Thongs might not be the classiest work attire going around.
It’s Friday today, and for many workplaces that means employees are in casual attire. Some of them a little too casual. Regardless, just for a day, gone are the ties and the corporate suits, and in are the jeans and cargos. But what’s the point of casual Fridays, anyway? And what are the benefits, if any?
One theory is that casual clothes make employees more relaxed. This relaxed feeling results in greater levels of open communication, more collaboration among colleagues, and a better ability to deal with stress.
The other theory is that casual clothes make employees slack and careless. They become too chilled to follow processes properly; they do away with courtesies and protocols; and productivity is impacted when employees adopt an at-home mentality just because they’re wearing at-home clothes.
In a worldwide Reuters poll of 12,500 workers conducted last year, 40 per cent of respondents said they wear casual clothes at work. But the same number of people agreed that those who wear casual clothing would never get promoted to senior management.
It’s based on the expectation that the higher up you are in the hierarchy, the more professional you must look, whereas those on the lower rungs don’t need to impress as much. It implies that image at work has an influence on the perception of abilities, even though there’s no correlation between how someone looks and how they perform.
Empirical research is contradictory on whether business attire triggers greater amounts of productivity or whether casual clothes have an edge. Some studies say yes; others say no. What seems to be true is that any benefits tend to be intangible and intrinsic.
This means people might not work harder or faster, but they feel better about being at work. Morale is enhanced because they feel more comfortable when their neck is freed from a restrictive tie or when their feet are released from hard shoes. Managers become more likeable because they’re seen to be flexible. And employees view the gesture as a benefit, which impacts positively on motivation.
There is, actually, one curious quantitative measure. It relates to health benefits. Several years ago, researchers at the University of Wisconsin placed a pedometer on people at work, which calculated their physical activity. The study’s participants ended up burning more calories when they were dressed casually because casual clothes made them walk more, and that additional walking resulted in weight loss – not a lot, but enough to shed an extra kilo.
A lot of the demand for wearing casual clothes seems to come from Generation Y. Focus groups conducted in 2008 at the University of Tasmania found that younger people tend to be more individualistic than older generations, and they like to express this individualism via their clothing. This is especially the case with female members of Gen Y. So, by default, companies that embrace casual days give their younger workers an opportunity to reveal more of their identity.
For many employers, casual days were accepted a long time ago. The contemporary problem, though, arises with what people choose to wear when given the option of dressing down. Clothes that expose too much skin are a common complaint. Shirts that contain inappropriate messages are another. And then there’s the issue of shoes.
I recall a meeting held by a former manager of mine – a meeting that lasted two hours – in which the only agenda item was a discussion on the thongs that were fine to wear on casual days and the thongs that were unacceptable. In the end, it was agreed that thongs with a heel were OK, but thongs without a heel were not.
It was a laborious and excruciating conversation, driven by management’s incompetence at running an efficient meeting, but what it demonstrated was the importance of having a dress code in place. Because even on days when the code is relaxed, you can bet there’s a manager freaking out.
Follow James Adonis on Twitter @jamesadonis
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