The Work Wardrobe Debate
‘Enclothed Cognition’
That’s the scientific term for how the way we dress, and see other people dressed, influences our thoughts and psychology. To get historical about it, clothing has been a form of art, communication, and a marker of status for centuries. In the modern workplace, we use it to indicate professionalism and the character of our role.
When we turn up for an interview, we ‘dress up’ as the role that we want – showing off our qualities, be it creativity, precision or responsibility, through clothing choices.
Interviewers say that a decision is often made on strength of a first impression, within the first 8 seconds of meeting someone! Your outfit is like your front cover, it packs a lot of power in terms of influencing people and crafting the way they think of you.
More introspectively speaking, the psychology of clothes is all about confidence and identity. We express ourselves through our clothes; every wardrobe is a portrait of its owner. At work though, we are curating, expressing a ‘best self’ through that medium of costume.
There’s another debate to be had as to the merits and dangers of this persona business… and we’ve written about it, in The Personal, The professional.
Since we’ve largely done away with strict office dress codes since the advent of hybrid working and developed a progressively more relaxed approach to office environments, we are reaping the benefits of comfort and ease, but are we missing out on any advantages of our old ‘work attire’.
You may have heard of a well-known study involving lab coats. It showed that people given ‘white coats’ performed better in an assessment than those who remained in normal clothing. More than that, even when dressed the same, those who believed it was a ‘doctors’ or ‘laboratory’ coat were more focused and productive than those who were given the same coat but told that it was a ‘painters smock’. It isn’t just the practicality of clothing that counts, but our associations with it. When the subjects put on lab coats, they took on the traits they associated with doctors; attentiveness, precision, and calm.
In terms of the modern workplace, studies have also shown that more formal business attire can make us feel more powerful and in control of a situation, even giving us an advantage in debate against someone less sharply attired.
But how much of this is because we associate that behaviour or mindset with what we’ve always worn to work? If we get used to summoning up the same control, productivity, and confidence regardless of what we’re wearing, might we be more prepared for those situations without needing to dress for them?
What if your work wardrobe has never actually been suited to your job at all?
Lots of offices have in the past expected a shirt, jacket and tie, or heels for women (we won’t go into that now). This is what we commonly think of as ‘power dressing’, associated with increased control.
What if your job is all about people and communication? Dressing more casually can make you appear more approachable and feel more personable.
You’re in a creative role? Ditching the neutral and repetitive for a more colourful and varied wardrobe may be inspiring!
For these reasons, in the old world of suit-and-tie, many people found ‘dress down Fridays’ to be the best time for creative brainstorming, new ideas or experiments, because they felt more relaxed in their clothes.
One of our Orbis values is ‘Be Real’, and so many workplaces are now putting more emphasis on bringing your whole self to work. When we arrive in our own clothes, we are projecting a more authentic version of who we are to our colleagues, which can foster better relationships and have a positive impact for our culture of inclusion.
There’s a question of Diversity here as well.
Wherever an authority imposes dress codes, there is risk of discrimination. For instance, there is a damaging history of work dress codes infringing on natural hairstyles, religious clothing, or enforcing the trappings of binary gender identity.
Even if you try to outline a dress code that is inclusive for everyone, what if you don’t have lived experience of being, for instance, a wheelchair user? Wheelchair using employees may experience issues you couldn’t predict and didn’t account for. No one person can ever be the expert in how everyone should dress, or do anything else for that matter.
Though in this example you would be more than willing make an exception for the employees needs– that’s just the point, nobody should have to be ‘the exception’.
By establishing a dress code in the first place, you’ve painted a backdrop against which a disabled employee might stand out. The same goes for other marginalised or underrepresented groups. If our ‘norms’ set anyone apart, those norms need revision.
Instead, by simply trusting employees to dress accordingly with what ‘professional’ means for them, we can be truly inclusive and also broaden our range of perspectives as to how ‘work attire’ is perceived across our intersecting communities.