I recall my first office job in the early 80’s. The guys all wore suits and ties, typically black or blue suits with white or light blue shirts and red or blue ties and us gals wore dresses or skirts below the knee with button down blouses and blazers and panty hose and high heeled shoes - no pants allowed for us women.
The thing was that my job at the time was completely back office, I never saw or interacted with clients or the public. I remember trying to kneel down to pull the bottom drawer of a file cabinet open to do filing and how uncomfortable and impractical that was in a dress or skirt and blazer and hose and high heels. And God forbid you got a run in your hose.
I remember the first thing I did in those days when I got home was to take off those uncomfortable clothes, especially the panty hose and get into jeans and a tee shirt.
The last several office jobs I’ve had were casual dress, several allowing jeans or kakis and polo shirts and such. I like this much better. I find I’m more productive when I’m comfortable, when my feet aren’t aching from wearing heels and my panty hose aren’t chafing or my toes not peeking through them.
LOL, I did the same thing. After a full day in the suit, first thing I did getting home was change into some comfy relaxed clothes. And I just hated the full suit in summer 90 degree weather. Made no sense.
Ditto for the teaching profession where I am.
When I entered, it was very conservative as far as dress - we were told we were the face of the working world and to be an example of behavior and dress in the workplace.
How that has changed over the years - complete slobification. I now see teachers come to work in old sweats, torn or stained clothing, flip flops, wrinkled Hawaiian shirts, and worse.
I was glad when the dress restrictions became more casual as I had to move around a lot at my job and am on my feet almost the entire day.
I miss it, though, and I think it’s become far too casual - along with people’s attitudes. There was a better workplace environment when teachers dressed better. There have been a number of moves to bring back dress requirements but the teachers’ unions strongly oppose them.