[huffmsa]

Easy fix:

Mandatory dress codes. Men in suit, with tie from the time you enter the office until the time you leave. Women in suits, pants or skirts.

Or go whole hog and require everyone to wear grey coveralls when in office.

Institutions with dress codes generally have less BS distractions because the distractions simply can't exist.

[mahyarm]

If tech companies were to ever have a dress code, it would be jeans, a graphic tee and a full sleeve hoodie. Or a collared shirt. The hoodie might still be required.

[huffmsa]

Because IBM wasn't a tech company who's (unofficial) uniform was blue suit, white shirt, red tie, brown wingtips for nearly two decades.

Come now child, learn your history.

[Neliquat]

This is an easy way to drive away talent. Myself, and I feel, many others, would gladly take a similar job where the culture and dress were relaxed, instead of fixed. The fix is to hire socially competent people, and be clear to them when they are pushing it early and often.

[huffmsa]

"Naw man, I'm not going to work there because I _need_ my bedazzled dungarees to code well."

Please.

[ceras]

It wouldn't stop me from joining a company that's clearly better than the rest. But engineers have a lot of comparably good options in hub cities, so it's reasonable to be picky about small stuff - we can afford to be. A formal dress code does have real downsides: it (1) costs money, (2) wastes closet space (it's a premium in NYC!), and (3) makes biking to work or otherwise living a pre-/post-work active life more of a pain.

[huffmsa]

The mistake you're making is that "work clothing" needs to be separate from your "after work clothing".

NYC there is no excuse for not finding good and reasonably priced tailors.

You might get dirty looks from those who look worse than you, but suits do in fact make the man.

[sudosteph]

Here in Seattle absolutely everyone would give you dirty looks. I don't trust anyone in a suit, and I don't think they make a man look anything other than sleazy.

Different cultures, different perceptions. Tech culture as a whole does not share the NYC mentality that suits are a reasonable norm. Dress codes just don't jive with a need for authenticity. Give me the weird guy wearing a kilt over the slick sales guy in a suit any day.

[ceras]

I'm fairly active and don't care for feeling hot in the summers or restricted in general. Feel free to rock your own suit, but it's not a "mistake" to disagree with you.

[st3v3r]

Most other things being equal, and they usually are, I'm going to take the job with the more relaxed dress code.

[stale2002]

A dress code is a red flag.

It is not about being forced to wear clothes. It is about working with a management team who is so incompetent that they would do something so stupid as implement a dress code.

[PhasmaFelis]

That's a reasonable accommodation in a high school, where students are expected to have out-of-control hormones and not-fully-developed judgment.

In a professional office, if you have a grown-ass adult who is critically distracted by the sight of bare arms, that's their problem, not anyone else's. If they can't manage the barest scraps of self-control, they need to consider a different line of work.

[huffmsa]

It's not just high school, I'll use professional sports as a quick (but not all-inclusive) example.

The Bill Belichick and Nick Saban enforce strict behavior and dress codes for their employees to simply eliminate distractions. Break the rules and they fire you. They're the most successful "mission oriented" teams of the past two decades.

Uniforms contribute to the sense of "unity in direction" that the best companies have. They should be something that you're proud to wear as a signifier of your work, see IBM in the 70s and 80s.

[js8]

> Uniforms contribute to the sense of "unity in direction" that the best companies have. They should be something that you're proud to wear as a signifier of your work, see IBM in the 70s and 80s.

Do people really believe this? Funny, at my workplace, we effectively don't have a dress code (we did have at a point, but nobody really cared much, so it's pretty much dead). But my company is probably very embarrassed if I tell somebody my salary, because it doesn't want me to do it.

So, until I can display my salary proudly, then we can talk about wearing my "uniform" proudly.

"Dress code" is a tool for social control, and people are slowly wisening up to that.

[user5994461]

So, distribute clothes to your employees.

Bonus: You set the message by choosing to give tshirts, shirts or suits.

[huffmsa]

I'd certainly be happy to offer discounted tailoring / suiting and other clothing purchases.

"Look good, feel good, play good." -- Deion Sanders

[sudosteph]

- Times I've ever been distracted by a coworkers outfit: 0

- Times I've ever been distracted by conversations/music/movement/laughter in my open office: 9000+

Yep. Outfits are the only cause of BS distractions that can exist in offices...