RIP: Dress Down Fridays
It seems that Richard Branson’s ban on his employees at Virgin from wearing jeans is not unusual. According to a Reed Employment survey, jeans and comedy ties are banned from the majority of offices, with 47% of workers wearing smart casual business wear to work every day and 40% wearing formal office attire such as suits.
What’s more, the majority of people questioned felt that dressing smartly will advance their careers, with 51% believing it will help them win a promotion. Surprisingly, there was tickbox for ‘shagging the boss’.
Office workers seem to like dressing up in their fetish uniforms as it helps them to remember that they’re not at home and can’t touch themselves. Some losers even feel proud to wear a uniform as it represents their company’s brand image. Only 16% stated they are unaffected by what they wear to work and just 1% stated they felt uncomfortable in their work clothing. We are not a rebellious lot either - 90% of respondents stated that they strictly adhere to their work dress codes every day. It’s a sad day for revolution!
85% feel that in today’s office environment having a dress code is still highly relevant; 87% would always wear a suit to an interview and 62% also believe that wearing a suit is important to create the right impression on the first day at a new job. Again, there’s no mention of shagging.
However, some casual elements have crept into work dress codes - wearing a tie is no longer the norm in most offices, with 61% of men stating they never wear ties, 20% wear a tie only for business meetings, with only 19% wearing one every day. On the other hand comedy ties, together with jeans, short skirts, flip flops, trainers and sportswear are amazingly deemed unacceptable by the majority of businesses.
‘Dress down Fridays’ is still quite popular and a third of respondents claimed that their company had a policy in place to allow more casual business wear on Fridays. What’s the point? Ah, yes, now I remember.
