Dressing Down

Due to the current dollop of heat, there’s yet another story in today’s BBC about the TUC wanting workplaces to allow workers to dress more casually.

Actually, it’s one of the things I do like about IT in general, is that we’re not constricted to working in suits, or even shirts and ties. The current company doesn’t really care at all what we wear, as we never have to see customers, clients, or whatever. For instance, today I’m in a T-shirt, and normal trousers. (I could go the shorts route, but prefer to not scare people too much) Of course, I’m also still wearing heavy Cat boots too, but well, no-one’s perfect.

Personally, I think that unless you’re facing customers or clients all day, then dress-code doesn’t matter a toss. I have worked with companies that insisted on suited-and-booted, or just shirt-and-tie, because “it made people more professional”. Maybe in some (or even most) cases it does – and I do agree that it’s good to have some kind of difference between ‘work clothes’ and ‘home clothes’, for obvious reasons – but I know that for myself, I work better when I’m comfortable, rather than when there’s sweat trickling down the back of my knees.

Tomorrow, though, I’m going to have to do an interview, which’ll mean fully suited-and-booted. Of course, the normal work dresscode won’t be like that, but tomorrow I expect to be spending an hour sweating like a perv in a playground.