Casual Dress Code In Workplace May Be On Way Out
By Kevin Smith© Pasadena Star-News, Sunday, August 29, 2004
Few things are as liberating --or comfortable -- as coming to work in jeans and tennis shoes.
But be forewarned - this Labor Day may mark the end of the casual dress code, according to workplace authority John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
Employers are increasingly abandoning casual dress policies established in the late 1990s and early 2000s in favor of more formal, pre-dot-com-era business attire, Challenger said.
Many firms nationwide likely are to institute new and more stringent dress codes, he said, with some even going so far as to establish employee uniforms.
"Reasons for uniform dress codes vary, but one common thread is employers' preference for a clean, consistent and professional image among their workers," Challenger said. "Uniform dress codes have become most prominent in the banking and retail sectors, particularly on the sales floor at several major chain and department stores."
Southland employment experts say the trend doesn't seem to be occurring locally, however. "We don't see it," said Gary Kaplan, president of Gary Kaplan & Associates, a global executive search firm based in Pasadena. "We're still seeing a consistency of casual dress in most of the environments we service."
Kaplan's firm deals with a variety of industries, including entertainment, manufacturing, consumer products, technology, nonprofits and the financial sector.
"If there was a significant change, I would think one of the first places leading the charge would be financial services," Kaplan said. "But we're still seeing a number of major accounts where the dress code is casual."
Kaplan, who typically attends business development luncheons five days a week, said he gears his personal dress to the clients he's meeting with - and most dress business casual.
"The only place where they are consistently in jackets and ties is in administrative positions in higher education," he said. "But in many places, if we walked in wearing suits and ties we'd look like FBI agents."
Kaplan acknowledged, however, that it's always best to dress formally when meeting new clients or going for job interviews.
"Many clients expect a consultant to look the part," he explained. "When we go out to make sales calls or do a progress report with clients, I always wear a suit and tie - unless I'm directed otherwise."
Spherion, a human resources consulting firm, hasn't noted a significant swing from casual dress in the workplace, either.
"I haven't seen much of a change," said Pete Tzavalas, managing principal of the company's West Lake Village office. "The dot-com level of wearing shorts and flip-flops is pretty much gone, but that was more tied to that particular segment (of the economy)."
By and large, Tzavalas said most businesses seem to be maintaining casual wear policies for the workplace - particularly entertainment.
The concept of "casual Friday" began about 15 years ago, and Tzavalas said one study found that employees typically get far less accomplished on such days.
"The study said there was no productivity - that it was kind of a blow-off day for employees to wrap things up and take off around midday," he said.
Challenger said the move to return to more formal dress in the workplace may actually backfire, fostering a "group-think mentality" and eventually resulting in decreased productivity and employee morale. "When you take away people's individuality, you greatly diminish their creativity and ability to think outside of the box," he said. "Uniformity in appearance tends to lead to uniformity of thought, which is detrimental to any organization that is trying to expand."
Some experts contend the movement toward uniform and more formal dress codes is in response to the mass relaxation of such policies during the dot-com boom when some of the fresh start-ups abandoned all standards of attire.
