[ZanyProgrammer]

It seems like the author is mixing the idea of an open floor workspace with a casual atmosphere at work.

I'll be the first to rail against a lot of contemporary Silicon Valley/tech culture, but running your business like 1950s IBM has nothing to do with producing a quality software/hardware product. If you don't have a public facing job, then does it matter if you wear a t-shirt and jeans to work, and have video games in the break room, etc?

"Time was when firms modelled themselves on the armed forces, with officers (who thought about strategy) and chains of command. Now many model themselves on learning-through-play “Montessori” schools."--What do you bet that the author of this piece has never served in the military?

[ams6110]

If you don't have a public facing job, then does it matter if you wear a t-shirt and jeans to work

I think it can. I've had a couple of jobs where I needed to wear a suit to work (or at minimum, dress shirt, tie, and slacks) even though my job was not customer-facing. It had its annoyances but in some ways I think I took everything a little bit more seriously when I was at the office. Probably for the same reasons that uniforms are found to decrease behavior problems in schools that require them. There's sort of a mental switch that is thrown when you put on your suit, you switch into "work mode" and then when you take it off at the end of the day you switch to "not at work mode" and it actually can help with work/life balancing.

[bad_user]

What works for you doesn't necessarily work for everybody. For example I am completely unable to work from home, so even though most of my career I worked remotely, I prefer to rent an office, even when I have the freedom to stay home.

But not all people have such preferences. I know people that are quite happy and productive while working from home. And personally I come to work in slippers and tee-shirt during the summer, with no effect on my seriousness with which I treat work.

[mahyarm]

A big part of uniforms is so kids (mostly girls) don't play clothing status oneupmaniship bullying on each other.

[walshemj]

Well I worked for a large phone company and at an evening event a few years ago a retired older guy > 85 commented that he joined at 14! as a telegraph boy and every morning they had to line up for inspection.