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On Friday I thought out loud that the free world was a jeans world, that
only technical writers who work in financial institutions and people who had
direct in-person contact with customers had to wear suits (or "dress up" in
some manner or other). I asked for private responses to see if I was right.
There was quite a bit of interest in this topic and many people asked that I
summarize the responses on the list so here it is in no particular order (and
through my coltish Monday typing fingers--sorry for the typos). ("Suit" means
anything dressy for males or females.)
I've received oodles of responses and they're almost all the same: suits
except for Friday, and even then it's "business casual," not jeans. Some
companies allow jeans on Friday but they're uncommon. Most got "casual" Fridays
only within the last 6 months. Weirdly, it doesn't matter if you ever see a
customer or not--wear a suit.
Many said that even "business casual" was strictly regulated. Some said no
illustrations, patches, or such were allowed on any shirts (I wonder how this
affects polo shirts with logos on the breast for example). Others said all
shirts must have collars. Jeans? What are they?
A couple people said that if someone wore a suit or dressed up at all on a
casual Friday, everyone would think they were going on an interview or up to
something nefarious. ;)
One person accused me of living in a dream world. That's right! I am! I've
found that my experience of comfortable working is abnormal. I should have
asked for where everyone was working because maybe my experience is a part of
being in the midwest?
I only got two responses saying all jeans all the time. Oddly, one person
was as adamant as I am about being able to dress comfortably and was just as
surprised to think that technical writers have to dress up. Always comforting
to know one isn't dreaming alone... ;) The other response said he'd been able
to wear jeans throughout his (16-year) career.
A common theme through many of the responses was: "We don't have a dress
code stated on paper, but we know if we wore jeans we'd get into some kind of
trouble." How strange. I wonder if this stress (no matter how low-level it may
be) hurts more than whatever losses the executive types are afraid will happen
if everyone dresses how they want.
As you might guess, almost all the responses said "I have to dress up--but I
really wish I could wear jeans." A few didn't care one way or another. A couple
people said they dress up on purpose to better their image among co-workers,
and would continue to dress up even if the company went casual.
A few responses said they get to dress comfortably when they go to an
industrial site, or, as one person said, when someone is going to be crawling
on the floor chasing cables.
Most of the contracting people who responded said they dress according to
the client they're sent to and only one contracting house had a dress code that
stipulated suits.
One person said that at her company, dress code was up to the managers of
each department. If you're lucky, you can dress casually. If not, not.
Not very many responses included what industry the person was working in,
but those that did include such information began to show a trend. If you're in
an industry that's typically more creative than others, like media, software,
or something especially high-tech, it's more likely than not that you can wear
dress casual all the time and jeans on Friday. If you're in something financial
or governmental, it's almost certain you're in a suit right now. If you're
in-between, like documenting something that's not especially high-tech and not
ultra-conservative like banking, you could be anywhere on the scale.
Also, size seems to make a big difference. The smaller the company, the more
casual it is. I wonder why this is given that the smaller the company, the more
professional and on the ball everyone has to be. There's more to lose when
you're small--everyone needs to concentrate completely on what they're doing.
If dressing comfortably aids this, then why do larger companies restrict it?
A lot of people said women had to wear skirts and weren't allowed to wear
pants--but this changed after they appealed it, based on the discomfort they
had during winter months. Does this mean males are imposing dress codes on
people without thinking of the ramifications?
<tiny rant on>
Here's my fashion question for the week: Why do technical writers, of all
people, have to dress up? What productivity benefit is achieved by doing
so--especially when there are "casual Fridays?" Who sees them? If there is one
day a week when someone can dress comfortably--then why not have it all the
time? What's the difference? If productivity suffers on that day, shouldn't it
be stopped? If productivity is greater, shouldn't it be extended? If it doesn't
make a difference--shouldn't the employees be allowed to choose?
What's the benefit of mandating suits when most don't want to wear them? It
costs the employees a lot of money to buy dress clothes--this is especially
true for women since their wardrobes cost a great deal more money which hurts
women even more since their salaries are already lower than men in the same
positions. If the same males who told women to wear skirts in winter also had
to shell out the bucks for a real wardrobe and not for a comparatively small
collection of suit jackets and shirts and ties (which all look the same more or
less) that can be worn again even in the same week, then perhaps dress codes
wouldn't be as strict as they appear to be.
Based on the responses I got I'm preaching to the converted, but it still
upsets me.
Maybe there's a manager/executive type who can answer that for me--but don't
say "it's what everyone else does." Somewhere out there, there's a draconian
fiend imposing dress codes on innocent technical writers outside the government
and banking industries....
<tiny rant off>
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