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 .... "
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12 comments:
Well man... i totally agree with you. I think i have to also ping my dad for his old stuff :D
I couldnt agree more with your views on dress code, both in letters & spirit...!!!
There is a saying in kannada
" oota thanna icche , noTa parara icche ".
But I doubt whether it is our clients "icche" or our company's wish!! :)
I 100% agree with you... what I feel is company wants to play safe becasue innovation differs from person to person and you know the final result!!!!..... but still i feel "you should wear in what you feel comfortable to CODE & DEBUG"
Dude, you are being deliberately naive. But funny!:)
Say you are flying Kingfisher and the steward who greets you at the door is sporting a stubble and wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts and generally looks unclean. You check in to Leela Kempinski and the receptionist is a woman that dresses like my granny and walks barefooted. The security guard is doing a great job but shows up in his Lungi and without a bath.
How would you feel?
The aircraft might be a fine one. The pilot might be the best. The services offered and the food might be out of this world. But if you don't look like you are professional, you mean business, you are there to offer the finest services, nobody will want to shell out extra dollars on you. We judge a lot of things by the way it looks. We are judged mostly by the way we look. By "look", I mean the entire package and not the brand of the shirt you are wearing. If a company in the US is looking to outsource millions of dollars worth of business to a third world nation, they need to know they are in good professional hands. Guys who wear T-shirts and shorts in the US or in product companies have already proven their technical acumen to the people who make big decisions. They can wear whatever the fuck they want. Service companies in India do not have that liberty because they do not have the kind of talent that product companies have. They ought to enforce some discipline when it comes to dress code because Indians, especially guys who know a little bit of Java programming think no end of themselves and generally sacrifice personal hygiene and etiquette to pander to their whims of living the American way of life.
Dress code is a way of choosing "neat" instead of "shabby" and a "whatever goes" attitude. Not that I am in favor of wearing ties or skirts, but being neat never hurt anyone. Think about what would constitute "neat" as far as popular perceptions are concerned and then you would see why dress codes are the way they are.
well I don't get into Kingfisher hoping they provide me a out-of-the box solution to my business problem do I ? or expect them to give me walkthrough on the design of the aircraft that they are flying me in today? They are hospitality business and their main job is to look neat, dress well and just provide a better experience. Let me see u ask stewardess to learn the aircraft architecture duing the night and morning look fresh and still give you smile and attend to all you needs ???
We are talking about people who work on technology here, our main job is to please the client with a solution that fits his business, saves him money and probably enables him to make money as well. He is not expecting a OO7 standard suit clad programmer, he expects to see the neatness in code and solution, not in the person writing it. And also the confusion you have Jack is we are not talking about not being neat we are talking about wearing what is comfortable, I wouldn't mind company asking me to be hygiene or neat, we are talking about the dress code here . Totally two different things.
Oh by the way regarding talent, people having proven their worth before wearing shorts... I guess you haven't been here (US) yet.. College interns wear whatever they want :) not just seasoned employees.
And regarding talent, I don't think Indian IT service companies lack anything there are exceptionally talented people everywhere, only issue is Indian companies recruit in such a large numbers, the number of average people is high and in general rest of them are counted in the same herd as well. As far as talent in India Vs Any other country concerned, there is no doubt we would win hands down. We are probably not innovators (there are lot of reasons behind it, which would bea seprate blog) but we definitely don't lack the talent.
Hey Chaitanya!!!!! Hmm I completely agree with you that people should be allowed to wear what they are comfortable while at
work.
Just untill a few months back I used to feel the same way about this matter But somehow after a lot of thought i really
understood why companies would have to tell us what we have to wear.
Hmm Contradicting?????Well let me explain.
Trust me you would be Shocked to know that if there werent anybody telling us what to wear ,95% of the people would turn up
to office shabbily dressed.Yes we are not talking about neatness but still that would be the result.
I see human being is designed or probably made himself in such a way that he would not perform or follow a certain amount of
discipline if somebody dint tell him to.Yes that's true!!!!!!
Its ALARMING to see how many actually are "RESPONSIBLE".Its just not about giving some solution to the problem end of the
day,but how we do it,if it's the most appropriate one????Being responisble is being able to deliver even when nobody is
around n telling us guys BOSS is around or when we would have to meet the deadline.Its about how well we do things that we are supposed to and for which we are being paid for end of the month.But nobody thinks that way.They think they have to work cause they are being paid not cause they wanna do it.So ,when such is the mindset mostly,its very difficult to expect people to deliver and behave.
And that's the reason why somebody would have to constantly keep telling us what we have to do?????what we are supposed to wear???
At home we are the regulators but at office its somebody else.There lies a great responsibility on the regulatory itself to bring about discipline in the office.How would one mark the presence of such a regulatory -DRESS code is just one of the the things.
And being an ATHEIST has got nothing to do with this.The mindset is same across the world AFTER-ALL we are HUMAN BEINGS,And we need somebody telling us -there are a few things that we are supposed to do.
And talking about making a style statement ,with the RETRO look you still are making a style statement !!!!!Isn't it???All that we have to do is just that we should be able to carry off what ever we wear:):)What say?????? And please ignore if there are any mistakes;);)
Radhika, agree with your point on someone having to enforce the law, there are both sets of people one who need not be told anything but still turn up decently others who wouldn't understand even if you explained to them and so companies resort to dress code.
But one thing keeps bothering me is that it is a practice only in Indian companies mostly :) the same set of people seem to behave well enough in an MNC why is that so ? or the same set of people when sent overseas behave quite well.
My only grouse with the companies enforcing dress code is, if they are doing it, they better do a good job of it. No religious sentiments or no gender bias, rule is a rule for everyone to follow.
i don't understand why you are more worried about dress code.
Is dress will make any difference in work (i mean is it gives energy or boost you to work more) and you no need to ask your father for his T-shirt,you will get fashionable colar T-shirts in market.(i belive you are trendy)And there should be gender bias while making dress code.you can't make a common dress code for men & women.(think for a while......)
don't trouble your dad for T-shirts
i don't understand why you are more worried about dress code.
Is dress will make any difference in work (i mean is it gives energy or boost you to work more) and you no need to ask your father for his T-shirt,you will get fashionable colar T-shirts in market(i belive you are trendy).And there shold be gender bias in dress code for men & women (think for while.......)
what do you say ???????
no gender bias meant, no leniency towards anyone .. not that I would want everyone to be in business formals, which is also not that bad an idea if all the company wants is uniform dress code.
well, I am disturbed by dress code because I hate wearing a tie while coding and it makes no sense to me :)
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