What are your views on dress codes at the moment?

*Looks down at Skechers*

Well...

I have been asked to review ours as the standard of dress has slipped slightly over the last couple of years with some people wearing vans, converse or sketcher trainers others wearing hoodies.

I can't help but notice that there's no suggestion that performance has slipped, or sales, or customer satisfaction, or stock price, or net profits, or, indeed, any meaningful measure of actual outcomes for the organisation.

If the only reason for reviewing the dress code is because someone in the C-suite is upset that people aren't wearing suits anymore, then I suggest that they need to spend a bit more time focused on their KPIs.

When Mary Barra first proposed the new GM dress code in 2018, I was pretty skeptical. She reduced a lengthy policy document to two words: dress appropriately. To some extent it was an attention-seeking act, but the object as she explained it was to both empower employees to make their own judgements about their role, their tasks and the clothes that were appropriate, and also managers to have actual conversations with employees about adapting. The 2014 media excitement about a Nasa engineer's shirt illustrated the issue that thinking about what we wear matters, but companies may lose more than they gain by proscribing dress codes, as PwC discovered when they sought to enforce a requirement that women working in reception roles wore high heels in 2016.

In short, I think companies are much better off with brief (if not GM-brief) dress codes that encourage thought and dialogue rather than setting down strict and detailed expectations.

*Looks down at Skechers*

Well...

I have been asked to review ours as the standard of dress has slipped slightly over the last couple of years with some people wearing vans, converse or sketcher trainers others wearing hoodies.

I can't help but notice that there's no suggestion that performance has slipped, or sales, or customer satisfaction, or stock price, or net profits, or, indeed, any meaningful measure of actual outcomes for the organisation.

If the only reason for reviewing the dress code is because someone in the C-suite is upset that people aren't wearing suits anymore, then I suggest that they need to spend a bit more time focused on their KPIs.

When Mary Barra first proposed the new GM dress code in 2018, I was pretty skeptical. She reduced a lengthy policy document to two words: dress appropriately. To some extent it was an attention-seeking act, but the object as she explained it was to both empower employees to make their own judgements about their role, their tasks and the clothes that were appropriate, and also managers to have actual conversations with employees about adapting. The 2014 media excitement about a Nasa engineer's shirt illustrated the issue that thinking about what we wear matters, but companies may lose more than they gain by proscribing dress codes, as PwC discovered when they sought to enforce a requirement that women working in reception roles wore high heels in 2016.

In short, I think companies are much better off with brief (if not GM-brief) dress codes that encourage thought and dialogue rather than setting down strict and detailed expectations.

Also, on a related note, I was in a meeting with four colleagues the other day, on Teams, when we realised we were all wearing hoodies. We were waiting for a fifth colleague and, when she arrived, she was bemused to be greeted with cheers and laughter... because she, too, was wearing a hoodie.

Hoodies, the dress code for those who are trying not to put the heating on.

Your post also reminded me of the dress code - Wear clothes. Meant as a tongue in cheek of course but designed to treat people as adults. This was an accountancy firm.