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A dress code might be a noise level issue compared with other
environment and policy questions, but they seem to go together.
In my experience, the same people who insist that you wear a
precise set of garments make policies like "offices are only for
upper management, the rest of you get cubicles you can see over
while sitting down" and "no personal items on desks" (officially,
the only ornamentation we're allowed is family photographs, and
we may not even post work-related things like production
schedules) and (often, though thankfully not in my case) get frantic
if you're 2 minutes late and give you no credit if you stay after
working hours to finish something.
And yes, people like to look good. But some of us aren't convinced
that looking good means looking like everyone else and spending a
lot of money for that dubious privilege. A complete stranger got
into the office elevator yesterday and lit up my day, because she
was wearing a bright tie-dyed t-shirt and white pants. That's not
a suit, but it looked good.
