You might want to spend a few extra minutes picking out your wardrobe tomorrow morning. A survey of workers and human resource professionals reveals how employees dress at work directly impacts their chances for a promotion. This tidbit from a survey by Yahoo HotJobs and Banana Republic isn’t really surprising. What is interesting is that the same survey revealed 61% of workers admit they either don’t know or don’t care about their company’s dress code. Check out the full story here.

With so many people working flexible schedules and telecommuting, is the day of the business suit becoming a distant memory? But many executives believe work is about professionalism, not comfort, so employees should dress the part.

Particularly here in the South, we tend to think flip-flops are proper shoes, and jackets, ties, pantyhose and heels are way too hot in August.

What are you seeing in your office? Is the dress code becoming more casual? Do employees even care about the dress code?

Holly Fisher
Special Projects Editor

Comments (2) >>

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written by Dorothy Porter on November 13, 2007

I believe that office attire in South Carolina has become extremely slack. Flip Flops belong on the beach. The idea that one could even consider themselves operating in a professional manner while donning these shoes is ridiculous. I am remeber how exciting it was when I was in grade school, when the teacher wore jeans on our field trips ( Only on field trips).

Gen X is not an excuse there still has to be some level of decorum in the workplace. Casual Fridays, maybe but just hopping up in the morning and getting dressed like you are going on a WalMart shopping spree is not now, nor will it ever be appreciated or adopted in my book.

Now there are some work environments where what you where doesn't matter but a safe bet is this, if your boss is always wearing office appropriate attire, then so should you.

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written by Street on September 25, 2007

I think that the dot-com age and the Gen-Xers starting businesses has really spawned this lax in dress code. I'm pretty sure that Google wouldn't require a suit and jacket ... probably not Microsoft either. And contrary to that report, they are pretty darn successful. Anyone see the last episode of The Office? Some of the Dunder-Mifflin employees were contemplated who would get the highly-sought-after corporate job, and one of them said Karen would get it because she "looks corporate with her pants suits." I'd say that in traditional companies, having a neat/well-dressed appearance would impact promotions, but as companies fall into the hands of the next generation, things are likely to loosen up. I don't know about you, but who can work when they are in an itchy suit, can't breathe and their feet hurt?

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