What's the dress code where you work?

8/3/2012 6:09 PM EDT

Business-casual here (Drexel University). Polo shirt and khakis in the summer; a button-down shirt (no tie, no suit, thankfully!) in cooler weather. Perhaps shorts would be allowed in summertime, but my own personal dress code doesn't allow that, at least at work.

8/3/2012 6:48 PM EDT

HDD/SSD test/development lab/offices:

I wear jeans or khaki pants and polo or button up shirts (I don't tuck my shirts in) and casual brown or black ESD shoes. Some wear shorts in summer. Some wear a bit dressier slacks and tucked in shirts. No one wears ties except maybe on a special occasion.

8/3/2012 7:31 PM EDT

Max, I'm tracking your progress 10 years ahead - UK engineer in the 70's, Germany in the 80's, Silicon Valley 1986-now. Plessey Radar 1973-78 was proper trousers, shirt 'n' tie, and sports jacket. Even when I split to do contracting, I kept that momentum. MBB was the same, but here, beginning at Nat Semi, anything went, and still goes. Management wearing jeans for most of the subsequent startups. But for some reason, despite the complete lack of peer pressure, I still prefer dockers to jeans or shorts. Probably nostalgia.

We've come a long way in dress codes since the great engineers of yore like Brunel and Eddington, with their dress coats and wingtip collars. And since everything is cyclic, I'm just counting the years until the full wig makes a comeback.

8/3/2012 8:05 PM EDT

No dress code in my workplace but I usually wear a suit (without a tie most days). I like wearing formal attire at work if I am honest.

8/3/2012 8:53 PM EDT

Dockers or dressy levis and a cotton dress shirt -- all cotton for Arc-Flash safety

8/4/2012 8:10 AM EDT

Max, I tend to go with a suit, nice shirt and tie. In fact it is a little annoyance of mine that engineers in the UK want to be seen in a similar standing to other professionals (Dr, Lawyers etc) yet seem to think the it is OK to turn up to work scruffy looking.

8/4/2012 1:13 PM EDT

Working from home seems to be a bit of a cheat, but that means my dress code is very simple. Usually shorts, T-Shirt (in summer) add a pull-over in winter. @Max- maybe another topic for a slide show? Maybe not...

8/5/2012 2:22 AM EDT

I live in a warm climate. You should see how the girls in accounting and purchasing turn up for work - it would make the eyes pop out of your head.

8/5/2012 3:03 PM EDT

Max, I was fortunate to work right out of college with IBM, where the office dress code was always formal with tie expected every day, even when you worked around main frames with heavy duty power supplies and large fans, and other moving parts! I remember always having to flip my tie or tuck-in as a safety alternative ;-).
I say fortunate because that is the only time that I could have tolerated such requirement, as I migrated to start-ups the dress code has been always very informal jeans or cargo shorts and sandals during summer.

I think I can make the statement that productivity can be correlated to a relaxed dress code; personally, these have been the most productive times of my professional career!
However, now that I am working within a medical company, the dress code has been semi-formal during most of the year, with the exception of casual wear during summer. A niece balanced alternative.

8/5/2012 5:26 PM EDT

I worked with a very ambitious engineer who always wore a tie "because then you always knew who the boss was". The day we moved locations we were told to show up in shabby clothes and he still appeared in suit and tie.

In my current incarnation I can dress pretty much as I choose. I tend to go in dockers and any kind of open neck shirt because I don't want to mess up my good clothes like my jeans! I used to wear shorts on really hot days, but my boss told my then supervisor that he thought I would never look for another job, because nowhere else would allow shorts. I decided not to give him this sense of security, although it is helped by the fact the the a/c is pretty good.

8/5/2012 6:03 PM EDT

I am curious if some geeks would be interested in wearing something vaguely like a bandolero to satisfy the demand for on-person storage without requiring several sets of specialized clothing (and allowing such to be removed for a more formal meeting rather than changing clothing).

A "vest" could be much more comfortable than stuffed pockets (from distribution and placement of bulk/weight) and make the items stored much more accessible.

(Tool belts might be useful for heavy tools, but a lot of geek tools are light enough that placement above the waist would not introduce excess back strain.)

(It is not clear if such could be made semi-fashionable, but fashion would be less important for geeks, though such might be worn as a badge of honor [I would not be surprised if some view toolbelts in this manner].)

This is just something I thought of a while ago but never had an opportunity to share. (Transforming the vague concept to a practical design would seem to require a lot of work, including "market research".)

8/6/2012 7:18 AM EDT

Speaking as a woman, I wear dress pants (skirts are difficult crawling around the equipment), flats (same reason, heels are impossible in a lab), and sweaters (doesn't matter what time of year, it's cold in the building).

8/6/2012 9:14 AM EDT

A cotton polo shirt and cotton khakis with leather shoes due to the risk of arc flash. T-shirt and jeans on Fridays from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Jeans whenever we'll be doing some major work in the lab.

8/6/2012 9:19 AM EDT

I work in the office area of a major electronics distributor and our official dress code is business casual which means collared shirts (polo or button up) and khakis Monday through Thursday and Fridays are jeans and t-shirts. Never shorts in the office area. We have suppliers in to visit almost all week so I understand the policy.

8/6/2012 2:50 PM EDT

Pretty casual here at SGI: lots of people wear jeans or
shorts and a T-shirt or polo. Some wear dress slacks
and/or a buttoned shirt. I'm a bit dressed up today by my standards: a snappy polo shirt (freebee from a SGI product launch) with a "nicer" pair of cargo shorts and dirty white sneakers. There's a cadre of companions here who sport a Hawaiian look every Thursday.

No ties. Ever.

8/7/2012 2:21 AM EDT

As an artist, physicist, and electronics guy, I have three good reasons to dress like a slob. The few-hundred-million $/yr revenue company I'm working at currently is growing fast, improvising for room. So they put some of us in cubicles in the executive suite. All the C-level people have offices visible from our desks. No need for a suit or anything, but word got back to me about the one time I came in wearing shorts.

At another company, a non-profit scientific research organization, there were lively discussions about dress code. The administration wanted everyone to dress nice in case any board directors, donors, congresscritters or distinguished visitors came by. Our world-class physics-degreed group leader demanded that we be allowed to dress like physicists. We won :)

Makes me wonder who is impressed and why. If you were on the board of directors, an investor or donor, or some influential visitor, would *you* be more impressed by dressed-for-business or by dressed-like-scientists-and-engineers? Why?

8/7/2012 6:04 AM EDT

Speaking of Big Blue in the old days: when someone I know, Rob, was visiting, his "guide", an employee there, took him to the cafeteria for lunch. At each station Rob would be asked questions like "Would you like the meat loaf or the fish, Doctor?" "Will you have the carrots and peas, or the broccoli, Doctor?"

When they had passed through the cashier ("That comes to 2.57, Doctor") and found a table, it was explained to Rob that the only people allowed to have facial hair (in his case a beard and moustache) were PhD's.

Brad

8/7/2012 6:14 AM EDT

Shirt and tie was the norm in the first place I worked at after graduating in the mid-80's. After that I spent a long while working at a place where there was no set dress code but it was the unspoken expectation that everyone wore a suit. Moving to ARM 12 years ago, on my first day, someone commented that I looked as if I'd been mugged by a tailor. I've never worn a suit since. Here in the UK, ARM has a reputation for being Californian in its attitude to dress...

8/7/2012 10:20 AM EDT

The guys in HK are something else. I came very close to having a T-shirt printed with "No I do NOT want a watch or a suit" in very large letters. And that was the polite version!

8/7/2012 12:10 PM EDT

I usually wear jeans or casual pants and a long sleeve oxford shirt or polo shirt in the summer. In the winter I often wear a nice flannel shirt and corduroy pants. I also usually wear leather hiking/work boots. I also am usually seen wearing a zip-up hooded sweatshirt to keep warm enough in the AC...

Long pants and button-up shirts (or polos in the summer) are the norm here. The guys who want to move up into management wear ties....

This thread does bring up the question that I've been wondering about. What is the female equivalent of a tie? I think its a good thing that as a female engineer, I'm not required to have any fashion sense.

Elizabeth

8/7/2012 12:37 PM EDT

In the U.S. there used to be a very distinct east coast vs. west coast difference in office attire, but I'm not so sure that's still as true as it used to be.

Here in the desert, standard engineering attire is jeans and either a button-down shirt or a polo shirt. Some people wear shorts and sandals in the summertime, but they are in the minority -- although I don't get any sense that it's frowned upon.

Managers tend to dress a bit nicer than engineers, at least as far as replacing jeans with Dockers or dress slacks (sometimes). No ties, ever! That reminds me, we have a few bars around town -- of the cowboy variety -- where if you walk in wearing a tie, they will cut it off with a scissors and hang it on the wall of shame :)

Here at Freescale, Friday has been Hawaiian shirt day for as long as I can remember, but participation waxes and wanes throughout the year.

And if you come in on the weekend, you wear your Iron Maiden t-shirt or whatever your favorite rock & roll t-shirt happens to be :)

8/7/2012 8:10 PM EDT

I once worked for SLM Electronics, manufacturer of Crate Guitar amplifiers and Ampeg bass amplifiers. The place was very casual--some had long hair, some beards, some wore shorts or jeans. Very laid back.

8/8/2012 1:53 AM EDT

Oh, I forgot. Here comes too much information. Thousands of hours coding at home in Silicon Valley means butt nekkid (and smokes). I knew you all wanted to know that.

8/8/2012 3:43 AM EDT

In winter I usually wear pajamas. Summer, shorts with tee-shirt and sleeves cut off.

Either time, socks may or may not match.

8/8/2012 2:18 PM EDT

Dress code? You have to be dressed to come to work. Oh, and no going barefoot in front of customers or upper level management.

8/8/2012 4:28 PM EDT

Suits are so 20th century. When do we get our silver jumpsuits and goggles?

8/9/2012 1:23 AM EDT

I always remember the Dilbert cartoon, Casual Day Has Gone to Far. It showed employees walking around au natural amidst stratgically placed cubicles. One advantage of a strict dress code, for example dark suit and tie like I believe IBM had (has?), is you don't have to plan a new wardrobe every day. But a few white shirts and a couple suits and your good to go. In some ways it makes your wardrobe less complicated.

My grandfather had an office job. In those days (1940's) the long sleeve cotton shirts they wore were really heavy cotton material. They were difficult to iron, and they didn't hold a press well. Per my Mom, he would sometimes just iron the sleeves and wear a vest to cover the rest!

I still have the ties I use to wear in the 1980's. I kind of miss wearing them. It seems most places on the West Coast are casual dress. I wonder if there is any company where there is no code, that is you can dress casual or business, it's up to the employee?

8/9/2012 7:15 AM EDT

I wear either jeans, , casual or suit and very rarely with a tie. The most important for me is to change. The same dress code every day is just boring.

8/9/2012 8:15 AM EDT

I actually can't recall all the details of my company's dress code, but I know it says no shorts or open toed shoes for engineers. They also are supposed to wear collared shirts, but everyone seems to not mind or say anything about the occasional t-shirt worn on a casual Friday. And graphics or text on clothes cannot be disrespectful or crude in any way. I've seen that rule broken a few times by a few blue-collared workers, but hopefully they were counseled. The work place is no place for that kind of stuff.

8/9/2012 2:10 PM EDT

bunny slippers, jammies and robe until noon. The joys of working at home.

8/9/2012 2:38 PM EDT

Dress shirt, Dockers or more formal long pants, Black shoes.

And yet, I could probably get away with shorts, T-shirt and flip flops if I wanted to.

I just would not be as productive. My Work Costume helps me get into character.

8/9/2012 6:07 PM EDT

I'm proud to say that I never carried a Pocket Protector in the seventies. But I do confess to wearing a Harris Tweed sports jacket (which still fits me and refuses to wear out).