Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Corporate Dress- Required or retired?


These days, it is a common sight to find business professionals heading to their 9-5 in jeans and a t- shirt. When we get down to it, are there really any benefits to enforcing a business casual dress code? Does work performance improve when employees are allowed to dress down everyday rather than just on "casual Friday"? It's hard to tell without any hard data on the subject, but lets take a look at the pros and cons of the rule.
Some Pros
Creative freedom- I suppose this pro is limited if you work in a place like a law office or an accountant's office, but countless creative agencies claim that ingenuity & creativity grow exponentially when employees aren't tied down by strict dress codes.
Promotes diversity- Doesn't every company try to highlight how diverse they are? Freedom of dress fosters office diversity for sure - you can really get a sense of different personalities based simply on outward appearance. A dress code stifles this kind of freedom.
Enables comfort- Business professional clothing can become restricting and uncomfortable, especially of the employee is sitting all day. Why not let them wear something comfortable which in turn will most likely make them more productive as well!
Employees are already restricted by all sorts of rules from the moment they get into the office. Why not let them have control over what they wear?
Some Cons
Productivity- On the other side of the productivity coin, employees might get too comfortable and productivity may fall, especially later in the day.
In some cases the term "unprofessional" may arise in regards to the company look as a whole, but there are ways to still enforce a professional dress code while still keeping it relaxed and casual.
Overall I think that the relaxed dress code we have at Percipia Networks is a pretty big perk of the job!


Take a look at this article for a different opinion about relaxed dress code. What do you think about it all?

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