7 February has been given the weird holiday of Working Naked Day.
It was created by Lisa Kanarek after she left the corporate world to work from home, this was over 20 years ago when working from home wasn’t as common as it is today. The day is a celebration of the freedom and flexibility that working from home gives, not literally coming in to work in your birthday suit, after all most workplaces will have a dress policy that wouldn’t cover that!
How we dress for work has changed however over the years though. It’s become a bit more ‘smart casual’ than ‘power suits’. Similarly dress down Fridays seem to have spread into the other days of the week too.
What you wear can have an effect on how productive you are, dressing in way that makes the individual feel confident and comfortable so that they are less self-conscious and fidgety could actually increase their performance.
Businesses obviously want to look professional, employees are the outward face of the organisation after all so we agree that there should be some guidelines for their appropriate appearance but we also think that people should be able to ‘dress for their day’ when they dress for work.
Is it necessary to dress for work in a suit and tie or tailored dress and jacket if you are not going to be seeing anyone outside of your organisation all day? Probably not.
Is it ok to wear jeans and t-shirt to a meeting? It might be, we have clients that wouldn’t bat an eyelid about it.
Are shorts ok for work? Rarely and short shorts are almost certainly a big no-no.
Today I am in the office all day and I’m wearing jumper, jeans, and pumps. Does that me any less capable of carry out my work? Of course not.
Labour MP Tracy Brabin, the Shadow Culture Secretary this week wore an off the should dress in the House of Commons and was heavily (and nastily) criticised for it on social media, she took to twitter to defend her OOTD saying;
‘Hello. Sorry I don’t have time to reply to all of you commenting on this but I can confirm I’m not….
A slag
Hungover
A tart
About to breastfeed
A slapper
Drunk
Just been banged over a wheelie bin.
Who knew people could get so emotional over a shoulder… ‘
I mean first of all how can any of those comments ever be acceptable? Because you certainly wouldn’t be able to say any of them to an employee who came into work wearing the same dress!
The outfit may fall somewhat outside the dress code for female MPs in the Commons and while some have been supportive of how she is dressed some think that’s it inappropriate.
The issue of how to dress for work, especially for women has been ongoing for decades and it seems that it will never truly go away so maybe Working Naked is the answer!