Indian software services and dress codes

Strange topic to select for my first blog but it was on top of my mind because of a recent circular at the place where I work, reminding everyone of the dress code and examples of people not following it. It immediately got my blood boiling (it always does) but after couple of days I decided to put it down in a blog rather than get all worked up about it. This is not something new, my previous company (a quite respected one) also had this same obsession about trying to tell its employees what is appropriate to wear to office from mon-thur and a relaxed dress code for friday but wait .. here too they have few suggestions, sandals should never be worn, collar-less t-shirts are not appropriate .. the latter got me worried .. now my friday wardrobe is also under threat. I have round neck, v-neck, turtle neck .. but t-shirts with collar? ... my dad probably still has a few, I might have to borrow his retro collection.

On one hand a company talks about innovation and putting it into action, they would like the employees to constantly update their skills, learn the cutting-edge technology, be up-to-date but only in technology and not in fashion, they don't want you showing any innovativeness or being up-to-date, they would rather prefer you wearing a tie and in the hot tropical weather try and debug an application, so that when our clients come visiting, they can exclaim "oh look, people in suits are going over my code, I am glad I offshored all the work, back home some guy in shorts and t-shirts would have worked on it. And come to think of it, we thought India was still backward". I wonder if the clients who give us work are really bothered of what we are dressed in or more worried about the quality of work being undertaken. Only the clients can answer....

One more uniqueness about dress code in India is the loop-holes in it (just like our constitution). Take for example dress code for the women-folk (not that I have anything against them, just for the comaprision). India having uniform civil code and Indian companies having a uniform dress code (for guys and gals) are two impossible things because both (indian govt and companies) lack the will and courage to do it. The comapy which goes to the pains of defining what kind of t-shirts are appropriate hardly has any rule for woman since asking them to be always in business formals is a tricky affair in India, so they can be in saree, salvars, skirts, etc etc and of course they can wear sandals (but without heels) and they would still be confirming to dress code. Speak about equality.

And then comes Religion, any topic in or about India cannot escape religion. You can get away with crime in the name of religion so can a mere dress code stop you. So today I saw a person bare-footed and in dhothi (wrap arnd style) and no one would dare ask anything to the person, because he is going on a sacred temple visit soon and he is required to be in this dress (I thought of saying costume ... but then people would be sending me hate mails) Alas .. again atheists like me have no solace here either :( . As I earlier said loop-holes are aplenty, another funny line in the mail was "you need to be neatly shaven, a stub is acceptable only if you are growing a beard" (again company has no courage to say u cannot grow beards), so today I felt like growing a beard so I will have stub, tomorrow I will shave because I changed my mind and the day-after I might change again and start growing a stub.. ??? how do they even plan to implement it ...beats me.

I agree may be a company can come up with a basic guideline so that people don't go overboard with their enthu to innovate and actionize it ;-) but trying to define what type of shoe or trouser one can wear, is a bit lame. Why can't companies "Think Different", why can't they implement what they preach (innovation). I was fortunate to have worked for few years in a company which truly believes in "thinking differently", I didn't see any dress-code in their looping campus , but look they are churning out innovative products one after the other for quite a few decades now. I wonder when our companies will stop thinking about dress and concentrate on work quality.

So after going through my rantings you might ask, so what are you going to do about it. Well, I wrote this blog :) . The thought of quitting did cross my mind but then probably not the best of the times and anyway I need my salary to buy those designer stuff ;) So what if company does not allow me to wear it to office, I still have the weekends :) and may be I will find a loop-hole to once in a while wear what I like or rather what I am comfortable to work with. Winds will blow again, just waiting for it to be stronger so that I can spread my wings and take off again, until then "Dad, do u still have your old t-shirt .... "