by David B Hitchcock

Created on: December 13, 2010

Advantages of having employees dress casually for the office

Have you ever walked into an office, been surrounded by people in 3 piece suits and felt like you don’t belong there? You’d be surprised how many people working there likely feel the same way.

Businesses have dress codes for a reason. Each business wants to put forward the proper image so that both employees and customers respect and trust the company. This will not happen if employees are dressed like bong smoking hippies. Imagine your feelings depositing money at a bank with tellers dressed like that!

Different businesses require different levels of dress for the work. McDonalds has a uniform that everyone wears to promote a feeling of family among employees, but also to ensure that there are no loose ends to get caught in equipment or food. Mechanics wear coveralls for some of the same reasons – to keep belts and other bits of normal clothing from getting caught on equipment and causing problems, as well as the coveralls keep the mechanic from getting more than face and hands dirty.

The average business office has a dress code to inspire trust and respect, but does not have many of the dangers other places have dress codes to avoid. In a typical business office, there is nothing jeans and a T-shirt will get caught on that a 3 piece suit won’t as well. But if a company has a dress code for a reason, what are the advantages of having employees dress casually for the office?

When people are working in an office there are many distractions – the people taking personal calls, someone talking at the water cooler, someone else playing their radio, and you can’t leave out the stiff neck itchy suit. Anything that helps employees relax and concentrate at work should be at least considered as it has the potential to increase productivity and employee happiness.

Consider the IT computer professional looking after the company computer network. Outside of work he or she is likely in jeans and a T-shirt around the clock. Why? They are comfortable, easy to move around it, and the T-shirts allow personal expression. This same person wears a business outfit to work every day. Do you think they are comfortable in it? In all likelihood they would rather wear jeans and T-shirt at work as well as everywhere else. Plus when working on computers there can be a lot of lifting, stretching, and other sweat-inducing work that would be better suited to T-shirts and jeans.

How about people who overheat easily? If they come to work in 3 layers of clothes as dictated by company policy, they are sweating all day. This not only makes that person uncomfortable and distracted but people around them too who smell the sweat and may touch sweaty hands. It would be much better to allow those people to wear lighter and airy clothing that prevents them from sweating all day.

In both situations it’s easy to see how dressing casually needs limits or the IT T-shirt may have profanity on it, or the light airy clothes may tend toward being see-through. However, reasonable limits are easy to put in place and each situation is easy to address as it comes up.

Any trained HR person will tell you that a happy and comfortable worker is a more productive worker, which is in the company’s best interests. So as long as it doesn’t interfere with safety or take away from customers’ trust of the company, dressing casually should be in all companies!

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