Dressing for Success at Workplace
Tarun Matta -
Thursday, September 03, 2009 3:26 PM
Dressing plays an important role in how a person is perceived at workplace. Dressing professionally can help one project the right image in front of senior management, customers, peers, and subordinates.
At iimjobs.com we decided to conducted our first “Dressing for Success at Workplace” survey to understand fashion trends and its impact at the workplace. The survey was conducted during Aug 2 – 8, 2009 with over 2700 MBA graduates from top 15 business schools participating in the survey anonymously.
We collected some interesting data points -
- 45 percent of the respondents prefer to wear business casuals at workplace and a vast majority (83 percent) of them wanted business casuals to be the standard office dress.
- 47 percent of the respondents said that employees who dress professionally tend to be promoted more often than their peers with similar background and work experience.
- Employees who dressed casually were perceived to be taken less seriously (53 percent) at workplace. However, they were perceived to be pleasant (75 percent), fun loving (69 percent) and creative (62 percent).
- 82 percent of the respondents said that co-workers in traditional business dress were perceived to be at senior level and taken more seriously (73 percent) at the workplace. Employees in suits were also perceived to be less creative (69 percent) and rigid (83 percent).
We also got some interesting comments
- “Even though we are seeing a trend of more relaxed dress codes in the office, it doesn’t mean that professionalism should go out the window. One needs to wear business formal when meeting customers or in important meetings with senior management”, A respondent who has been working with an IT company for last 7 years.
- “One needs to err on the side of caution, especially women employees. Dress too casually, and colleagues may think that one is open to dinner invitations and more” said a lady respondent who didn’t mention her name.
- “The person needs to understand the dress code prevalent in the organisation. Often its not even clearly stated or documented but has to be observed and followed, atleast in the early stages of the career”, - an IIM graduate working in the FMCG retail sector.
- “In any industry or corporate atmosphere, you have to be perceived as competent and responsible. A sloppy dress says that you don't care, and that you might not be competent enough to take higher responsibly” - a respondent working in IT sector
Of course, these trends change across industries and job roles. What do you think?
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Tarun Matta is the founder of iimjobs.com – an exclusive job portal for MBAs from IIMs and other premier business schools in India.