Has casual office dress gone too far?

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Monday, October 11, 2010 (SF Chronicle)
Has casual office dress gone too far?
Eric Spitznagel, Bloomberg Businessweek

Remember the late 1990s and early 2000s, when "casual Friday" was a
naughty thrill?
How innocent we were. In the past decade, those seemingly harmless polo
shirts and khakis have spawned a five-day sartorial office free-for-all
that's led to low-cut jeans and "tramp stamp" tattoos.
According to a 2007 Gallup poll, the most recent data available, 43
percent of workers said they regularly wore casual business attire at the
office, compared with 32 percent in 2002. Even scarier, the lax precedent
has allowed them to make their own decisions about what's acceptable or,
worse, cool.
Managers are striking back. A survey released in June by the Society for
Human Resource Management found that 34 percent of bosses officially
permitted casual dress among employees every day, a dramatic drop from 53
percent in 2002.
Some executives are hiring image consultants and fashion experts to crack
down on everything from muumuus to "Little House On the Prairie"-style
pioneer dresses.
"American society has become so ridiculously casual," said Clinton Kelly,
co-host of the Learning Channel's "What Not to Wear" series. The problem,
he suggests, may be the lack of office-fashion role models.
"Outrageous people are getting the most attention now," he said. "Kids
coming out of college are watching Lady Gaga on YouTube. They don't
understand that Lady Gaga is selling albums, and they're in accounting. A
meat dress just doesn't fly at the office."
Popularized in Silicon Valley, the casual office look has sometimes been
the result of noble intentions.
"At Google, we know that being successful has little to do with what an
employee is wearing," said Jordan Newman, a spokesman for the Mountain
View company. "We believe one can be serious and productive without a
suit."
That may be the case for engineers dealing with complicated algorithms.
However, professional image coach Lizandra Vega remembers meeting a male
worker at the New York staffing firm where she's a managing partner. He
arrived for a meeting in thin white cotton slacks - and no underwear. "He
was hanging loose," she said.
Even upper management isn't immune to terrible dress habits. Diane
Gottsman, owner of the Protocol School of Texas, recalls teaching a
business fashion workshop in Houston last year during which she met an
executive "wearing a straw paperboy hat pulled sideways," she said.
"He had on suspenders and black-and-white spectator shoes. He asked, 'What
do you think of my look?' " Gottsman tried to be diplomatic, suggesting he
take off his hat indoors. "He couldn't do that," she said. "The hat helped
him with his 'swagga.' "
While workers may not like rules, some need them. A 2002 survey by the
recently shuttered department-store chain Mervyns, which was based in
Hayward, revealed that 90 percent of office workers didn't know the
difference between formal business attire, business casual and just plain
casual.
Companies such as General Electric Co. force employees to make these
distinctions every day by asking that they "use good, professional
judgment," as GE puts it.
Ginger Burr, president of Total Image Consultants in Lynn, Mass., recalls
a fashion workshop she conducted with a national bank.
"We were talking about sandals," she said. "There seemed to be a consensus
that sandals shouldn't be worn. Then this beautifully dressed female
executive walked in wearing sandals, and said, 'We should be able to wear
nice sandals.' When you get into personal taste, that's where it becomes
tricky."
Sandy Dumont, an image consultant from Norfolk, Va., says the biggest
challenge in overhauling an office worker's wardrobe is avoiding hurt
feelings. Her suggestion: Hire a professional.
She was brought in to help a female employee at Rolex Group who was
offending an executive with her "klutzy" footwear - which turned out to be
orthopedic shoes. "She had a slightly deformed foot," Dumont said. Fearing
that a confrontation would offend the woman, Dumont led her on a guided
shoe-shopping spree on the Geneva company's dime.
Those accustomed to a personal business style aren't taking these changes
lightly.
"The uniformity of dress serves the current American business model by
pressing individuals into the service of the corporate person," said Jack
Tuckner, a New York employment attorney who briefly represented Debrahlee
Lorenzana, a Citigroup Inc. employee fired earlier this year for wearing
provocative clothing.
"It's a largely paramilitary model that eschews independent thinkers," he
says.
In 2008, Tuckner was sued by a former colleague for allegedly wearing a
"bondage collar" at the office.
Tuckner denies the allegations. "As a fastidious dresser myself," he says,
"I'd be excessively worried about unsightly neckline bulges caused by the
lock." ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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