Personal Development – Does Formal Attire Suit?
As a student watching the Apprentice, I had a debilitating case of wardrobe envy, so the first thing that excited me about the promotion from retail supervisor to retail manager was the change of uniform to full blown SUIT. I had a life-altering Devil Wears Prada moment.
Well, maybe not life-altering. Particularly as there was no Prada involved.
Swanning around in my suit and management badge a week later, my confidence and self-belief increased tenfold; so when I came across a journal article recently (Peluchette & Karl, 2007) that suggested formal attire led employees to feel more authoritative and competent, I wasn’t surprised.
The increased authority and power one can feel when wearing formal attire has many benefits – particularly a hearty confidence booster! However, it may seem that these benefits are in danger of being lost in the workplace. Attitudes to workplace attire have changed over the past few years, from the introduction of ‘Casual Fridays’ to more modern workplaces who have moved from formal dress, through business casual, and finished at plain old casual. Alternating as I do between two very different workplaces, one casual, one formal; I can’t help but wonder if we are sometimes in danger of hiding behind our dress code.
At a time when I had taken a hard hit to my self-confidence, I picked myself up and returned to retail management, strutting around so that the whole world could see that I was fine. However, this return coincided with a management appraisal and though my reviewer was pleased overall with my progress, the close examination of my skills and competencies had me crumbling beneath my suit. I had a secret reaction of the kind described by Sarah’s blog, ignoring the positives and focusing only on the negatives. Crippled by my own perceptions of what was expected of me as a manager, I couldn’t say that I needed more time to heal, and the suit became a brick wall that I couldn’t break out of.
While suits can help us to assume our role and give us that extra power boost we need, they can also trap us, providing inescapable reminders of the expectations of the status, and masking the flaws we don’t want others to see. There’s nothing wrong with playing to our strengths rather than our weaknesses, as long as it is not at the expense of our own development. In our own casual clothes, we are more vulnerable – they can express who we are, how we feel and what we are trying to say – leaving us dangerously open to judgement. Though this prospect can be daunting, I wonder if it can help us to be more comfortable in our own skin, and force us to look at ourselves and how we can find the best in ourselves. It is no wonder then that Peluchette & Karl also found that people felt at their most friendly when in casual clothes.
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy my uniformed days, and secretly dream of a future where I have a pencil skirt for every day of the week – but when I first put away the suit and walked into my new job in jeans and converse, I was thrown out of my comfort zone, with nothing to hide behind but my own ability. What a brilliant moment that was.
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