dress codes, again

[Vicki Rosenzweig <murphy!acmcr!vr -at- UUNET -dot- UU -dot- NET>]

From vr Wed Jun 16 14:41:51 1993
Subject: returned mail for techwr-l
Status: R

Mail error was: 550 <techwr-l>... User unknown

--- returned mail follows ---
To: techwr-l
Subject: Dress codes, official and otherwise


Unofficial dress codes are probably just a fact of life: after all,
there's no place to go to erase an unwritten law. Where I work we
have a slightly odd situation: the dress code for men calls for
ties (except in July and August), shirts with collars, and no
jeans. The dress code for women has been officially stated (by the
head of the company) as "I can't define it, but you know what it
is," with an explicit note that women may wear jeans if they're neat.
This may just be sex discrimination; I know it's bad for morale.
One person here, on receiving the latest reminder of the dress code,
which had been sent to all employees, read it as meaning that he was
being judged on his appearance rather than his work; he now wears a
tie every day, leaves promptly at the end of his eight hours, and no
longer takes work home. This seems to be a situation where everyone
has lost: his morale is down, and the company gets less of what it
pays him for. For myself, I feel a little bit odd being faced with the
instruction "you must follow this rule, but we won't tell you what it
is"; I'm dealing with it by assuming my usual manner of dress is okay
until I'm told otherwise.

Vicki Rosenzweig
vr%acmcr -dot- uucp -at- murphy -dot- com