Dressing for Success

There's a strange concept about appropriate dress in a semi-tropic city like Tampa. High temperatures and humidity make people think that they can dress for work in roughly the same manner they dress to go to the beach. Not true in government offices like Hillsborough County, where the standard tie and jacket apply. Nor at the banks, where even low paid tellers are expected to dress in a business like manner. But in our office, the standard of dress sometimes slips to deplorable.

One day shortly after I arrived in Tampa, I was walking into the office and encountered a greasy haired, unkempt young man with a guitar over his shoulder. I couldn't believe that he was showing up to work dressed that way. "Heading to Woodstock?" I asked, but he was too young to know what Woodstock was.

A new CEO changed that. He enforced a dress code that had been written but not followed. There was an incredible amount of whining and wailing. No jeans? Might as well be working in the Gulag. Me, I supported the concept of a dress code. We might not be a coat and tie type of company, but I believe that when you dress sloppy, your work is sloppy. So if you're a recent grad or early in your career, here's some advice you would be smart to heed.

Clothing is more than what people see without interacting with you. It might not be "fair" for people to judge you on the basis of your attire, but facts is facts... they do. It is said that clothes make the man, or the woman. That's not true, but it does do two things: It makes the first impression on people you come into contact with, and it sets the tone for your work style and habits.

Let's look at impressions first. Remember the young man I saw going into our office? His appearance overrode any statement that his quality of work might have said. He looked like a slob, and the first reaction to anything he might have presented would be to think that his work was sloppy, too. And in fact, his work was shoddy, which makes my second point. When you dress like a slob, you do the work of a slob.

I'm not saying that you need to pop for Armani or Ralph Lauren for every day work wear. In fact, people who dress strictly to be fashionable are a bit out of balance. Your office has a dress code, written or not. If it's written that's easy - read it and use that as your minimum starting point. If there is no written code, look around to see what the standard is in the office. Then kick it up a notch. If everyone wears jeans, then make your minimum standard Dockers. And if everyone else is into Dockers, then it's dress pants or skirts. No skirts for the guys, of course.

Think you can't afford decent clothes? Nothing can be farther from the truth. You have a financial plan, right? I mean, you aren't so stupid as to be blowing every cent you make, are you? So put $50 to $100 per month into your clothing budget. And learn to buy quality. Price isn't always the best indicator of quality. Learn about the things that make a well made garment, and use it as a guide for your clothing investments. Ladies, don't dress in the office like you're going to the club. The key is professional, not sexy. Gentlemen, no polo shirts and certainly no t-shirts. Even in a casual office, dress shirts should be your standard.

So what happened to our dress code? Again, managers were afraid to enforce it. As part of our low expectations management style, managers allowed their staff to slide back into their old habits of dressing like they were going to the beach, or just finished the farm chores. In fact, we have an expression about Tampa office being "The Beach". Unfortunately, it's not a compliment or envy of Tampa's great weather. It's a slam at our work style. We dress like we're going to the beach, and we work like we're more interested in going to the beach. The people in the field see it in the results of the work we do for them. Now if we could only see it ourselves, we might motivate management to do something about it.