Casualities

Are Flip-Flops Damaging Your Career?

This would be the third place in the last couple weeks that I've come across a discussion in regards to what is appropriate and what is far too casual in clothing. The first was a newspaper article speculating on teenagers, young adults, and technology; the second was the complaining of the host on the radio show I listen to while I drive to work.

The newspaper article was mainly about the use of cell phones and internet among younger people, put together with the fact that many of them have a looser social code than many older adults. Talking on cell phones to people not present leads to ignoring the people who are present. Sharing privite information over phones leads to sharing privite information over cell phones, even in public where anyone can hear. Being either at home or outside of the house with internet access leads to ignoring whoever else is in the room in favor of what you're doing or who you're talking to online. We take less notice of those around us, do our own thing, dress and act more casually. Though I can't remember exactly what was written now, there was a rather large section about clothes. There was some mention of job interviews - younger people showing up far too casually dressed, hair still wet, looking like they'd just come from a beach. They presented this not as either bad or good, but as the way the world was going and something anyone against it just needed to get used to and stop fighting.

I didn't hear the beginning of what the radio host was talking about so am not sure what started his rant, but by the time I tuned in, he was talking about wearing pajamas to places such as the grocery store and to work. His younger (he's maybe 30s or 40s) female assistant, probably around my age or a couple years older, was arguing that it is perfectly acceptable to run out to the store in pajamas. They took callers who were of varying opinions, and whose ages I will not attempt to guess.

The article linked above mentions, aside from possible medical effects, the fact that many young women see flip-flops as a "must" for summer work atire, while companies and some style people disagree, saying they're beach clothes and too casual for the workplace.

Many people would probably say I tend to be too casual. I would never wear sandals to work or pajamas to a store, but I'm so far from the other end of the scale as to hardly even register on it. I dress as casually as I can get away with, and save for extremely rare occasions - certain friends' weddings, one (maybe two) dances - hate dressing up at all. Because there is no one at the office today besides myself and one other person I only saw on my way in, I'm at work today in jeans and tennis shoes. I wouldn't normally wear that to this office (though at my former office, I was told very directly on my first day that it's allowed and almost expected except at meetings, which made the situation different), and even with noone else here, left the "I biked Cades Cove" t-shirt at home in favor of something plain colored and nicer.

If there's any point to this, it's that while I may have less dressy ideas than some people, I do think certain ways of dressing are appropriate for certain places, whether to give the right appearance, show respect, or any other reason. Certain places have definite formal dress codes. Most work places should be, at the least, dressy-casual instead of beach-casual. Even the most casual out-of-home areas should be, well, not pajamas (with the possible exception of campgrounds, certain areas in hotels, and similar).

I have no actual conclusion to come to either. Just an opinion, which I've decided I really feel like sharing this morning. So there you have it.