In todays businesses there is a trend of setting rules about employees’ dresses. Mostly in case of multinational corporations it is necessary to dress in a certain way. Smaller and medium sized businesses do not strictly stick to these rules and leave their employees to dress in a casual way.
In case you entered a new job and the dress code was not set at the beginning, you are free to wear what you like. However, it is better to make a small observation of your colleagues and get inspired by their way of dressing. Sharing the same style of dressing with your colleagues will help you become a better team member. There are advantages and disadvantages of both casual clothing as well as dress code clothing.
The following paragraphs will describe the pros and cons of each option.
The Pros
The company with dress code rules is perceived as being more professional in the eyes of its clients. It does not need to be truth, but the visual effect is of a high importance. During the business meetings, people who wear smart clothes are perceived as being more professional and respected.
Nevertheless, when an employer forces the employees to wear smart clothes there is a risk of causing a “clothing error”. For some people the most important aspect of clothes is its comfort, not the way it looks. Forcing these people to wear good looking clothes may end up wearing clothes which are sloppy, bad fitting, lacking style and far from communicating professionalism
The Cons
The disadvantage of dress code is that it restrains the freedom of expressing the personality of employees through their clothes. Wearing casual clothes enables combinig various colours and experiment with various combinations.
The employees should have a freedom of deciding what to wear. There are plenty of rules in the company. Employees are all the time limited with different rules. Why is it necessary to burden them with dress code rules?
Furthermore, casual business clothes instead of smart clothes emphasize the human component of the company. When dealing with clients the company is perceived as being more open.
It is not easy to say which option is better. The choice depends on the company’s image – the way in which it wants to be perceived by the outside world as well as its employees.