[pasbesoin]

This doesn't directly answer your question, but I will say that if you are in an organization where "formal attire" is (re)introduced as a means to "improve the professionalism of the organization", it is time to start looking for another job.

1) It doesn't solve anything. (Despite some anecdotal or loose correlation between being "dressed up" and feeling "more professional".)

2) The type of people who promulgate such policies tend to think "they know what's right" and to be very much about control (in a top-down sense). One way or another, it's about manipulation (in some cases, even expecting to reduce headcount through resulting attrition). It is also, as often as not, "putting lipstick on the pig" before selling the organization in one fashion or another.

Just one jaded employee's perspective. But, you have been warned.

P.S. I'll add that I understand, even if I personally dislike, the role and effect of attire in some specific roles. What I'm talking about is a blanket policy that does not take employee roles into account at all.

From the male perspective:

If you're a back office person with no customer interface, or perhaps worse, a techie who has to go crawling around the floor after cables and such, being uncomfortable in and having to prematurely wear out an expensive suit is not very considerate treatment.

I'm suddenly reminded, too, of working around moving parts and having to wear a ready-made noose around my neck (neck tie). Throwing the tie over your shoulder is not very safe, and tucking it into your shirt is awkward and uncomfortable and can quickly soil the tie. A tie clip can help somewhat, but it still leaves bits out front that might get snagged if you lean in too close.

P.P.S. Ok, you hit one of my "buttons" and I perhaps too quickly responded. Looking again at this, I now want to ask you, why are you asking this? Do you face a particular situation? Or is this one of those "fishing" questions that seem to be becoming more prevalent on HN (to my personal dissatisfaction, for one).

[jmilinion]

Companies make demands on all employees which have nothing to do with their business all the time but they care about it a lot.

One obvious one is a suit and tie policy. I'm curious what happens to people who "disobey" norms like this.

[pasbesoin]

Well, the time I recall most clearly when I ran into such a policy... Brief story. Old-line company's doing poorly, stock tanking. Board finally brings in some new senior management -- the "not nice", clean things up and (unexpressed, but fairly apparent) sell it off kind.

We were formal, but had gone business casual a few years earlier.

One of the first mandates of the new management: Business attire. Fortunately, in my role, I could skip the full suit, but dress shirt and tie, and "Dockers" and similar more casual slacks were expressly verboten.

If you didn't like it, good-bye. Since they were looking at wholesale reductions in head count, they couldn't care less.

My office was very "back end". I doubt I saw more than one or two external customers a year. Wages were simultaneously frozen, so you knew where the additional wardrobe expense was coming from.

Sure, this is pure anecdote. Just my experience. I've been at and watched other companies struggle with the "clothing" question. It inevitably seems that, in doing so, they are worrying about the wrong question. (And inevitably, the ramp up of formal dress seems to come along with hard times... That have nothing, in my opinion, to do with what people are wearing.)

Then again... maybe for the majority in mainstream corporate America, being made to put on a suit is a signal to "stop fucking around". Because, that was part of the problem.

P.S. Since I walk around a lot, despite my relatively short remaining tenure, I still managed to wear out a few pairs of rather nice dress slacks and put some significant mileage on dress shoes, before I got out of there.

[jmilinion]

Just out of curiosity, did it work? Where they sold?

[pasbesoin]

It was sold to a large(r) interest already in the broader field of industry. This was long enough after I'd left that my friends were out, as well, or out of touch, and I had no other lingering ties, so I don't really know how that went. (I can speculate; some essential production staff retained. Most others retired or terminated. A continuation of what had occurred, taking advantage of the resulting redundancies to further trim cost.)