hathaway/Robert de Niro movie "The Intern". The Hathaway character is the founder of a fashion related web site and de Niro, a bored retiree, is the intern. In one scene, the Hathaway character looks at several of her male employees (dressed in jeans, sloppy shirts, etc) and makes a comment to the effect, "How in one generation have we gone from Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford to ?" with the question mark referring to her male workers. Have to laugh because so many workers have gotten a bit sloppy in how they present themselves. My wife and I were talking about this the other day after seeing the same preview (she likes to dress up a little, I don't). Part of my argument was that perhaps this is a good sign. Maybe this means we're valuing substance over style more than in times past. Maybe we're moving away from schmoozing your way up the corporate ladder by dressing nice and being slick and more into cheapening the benefits of how you look while increasing the importance of what you contribute. Isn't that kind of what we learned from the tech boom? People walk around in flip flops and t-shirts and make millions/billions because they provide value, not because they sweet talk someone into believing in them because they are attractive and dress nicely. (I know, there's an argument you can dress nicely and still provide value that's perfectly valid). Maybe we've just gotten lazy.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Sept 24, 2015 10:08:45 GMT -5
My company is fairly formal - no suits, but moat of the men wear ties and my new City is a lot more formal than my old one. The head of a department in my old city might wear a polo and khakis on a dressy day, here a head of a department is in dress pants and button down shirt and tie. I upped my summer wardrobe for work to some sheath dresses because my outfits were just feeling to casual when I'm in a room full of men wearing ties. Now, the exception is I work in a small office. I had a day that I knew no one was going to be in the office and I was not working a full day, I wore a T-shirt and capris. No one saw me, so who cared.
But location matters. When one of our Landscape Architects comes in from Denver, she is wearing denim capris and a casual shirt.
I went to a conference in Illinois and about a third of the room was in a suit and tie. The same conference in Missouri and no one wore a suit and tie. Most everyone was in kahkis or nice jeans and a polo.
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cael
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Post by cael on Sept 24, 2015 10:14:43 GMT -5
Part of me wishes I could dress nicer for work... then I remember how I don't dress nicely almost any other time anyway, then I go back to being happy about my khakis and stupid work-issued polo shirts I have to wear 4 days a week. I wear black Dr Marten shoes or hiking sneakers most days, boots of some variety in the winter - we're really field staff so we have to be outside and in and out of businesses and homes every day, so nice clothes can get ruined and comfortable safe footwear is needed. Fridays we can wear jeans and a casual but professional (aka collared) shirt.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Sept 24, 2015 10:16:00 GMT -5
As mentioned it depends on the company and industry. I work in the finance world and while we can get away with jeans and polo shirts when we have clients or prospects we're in slacks and dress shirts or even suits. If I ever showed up here in shorts and sandals I'd get sent home. I'm sure some people here have tattoos but I've never seen one and I don't believe anyone has one in an area that wouldn't be covered by pants and a t-shirt. On the other hand we live in the surf/skate industry capital of the US and I've got friends who wear shorts/sandals/t-shirts to work while many of the employees have visible tattoos. Drinking is also allowed at many of these companies and some actually have bars onsite that employees can freely use. The intent isn't for people to get hammered at work it's just a part of the industry and laid back attitude.
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