In the majority of corporate offices and environments, smart wear such as suits, ties, jackets and pencil skirts are a written rule of conduct. This is an element of working in the business world that so heavily depends upon impressions and appearances in all areas, that a lot of people find a real challenge.
I hope you’ll allow me to share my personal thoughts with you for just a moment, and ask you to cast your mind’s eye back to your school days. I have been to both uniform and non-uniform schools, and I feel that each have their own advantages. Personally, I enjoyed wearing uniform, because it put everyone on an equal level in terms of being well dressed. Growing up, I was somewhat ahead of my time (being the youngest of four by ten years) and also a complete extrovert, and I’m not sure how my day-to-day clothes would have gone down in the brutal world of the playground – most of my peers (born in 1988) had absolutely no idea who most of my musical idols were, and would definitely have poked fun at the people who appeared on nearly all of my T-shirts – who, to them, just looked weird and scary. I enjoyed that fact that my uniform made me blend in by day, then I could banish it to the laundry basket every evening to make way for Ozzy, Morrison, Beefheart and Iggy.
Having said that, I grasped every opportunity to remind my classmates, such as discos or field trips, that there was more going on under the surface than perhaps they thought – and it was clear to me that every time a non-uniform day came along, they had obviously spent painstakingly long periods of time determining what outfit they’d wear, selecting which one would best emphasize their true personality.
Once I attended a non-uniform 6th form college, however, I noticed quickly that everyone seemed to gravitate towards other people in the same style of clothing as them – therefore making an immediate and usually accurate judgement call as to whether a friendship could develop in this new and daunting place. Being 16 and having grown out of the concept of cliques and learned that the importance of popularity is seriously overrated during childhood, everyone simply got along in a live and let live kind of way. It was glorious…as long as the laundry was kept under control, of course. There was always the odd day of ‘I can’t believe I’m actually leaving the house in my Mums pink fluffy jumper – must wash clothes tomorrow to avoid further taunting from my leather-clad friends’.
Many offices in the USA have ‘Casual Fridays’. It’s not very common here in England, but increases in productivity, better moral in the workplace and evidence of stronger relationships forming between colleagues has been recorded within companies that have chosen to take on this more informal approach.
Suddenly, a man you occasionally queue up behind at the water machine becomes a new companion for gigs to a band you both love, simply because they’ve noticed something as ordinary as a branded wristband or shirt. A colleague that you would never have expected to have the everyday style they do may surprise you – perhaps with bold colours replacing their usual grey, or with ethnic jewelry from travels you never knew they’d had.
Self-expression is important in a workplace, and opens up more opportunities to realise and use people’s passions, hobbies and experiences, as well as their official skill set and career-orientated qualifications – and you’re highly likely to see some unusual but strong friendships blossom under even just occasional informal environments. I reckon the Americans have got it right, though – one day a week is just about right.
Please feel free to comment below with your views and thoughts on this debatable subject!
