The Changing Workplace Culture: Understanding the Shifts in Dress Code and Behavior

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by Dennis De Peiza

In an age of change, the workplace as it was once known has changed in more ways than one. It has moved away from many of the traditional practices.

For a start, the colonial dress code that saw male employees wearing a shirt, tie and jacket, has long become a thing of the past. It is now seemingly a preserve for those who occupy so-called premium jobs, and even many of those persons, are tending to find comfort in what may be described as a more casual mode of dress.

Like men, women have resorted to a more liberal form of dress, as they too have moved away from the traditional long dress and skirts. It seems that it has reached a stage, where almost any manner of dress goes and is acceptable.

It would be a mistake to give the impression that when addressing the workplace culture, that this is limited merely to dress and deportment. For a better understanding, the workplace culture is described as the environment that the employer creates for the employees, which is based on the organisation’s traditions, values, interactions, attitudes and behaviours. This basically is translated to mean that the employer, through the policies as established, identifies with the standards and practices which guide and regulate the employees’ behaviour.

Setting the tone for the organisation means that the employer ought to pay attention to the policies, mission and vision of the organisation, the aims to be satisfied and the goals to be achieved.

It is reasonable to expect that the workplace culture will over time reform itself. This is to be expected considering the change to everyday life will be informed by the demographic changes in the population, as a new wave of thinking which accompanies the arrival of a new generation of people comes to the fore.

Their outlook on customary beliefs, traditions, norms and values tend to differ. This to some extent, can account for what is being experienced in today’s workplace, where actions and behaviours of employees tend not to be consistent with conventions.

Some who may be classified as being from the old school may describe the transformation taking place in the workplace, as basically that of the race to the bottom. Their opinion may be shaped by the decisions of our political leaders to give licence to a change to the dress code for students attending school.