Casual Work Clothes Increasing Productivity In The Office

What do you wear to work? Do you think that what you wear to work has an effect on your output, your attitude and further aspects of your work life? Depending on your career path you might be wearing something like a suit and tie if you are customer facing and meeting with clients, alternatively you could be forced to wear a specific uniform if you work in a specific sector, for instance if you are a mechanic in a garage there is little point in you turning up for work in a suit, it’s not really what would be considered appropriate work clothes.

There have been several research initiatives over the years that have attempted to find out the effects that differing work clothes can have on the employees and also how companies can attempt to get better efficiency out of their workforce. For instance there was a study performed in the United States of America a few decades ago that concluded that people who come to work in relaxed and casual work clothes actually provide employers with a better output of work, they also enjoy coming into the office more as they don’t feel that they have to dress up in stiff and starchy clothes that make you feel uncomfortable.

This initially started out as a one day a week affair, but once the trial had been completed the companies quickly realised that they needed to make a permanent change to their structure on work clothes. Casual dress was adopted in many offices and when the next quarterly results came in the statistics didn’t lie, productivity had increased and morale had improved, but why?

Simple by allowing their staff to come in to work in their own clothes, they had showed their staff that they were in effect giving them the opportunity to show their personality and blossom as individuals as opposed to just a number in an office. It also started more conversations up around the office and help to breed more interworking between the employees. This trend has now move across the Atlantic ocean and moved through European offices.

Obviously there are some jobs that require staff to wear uniforms for their work clothes, if you are a nurse it wouldn’t be good to turn up for work in a pair of jeans and t-shirt. Sometimes you just have to accept that your chosen profession won’t be able to adopt the casual style. However, if you are working in an office maybe 2010 would be a good time to approach your boss about the dress code in and around the office.