Casual dress code and employee motivation

Casual dress code and employee motivation

Our work culture nestles into a daily life interspersing and making it also the same. Sometimes individuals find it hard to keep their personal and professional life different. One of the instances is the clothes one wears to office. Mostly as organisations have it, formals are to be worn to work. While some have a Saturday dress down syndrome some have formals even on Saturdays. As the working professional gets immersed in work and the atmosphere, he or she gets to wearing formals anywhere and everywhere.

So even on a day off, when the employee is out with family his dressing sense remains formal, this is because it is hard for him to break away from the routine code. Besides, wearing an executive attire ushers in an atmosphere very formal as against a casual and a cool environment.If one goes into an ad agency you will find most of them are very casually dressed. Infact the senior creative guys wear dusty torn jeans, a shirt pulled out and slippers on bare feet. Not because they do not have the money to spend, but because they want to feel comfortable in their attire and hence work comfortably.

Similarly organisations with this attitude like publications, magazine houses and tour agencies allow their employees to dress down. And does that work. Yes it does. Employees are motivated to get the work done than staring at each others branded clothes. With the dress down policy anybody can wear what they please so there is less thinking in the morning as to what do I wear today and employees show up on time. They can sit comfortably and work better that increases productivity which is ultimately the underlying reason for any organisation.

But at the same time getting dressed down does not mean you can wear shorts and Bermudas to office. That is going overboard. This never really happens but sometimes you get employees who take the entire hand when you give them the finger. Being speculative about how employees will change their attitude with the dress down work code is natural. So you can introduce it backwards. Like Saturdays and Fridays are dress down days. See how your employees react to it. Give it a month or two. If it really affects the attitude, aptitude and growth level. Then introduce it for the rest of the days or keep it reserved for a few days only.