Remember the American dramedy television series, Ugly Betty, where the main character, Betty Suarez , a 22 year old Mexican American woman from Queens, New York who is lacking in fashion sense lands a job at Mode, a trendy high fashion magazine based in Manhattan? Well, in the series, poor Betty is abruptly thrust into a different high fashion world and apparently she didn’t receive the memo on how to dress for her position before she started her job.
This kind of situation isn’t uncommon. The best mode of dressing is to follow the dress mode of the other employees in the environment. Following their lead is the best way to dress to suit your work environment. Generally speaking, in the technology world, you are judged by the quality of your work, not for how you look or dress or even sound because there a few people with excellent technical knowledge. As someone who worked in that field for a long time, it was surprising for me to see that there were different standards in other fields.
In many non-technical fields, you get ahead by who you know or kiss up to, not what you know. This is possible because these jobs are based on relatively easily acquired soft skills. At the technology company, Rubicon in LA, an employee said for him to wear a suit and tie, it would need to be a wedding or a funeral. He goes to work in comfortable clothes and flip flops daily and he does his work well. One of the heads of the company said as long as employees don’t come in their underwear, he’s fine with whatever they wear. The main goal here is to get the job done.
However, if for example, you are an attorney, this won’t do. Attorneys invest a substantial amount of money in their wardrobe because that’s what’s required in their environment, which many say is elitist. I have an attorney friend who teaches a workshop titled, Dress For Success. When he discussed it with me and mentioned that one of the things he teaches is that you can’t get a million dollar deal in a $100 suit, it made no sense to me. In the technology world, I have seen companies led by people in Hawaiian shirts, khaki shorts and flip flops getting multi-million dollar deals because they know they can deliver, which is all clients care about. However, I hesitated telling him my own experience because he has always been in the legal environment and he probably won't believe me because of what he's used to.
Many years ago, my dad was friends with the MD of Guinness Nigeria PLC. One of his friend's subordinates came to see my dad privately to help him understand why his bosses didn't seem to like him and why he was being passed over for promotions. My dad investigated the matter and was told that they didn't like him because he doesn't dress properly. They said he'd wear uncoordinated suits with shirts and ties with clashing colors that don't match and they disliked seeing that and therefore him too, regardless of how good he was at his job. A word was enough for him. He immediately updated his wardrobe and became Mr. GQ. He immediately saw the positive responses in his superiors' attitudes towards him. Some of his bosses even came back and asked my dad what he told him to make him overhaul his appearance so drastically.
:
:
However, again, how you dress must be tailored to your environment. In the TV news business, where generally speaking you would get much further ahead if you are physically very attractive, you have to look polished and professional from the waist up, at least, if that’s all the audience will see, so your waist down doesn’t matter. However, if your whole body will be broadcast, you will need to look professional from head to toe.
Ultimately, how you dress depends on your environment. However, some say regardless of if you work in a casual, business casual or professional environment, big earrings that Betty Suarez was fond of in the series and noisy bangles are a no, no because people don’t need to hear you before they see you.
Also, if you dress a certain way and you get funny or hostile looks, fine tune your dressing to match the environment pronto, to show that you like being there and would like to stay there for at least a little while, because as we all know, no one is irreplaceable.
A word is enough for the wise…
No comments:
Post a Comment