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What's your work dress code?

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  • hobbes
    replied
    I am surprised by Hobbes' comments regarding him wearing suits as I am sure that, a few years ago, he was posting about suits - possibly tailor made for him - that he had bought. I can't think that I dreamt it.
    That was a decade ago. The reason I know that is because that was the suit I had made for my wedding. It was a nice suit.
    It was a very nice suit.
    It was still constricting and uncomfortable to wear and although it made me look less of a bellend than most suits, it was still very much not me.

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  • Sporting
    replied
    What is it about collars (shirt or polo) which supposedly makes men smarter? Who decided this? Who lay down the law (daft, imo)?

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  • Paul S
    replied
    I'm in every day wearing black trousers, black shoes, shirt and tie. In fact, I am one of the few men on my floor who wears a tie every day, but I have about 30 ties and wear a different one every day (in strict rotation, you understand). I could dress down if I wanted to and come in wearing jeans and smart shirt t-shirt (most people do these days) it's just that I like to change into something comfortable when I get home. In fact, coming home and changing into more comfortable clothes is one of the great joys of getting home from work. Conversely, I enjoy being smart in the office and having standards I can maintain. Unless I'm out on site all day, in which case it's jeans and t-shirt (or company branded stuff) as there is no way I'm getting my own clothing covered in mud and oil.

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  • Giggler
    replied
    Smart trousers, smart shoes, smart shirt, no tie. Shirts all by Thomas Pink (though this will change when I next need some, as they seem to have ditched the more affordable aspects of their range).

    I was walking to work at 0815 on Monday morning in glorious sunshine. The sun was out, my sunglasses were on, and tunes were filling my head from my iPod. That was, until a man I see every morning on the walk tapped me on the shoulder and told me my trousers had split. Indeed they had, right up the arse-crack.

    Luckily I was on Bolton Street. Luckily because the tailor I bought them from is on Bolton Street. Luckier still, he'd got to the shop early that morning. I dived in and asked if he could perform a quick repair. He did, and I still made it to work on time. A four-pack of beer and a bag of wine gums (his favourite) were dropped off for him yesterday morning as a thank you.

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  • Janik
    replied
    That sounds amazing. Just imagine the time and effort involved in dressing every morning.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    The most intriguingly dressed colleague I ever had was a fellow intern when I was working for a social marketing company (I was working specifically on an anti-smoking campaign for channel4). She was in her mid-thirties, from the Philippines, had a degree in peace studies, and every day came dressed in full-blown manga cosplay, a different character each day. I was in complete awe of her.

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  • Janik
    replied
    One colleague is know for her idiosyncratic and flamboyant dress sense. One day a grey woollen dress, canary yellow heels and canary yellow lipstick, nails and eyeshadow. The next no makeup, khaki shirt, combat trousers and bovver boots. The next, etc. It's a continuous guessing game which look she will rock the next day. Her wardrobe and make-up box must both be huge. She clearly takes a deal of pleasure from dressing up.
    Last edited by Janik; 09-07-2019, 18:58.

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  • Janik
    replied
    See what oscar mike said. Well without the shutting us down bit. I hope.

    T-shirt or polo shirt and jeans is typical for the Men, and many of the women as well. Shirts and ties are extremely rare if someone is just in the office or lab, though one colleague wears them every day because he doesn't feel professional dressed casually. Each to their own. If you see someone in a suit, it's a very good guess they have a client meeting that day. Smart is expected in that situation.

    We had a recent rebrand where they handed everyone a fleece/hoodie, t-shirt and baseball cap with the (terrible) new logo on it. The latter item making it feel like a McJob uniform. Some colleagues wear these to work occasionally (not the hat). Mine are still in the cellophane at the back of the cupboard and will go to a charity shop soon. I do use the fabric bag they were bundled together in for shopping, though. Oh, and there was a bunch of cricket shirts bought 5+ years ago and handed out to those playing for the company team at the time. I wore that to work occasionally but have stopped as it's showing its age and moth-eaten t-shirts are going a bit, I think.

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  • Bored Of Education
    replied
    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
    The idea of an early years teacher wearing a suit would have been seen as eccentric at best when I was in those classes in the early 60s.
    It was pretty eccentric anyway - especially bearing in mind I was the rare male aside from the head and the caretaker. As I would rarely know when I woke up in the morning what age I would be teaching and at what sort of school, it seemed to make sense. The suit was a pretty old one - it was the one I bought for Ray's wedding - and wasn't showbiz enough to wear onstage so it seemed fine for the work but then I bought a very nice one to replace it and thought, "This is too good for school. Fuck that" so, after the summer, moved to "smart casual".

    I tell you what, as someone who has sent the day debating school uniform with a recalcitrant child, I can usually see some sort of, at least, internal logic to work dress codes even if it just tradition as with suit and ties or wigs and gowns. What I don't understand is this "Dress Down Friday" idea. What your company is saying is that, for some reason, they don't think that you work as well, are in the right mindset or presentable for clients unless you wear a certain code except for one day a week or month. It's madness. There is either a dress code or not - even if it is a fairly loose one. You can't decide that, for one day, that dress code doesn't serve whatever purpose it is supposed to. I have noticed that my head and deputy head seem to dress down on Friday but they usually wear sports clothes as if they are taking a PE lesson. I think they think that they can get away with it like that. I am not sure.

    I am surprised by Hobbes' comments regarding him wearing suits as I am sure that, a few years ago, he was posting about suits - possibly tailor made for him - that he had bought. I can't think that I dreamt it.

    Leave a comment:


  • oscar mike
    replied
    There isn’t one in our place, as long as you don’t turn up in football colours or a mankini nobody’s that bothered. Although they’re shutting us down so maybe I’’’ll push the envelope (I won’t).

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  • NickSTFU
    replied
    It depends on what I'm doing.

    If I am delivering training in the Workshop, it's a branded polo shirt, cargo trousers (pants) and the required PPE. Likewise, if I'm delivering training in the training room, but without the PPE.

    If I am out visiting employers and apprentices in the workplace it's a shirt and pair of chinos.

    When I worked in industry it was branded workwear all the time, plus the PPE associated with whatever task I was doing.

    I like the idea of the workplace supplying me with stuff to wear. It keeps my 'civvy' gear free to wear when I'm off and separates work from play.
    Even if it's a pair of cut off jogging bottoms and sweat-top like I am now.
    But, I'm weird like that.

    It has nothing to do with spending 22 years in uniform. Honest.
    Last edited by NickSTFU; 09-07-2019, 18:22.

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  • caja-dglh
    replied
    Originally posted by WOM View Post
    Camo board shorts in the summer. Jeans the other 11 months. Print t-shirt or hoodie or dress shirt, depending on whether I'm presenting to a client or not. Nobody really cares what I look like.

    My boss, however, is an African-American Jehovah's Witness who owns over 70 pocket squares and dresses better on Fridays than I do at weddings. He's long since given up saying things like 'Maybe...you know...maybe kick it up a notch...'.
    I imagine it only takes a couple of times seeing that your idea of "stepping it up a notch" is to wear a more obnoxious English Laundry shirt to decide to settle / concede defeat.

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  • Hot Pepsi
    replied
    Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
    Surely you wear a trilby with a label saying "PRESS" sticking out of the head band?
    For me, the press badges, such as they are, are usually in one of those little plastic things hanging around one's neck in a lanyard provided by one of the meeting sponsors. Or I can pin it on my jacket, but I'm not usually wearing a jacket. Jackets are tricky at meetings because a lot of the rooms are too warm, so I take off the jacket and then forget it and have to go back and find it.

    I don't understand why the go-to look for "I'm here for business, but also a man of the people" is jacket with no tie or even suit with no tie. I prefer a proper shirt with tie, but no jacket. Especially in hot and humid weather (and it's always humid in the eastern US). Or no tie, preferably, but the tie at least shows that I understand the concept of dressing up. The doctors at the meetings I go to usually wear a suit. Some of them only ever wear scrubs at work, so they look forward to being able to wear proper clothes. The dress code in the press room ranges from three-piece suit to "I run an all-organic co-op in Sedona."

    I haven't worked in an office in about 10 years and when I did, it was anything goes and I went through a phase where I wore hooded sweatshirts and Batman t-shirts and so forth. I looked like Sheldon from BBT, but about 1/3 as smart and not skinny. It wasn't a great time for me personally and, in retrospect - actually, I kinda knew this even at the time - that wasn't really good for my career advancement. It didn't make any difference in the long-run, but it didn't help me earn respect there. The people I worked with were the sort of people who imagined themselves to be progressive and down with it, but were actually pretty conservative. They all went to elite liberal arts colleges (except my boss who went to Michigan and the boss' boss who went to Harvard). The kind of people who throw Gatsby parties where everyone dresses up like the cruel rich from the 20s, congratulating themselves that they've actually read a great piece of American literature and yet unaware that Fitzgerald was taking the piss out of all that. The kind of people who were really enthusiastic about John Kerry as a candidate.

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  • Eggchaser
    replied
    This thread has given me a Life During Wartime earworm.

    Being a solicitor in a traditional practice area (no bleeding edge niche IP stuff for me, thank you), it's suit and tie all the way. Just make sure that the tie, shirt, cufflinks, belt and socks match, you savages.

    Remember the scene in American Gigolo where Richard Gere is going through his wardrobe? That's me of an evening, preparing for tomorrow, only fatter, older and certainly a lot less sexy.

    We have dress down Friday on the first Friday of every month. This coincides with a networking breakfast I regularly attend, so they've got used to a man in floral shirts and occasionally a Green Lantern or Superman t-shirt extolling the virtues of my firm.

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  • Snake Plissken
    replied
    I follow the advice handed out for interviews "Don't dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want."

    Which is why I'm currently sat at a desk in a spacesuit.

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  • Moonlight Shadow
    replied
    I wear chinos and shirt either casual or formal, shoes are generally leather ones but I seem to be able to get away with trainers like the basic black Adidas running one I got now (very confy, very airy). I think I'd probably stick to that even if I was left with a choice.

    Leave a comment:


  • Balderdasha
    replied
    You've just reminded me that at my old corporate workplace, they tried to institute a dress down Friday, but it immediately backfired. Within three hours of issuing the memo about dress down Friday, someone senior panicked and they sent another memo clarifying that dress down did not mean that you could wear whatever you liked and certainly not jeans. They suggested instead wearing 'flannels'. We spent the whole of the rest of the day trying to work out what flannels were and if anyone in our department owned any. There was zero advice regarding what women should wear on a dress down Friday. We carried on much as before.

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  • Nocturnal Submission
    replied
    I always felt a lot more comfortable in a T-shirt or polo shirt than a shirt & tie on dress-down days, so I suspect that I was more rather than less productive. My mood was certainly a lot more agreeable.

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  • hobbes
    replied
    Originally posted by Simon G View Post
    He was adamant, though I didn't see them myself, that there had been studies showing that productivity went down on dress-down days.
    I can believe that, especially if they only do dress down on Fridays or even worse last Friday of the month. However I bet it's not a causal relationship. I'd wager that people are less productive on Fridays, especially at the end of the month and the dress down thing has no relevance to that.

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  • Snake Plissken
    replied
    Whatever smart-casual means. I think it is a shirt with a collar, but to me it means jumper over a t-shirt. Fridays is dress-down day - jeans, trainers and t-shirts are fine. No sports replica shirts.

    At a previous client in Bradford when I asked about the dress code the guy simply said "Anything goes. We're in Bradford. We've got all races and religions working here. Good luck figuring out a formal code for everybody."

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  • Gangster Octopus
    replied
    Surely you wear a trilby with a label saying "PRESS" sticking out of the head band?

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  • Ginger Yellow
    replied
    I very rarely wear a tie when I'm wearing a suit, unless it's a particularly formal occasion. Journos get to look a bit scruffy, though I'd say maybe a third of my contacts also don't wear ties, at least when they're meeting me.

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  • Fussbudget
    replied
    Originally posted by TonTon View Post
    A suit without a tie?
    Yeah that puzzled me as well. Maybe Levin is actually David Byrne?

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  • DCI Harry Batt
    replied
    "Productivity" is bunk, mind.

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  • Simon G
    replied
    Originally posted by Capybara View Post
    It was pretty much this where I was until retirement and I was firmly at the jeans and t-shirt end of the spectrum, though I would wear a suit on appropriate occasions. I never got 'dress-down Friday'. If dressing 'down' was appropriate on Fridays, then why not the rest of the week?
    I remember the interview for my first office job (in insurance, unsurprisingly) and my future team leader telling me that they had recently brought in dress down Fridays for the last Friday of the month.

    He was adamant, though I didn't see them myself, that there had been studies showing that productivity went down on dress-down days. He was very much set in his ways though, you could guarantee he'd be wearing a shirt and tie on Fridays regardless of the relaxed dress code.

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