I wanna go back to the future

(It's like living in Nazi Germany)

---

From:
Sent: 27 September 2007 19:20
To: SC Office
Subject: Dress code defined

The second of my two important emails…

At the meeting on Friday, I didn’t have time to define the more detailed rules of the new dress code. Having benefited from a variety of useful feedback and questions in the last week, I would like to do so now. Please make sure you understand this, ask any further questions it may throw up, and to repeat Simon’s email of Monday morning, please make sure that you adhere to the new policy in full by Oct 22^nd.

KEY PRINCIPLE:

As I said, this dress code is about smartening up, stopping being scruffy and becoming presentable as a business to customers.

Of course, one person or customer’s definition of what exactly is ‘business smart’ will differ to another’s. I have conceded below, for example, that smart jeans can sometimes look as smart as non jeans. But these rules must be the management team’s view of the minimum acceptable level, since we will need to decide what is smart and what is not as time goes on. So if this concession for smart jeans – or any other in future - lead to a general deterioration over time as your own personal interpretations creep in, we will be forced to change this again.

DRESS CODE…

A. For customer-facing staff (i.e. basically the 2^nd floor):

1. ‘Business’ shirts:

Yes, these should have a collar. But no, not all collared shirts are presentable to customers in a business environment. So please be sensible, and wear shirts that are clearly smart enough. For example, no sports shirts, or shirts with multi-coloured Hawaiian-style patterns on them that were meant for the rugby field or beach. You all know what we are looking for, and have all recognised the exceptions this week that are clearly not it. You need to wear shirts (and jumpers etc when it gets colder) that look smart not scruffy.

For women, it is even harder to define what this means, since you could look perfectly smart and ready for customers even if the shirt under your jersey or jacket doesn’t have a collar. So it is even more necessary to rely on sensible judgement.

2. Trousers (or equivalent skirts etc):

Yes, as mentioned, you can wear jeans IF they look smart and if we would think you smart enough in front of a customer with them. I.e. they should be clean, not baggy, not patterned, not ripped, and not in any other way or in anyone’s opinion, scruffy. Otherwise, chinos-style or any other tidy and business-presentable trousers. So clearly not baggy combat trousers with pockets or patterns all over them either.

3. Shoes:

You should not wear trainers in front of customers, so should not do so on the second floor. Otherwise, most sensible shoes will be fine. Clearly there is a fine line between some trainers (that look like shoes) and some types of casual shoes. I don’t want the management team to spend their whole time being fashion police, although they will have to if you insist on testing them out. So again, be sensible. If your shoes look like they were intended to be a part of a tidy outfit, they are probably fine. If they were intended to be worn on the sports field or on the feet some would-be rapper, they are not. Massive boots or Doc Martins are similarly unlikely to pass the test.

Again, for women, it is harder to define. But since you all seem to have made a real effort with this already, I suspect that you have a better in-built understanding of what is acceptable in a business context anyway – and have less desire to wear the exceptions mentioned above!

B. For the rest of the technical team (i.e. the 1^st floor):

Given the concession re tidy jeans above, your dress code only differs from the 2^nd floor in that it is acceptable for you to wear tidy trainers. You are unlikely to be called in to impromptu customer meetings, and are much less likely than the others to bump into customers in the office (since most will be upstairs). Even if you do, our customers are might just feint if they see a techie in a pair of black brogues…

However, we do expect you to wear tidy trainers if that’s what you prefer, and to adhere to the rest of the policy above. I.e. collared, presentable shirt (as above), not T shirts with ‘Land of the Living Dead’ written in blood on them, or the sort of colourful wonders that belong in a Jamaican cocktail bar… And tidy jeans as described above.

IN SHORT….

This is about smartening up, taking a sensible view of what that entails in the process. We have attempted to draw the line in a place that makes a positive step change in appearance, without going too far. If, for example, anyone out there still wonders whether this will be a stepping stone en route to having to wear suits, I can happily repeat in writing that that will never happen since nobody wants it to happen.

I also have no desire for company time to be spent policing this line. But the management team will do so, and take a dim view of anyone who continually pushes the boundaries. If that happens too much, I will merely have to make the code stricter again (eg lose the jeans upstairs if you can’t make them presentable).

But you know that is not how we want to work. We will be re-focusing on what matters in coming weeks and months: the businesss, our numbers, our strategy, our future… and this smartening up will soon become a mere footnote on that enjoyable ride. So please act like grown-ups, adhere to this request and we will move on.

Any comments or further questions, see me or your manager. Do not start a Reply All debate going, since that is not how we work either.

Cheers,

Bob