There is an interesting discussion going on at slashdot about an article from (the soon to be dearly-departed) ZDNet about the rise in dress code standards for tech workers. Now, no longer is it approprieate to show up to work in your Ramones T-shirt, Bermuda’s and your flip-flop sandals. Suits, ties and. at least business dress casual clothing, is the uniform of the day. Apparently, a further attempt to, not only, break the dot-com culture mentality but, to attempt (probably in vain as ever) to draw a (pointless) connection between dress and productivity.
I simply can’t believe we are still having this discussion 25 years after someone at Apple once said: “At Apple, if you showed up wearing shoes, you were considered to be well dressed.” Or, something very close to that. I’ve been dressing above standards for many years. Recognizing that clothing is a personal statement early on, I realized that it was easy to distinguish myself among my peers by simply paying attention to details. Not to say that I was trying to over dress at the office but, I have had a clothing standard for many years that is probably over-and-above what was called for in whatever business situation I happened to be involved with.
I was taught that it is far better to be over-dressed, than it is to be under-dressed. This means not taking any chances with trendy jackets and ties, this meant that I made sure (and still do) that my ties is tied carefully, that my clothing fit properly and was neatly pressed, that my shoes were in good shape and highly shined. This did not mean, to me, that I needed to wear $3k Hugo Boss suits, rather I wore (read wear) more thrift store clothing than I care to admit to. However, it still did not speak to the policy that required me to wear my suit and tie while crawling between floors, under desks, and behind racks of computers and network equipment. That was indeed asinine and stupid.