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When your occupation requires you to leave the comfort of your home, you present yourself to the world in a package of clothes, accessories, and hairstyles. Each company has its own dress code.

While clothes that look like they are poured on can be a distraction, so can the wrinkled tents some like to call shirts. It makes you wonder if the guy spent the night on a park bench somewhere. Gossip between co-workers spreads like an Everglades fire. When someone wears clothes that are not according to the dress code it sends the gossip fires blazing. Fires such as gossip, especially with co-workers, tend to be hard to put out. Before you know it, respect has been lost and your reputation for being efficient and knowledgeable about your job has taken a back seat to the gossip created by your wardrobe. A good reputation is slow to be rebuilt one day or "tree" at a time.

The best thing to do before you walk out the door is to do a wardrobe check in a full length mirror both front and back. You might find that your favorite outfit doesn't really fit the way you once thought it did, or that it doesn't fit the environment you work in. This can save an embarrassing moment, and keep co-workers from coloring the office with whispers such as, "Did you see her? I can't believe she had the nerve to wear that!"

Imagine for a moment while you stand in front of your mirror that you are a customer. Would you do business with you? Or would you be too distracted or put off by the outfit you are wearing? People are very judgmental on first impressions, even more by second and third impressions. If you always go to work with a wrinkled shirt and jeans, people will stop listening to you and your opinion will get lost in your shirt's wrinkles.

How would you categorize your work attire: professional, business casual, casual, or bum? Does it fit the work environment? Do people stare at you as you walk through the office? How do customers react to you? How do your co-workers act around you? Take this mental inventory of your clothes choices daily. Keep in mind that when you are in the office, people buy into you before they will ever purchase a product or service from your company. Are you making sales or losing sales for your company? You don't have to be in a sales position to turn away customers, or to be the reason customers come back.

When you dress in the proper attire for the company, you should always dress just a little better than you think is average for the office. If you do this, people tend to look up to you and respect your opinion more than if you tend to just dress at a bare minimum of the expectation. The people who get the raises and the promotions are not only the harder, more efficient workers, they are also the workers who go above and beyond to present themselves in a package management sees as an asset to the company. Customers are turned off by bare minimums. They look for companies and people that go above and beyond the call of duty to make them feel special. To wear clothes that say you care what they think of the company is a way of going above and beyond.

Working around people that go above and beyond also makes people more motivated to do a better job in their daily work. If your company has uniforms and it is an option to wear them, do it. If your company offers clothing with the company logo, wear it to work. It shows that you are a professional at your position. Even if it is your second day on the job, when a customer sees you in company attire, it says, "This person knows what is a XYZ Company professional."

Learn more about this author, Rella Ingram.
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