Why Force Employees to Wear Suits to Work?

Posted on January 23, 2007
Filed Under A to Z, Choices, Lifestyle |

Here’s a topic that always stirs debate, but that debate seems mostly one-sided. Most of the discussion comes down in favor of making business formal dress the exception instead of the rule. Yet company dress codes are amazingly slow to change.

So why do these seemingly outdated rules linger? If you talk to the employees of most companies that still require suits, coat & tie, dresses, etc., you find they would much prefer switching to a business casual, if not totally casual dress code for everyday work.

It’s actually pretty hard to find anyone to speak for the nebulous “they” who are the mysterious proponents of business formal dress policies. Oh sure, you can talk to someone in HR, but they’re just spouting the company line – they don’t actually make the policy.

I came across a post by Mark Cuban on blogmaverick, where he’s ranting about this very topic. In it he makes several observations, and asks some pointed questions:…

“I could never think of any good reason for any sane person to wear a suit in the first place.

Exactly what purpose does a suit serve?

Why in the world are so many people required to wear a suit to work?

Do the clothes make the man or woman in the western world today?

Does wearing a tie make us work harder or smarter?

Is this a conspiracy by the clothing, fabric or dry cleaning industry to take our money?

Or are we all just lemmings following a standard we all know makes zero sense, but we follow because we are afraid not to?”

These are all good questions and most of the typical answers one hears are basically crap. Dressing up doesn’t make you a better employee; won’t make you work harder; and certainly doesn’t make you smarter. I also agree that if you need a suit to feel good about yourself or be confident, then you’ve got other issues. And no, it doesn’t create a “professional work environment” – that one’s always amusing. Either you have that environment or you don’t. Clothing doesn’t create it.

I liked Mark’s question directed to CEO’s and those at the top. “Why do you continue to require your people to wear suits?” Because it’s always been that way? Well do something about it. As a matter of fact, when I took on my first executive position some years back, eliminating our business formal dress code was among the first changes I made. Felt great! And guess what, everyone embraced it.

When I first started working, there was no choice, suits were required. At first it was novel, but over time became a hassle – not to mention the laundry and dry-cleaning bills. Since then it’s been a mix, with some places dress up and others not. Personally I like shorts and a T-shirt best. But I still like to wear a suit on occasion – admittedly somewhat rare, but it does happen.

This diatribe is not really about suits, it’s about mindless conformity, and doing things that no longer make sense – maybe that never did. It’s time to change and focus on more important things, like maybe your business as opposed to what your employee’s are wearing.

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Why Force Employees to Wear Suits to Work?

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