Bear Stearns Tells Employees Dress Up

Bloomberg ^ | 9/17/2002 | Bloomberg

[1L]

New York, Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos. wants employees to suit up or ship out.

Two years after adopting a casual dress code at the height of the dot-com boom, the sixth-largest U.S. securities firm has reversed course and will require workers to don ``formal business'' attire, according to an e-mail sent to employees today.

[Vidalia]

Dealing in hypothetical is a detractive fool's game, and I know you cannot name me one slut-styled dresser who is able to perform (financially, that is) and give me or anyone else a 30% (not annualized) return on my dollar, otherwise I would know who he/she/it is....

[1L]

Therefore it is a good strategy for Bear Stearns to ask employees to dress up.

Is the horse out of the barn already? How long will it be before the company looks the other way at a trader or analyst that makes tons of money for the firm, but still likes his chinos. Or, more precisely, wears nice clothes but no tie, no white shirt, and no suit.

[cryptical]

I'm sure if she could earn you 30% per year without cycles, you wouldn't care if she wore a tank top and thongs to your meetings. Or would you?

Mental note to self:

Make money.

Ask 1L to recommend a money manager.

[1L]

I know you cannot name me one slut-styled dresser who is able to perform (financially, that is) and give me or anyone else a 30% (not annualized) return on my dollar, otherwise I would know who he/she/it is....

Whether I can name one or not isn't relevent. If you hear about a successful money manager or investment counselor that you would like to work with, are you seriously going to find out what they wear on a daily basis before hiring them? In addition, you act as if I am in favor of so-called "slut styled" dressing. One should dress appropriately for their profession, whether money management, garbage collector, or professional athlete. Sometimes a suit and tie is appropriate. But I would like to see the day where no tie is just as appropriate.

[Vidalia]

It is absolutely relevant, for you cannot name one or any in the world of legitimate brokerage, and you are now arguing for the sake of hearing yourself heard.

Name one described principal or associate broker that matches the terms I put forth.

The dress code was the core of your original retort, please make an attempt to stay on subject, or are you an exceptional linguistic dancer in your own mind...?

[Arkinsaw]

You are quite wrong on a point or two (you may work on that on your own time),and many others who deal in the God-awful world are tiring of the "laid back hippiedom" look many of us thought was "kinda fun" way back when, but now it might well bode the majority of the country to shape up just a bit.

Or maybe not. Depends on your opinion.

Three thousand dead working Americans doesn't fit my description of "laid back", regardless of the occasional throwback you may have considered to be "smart".

Have no idea what this sentence means or what three thousand dead Americans has to do with the topic at hand.

This comment, " The smartest guy I ever knew wore a torn up budweiser t-shirt half the time ..." And what, the rest of the time he went "nekkid"?

Pretty much.

What is your criteria for "smartest man I knew"?

My criteria for that would be, out of all the people I have known, the smartest one.

Please define smart

Well, this guy was a physicist. They have to be pretty smart (even the fairly dumb ones). Another fellow I knew wore flannel shirts and those brown boots with fluorescent orange shoe laces. He worked on the Space Shuttle which, I guess, makes him a rocket scientist. He is damn smart also. Much smarter than the bank teller wearing the suit and tie down at my Bank of America despite appearances and shallow stereotypes about spiffy dressers.

and when did you quit knowing (from your own statement) any smart (more or less) people?

I think it was somewhere earlier in this thread.

[Koblenz]

I've worked at a couple of different firms in my day, and I think that if anyone is going to meet clients, they ought to dress professionally. At my firm now, a brokerage, people wear whatever they want to the office. Usually it's dress shirts and khakis, but some guys wear shorts, flip flops and t-shirts. Seriously. I think it just doesn't look like you take your job seriously if you constantly look like you just woke up. Anyway, I'm sure that many people can work well without a tie on, but at least they should look like they took a little effort to get dressed. I try to look at least presentable. But hardly ever with a necktie.

[Vidalia]

Your absolute ambiguity and admission that you deal with those who cannot or will not dress themselves has nothing to do with the real world, since you have admitted belonging to the less smart class of posters who put so many others above you, therefore your arguments are also of a lesser degree to match your self-confessed inferiority.

Why should anyone here engage you in any sort of intelligent and fact based discussion, when the only intelligence you refer to are others in the basic fields of physics and the lesser tile-setting on the Space Shuttle.

Word has just been received that you enjoy the reaction between felines and Super-Glue, therefore, this discussion is meaningless.

Good luck on your next job...

[Moonman62]

I get the impression you wear a suit and tie while FReeping in the middle of the night. Didn't they used to joke around about Nixon wearing a suit to the beach?

[grania]

Ties are silly. Nobody has ever adequately explained to me why men should wear them

They derive from medieval times when the guys were such gluttons that they had to keep a napkin around their necks to catch the drool and slobbered food.

There is, from a historic perspective, nothing encouraging about BearStearns employees needing to wear ties.

[SamAdams76]

My company went business casual five years ago (field service - office equipment). Productivity immediately jumped. Technicians could suddenly get a lot more done when they didn't have to worry about staining $30 ties or ripping $60 pants or scuffing $80 wingtips. They could really dig into their work and be more comfortable. Since our technical department now wears polo-type shirts with the company logo on them, we get through security a lot faster and customers don't think we are slick salespeople trying to sell them something.

What I'm saying is that suits and ties might be appropriate for people who work in climate controlled offices at their desks all day but they can be a hindrance to people who have to move around a lot and work with their hands.

[RightOnline]

".....you wouldn't care if she wore a tank top and thongs to your meetings. Or would you?"

........give me a minute here....................hmmmmm.................

[Redleg Duke]

You know, it is their ball park and their bats and balls. If the players don't want to play there, they don't have to.

This company wants to project an image and a message. Each employee is part of this projection. If the employee doesn't feel he/she can project this image without sacrificing their "self-esteem or self-worth", then they need to find a more compatible company.

If my company establishes a dress code again, I will adhere to it.

This juvenile game of "it doesn't matter how I look as long as I do my job" is ending. The adults are back in charge, kiddies!

[razorback-bert]

So Blonds know what to buy men as a gift.

I used to feel naked without a suit and tie, now I only wear one for special events and don't miss it at all.

Houston will cure people of wool suits and vests quick.

[babble-on]

I call my tie the "yoke of servitude"

[hot august night]

Having worked on Wall Street for 16 years (at two major brokerage firms -- one for 12 years, the other for 4 years), I completely disagree. I miss seeing men dressed in suits every day, and women dressed as ladies, instead of floozies looking like they are heading for the beach (summer "casual dress" is the absolute worst). Say what you want about the corruption in this industry, I have always felt proud to be a part of it. Wall Street has always been one of the most competitive and most esteemed industries to be a part of. There ARE ethical people who work on the Street, and they are definitely not all rich and self-indulgent (such as myself). Clients walk in and out of corporate offices all day long, every day, and setting the right tone is a sign of respect and dignity. I hope this silliness of casual dress dies and goes away for good, and old-style tradition returns.

I also don't like seeing people going to church in "casual dress." It's disrespectful as well.

[E Rocc]

This juvenile game of "it doesn't matter how I look as long as I do my job" is ending. The adults are back in charge, kiddies!

In other words, symbolism over substance.

This is news because its one company bucking an overwhelming and probably irreversible trend that's already completely taken over manufacturing as well as the high-tech world. In the last five years, I've seen precisely one facility that included manufacturing and had a "business attire" dress code. Even headquarters-only facilities have mostly gone casual due to the influence of the plants. These days, too many "suits" in manufacturing indicates a disconnect between management and production.

I work for a Tier 2 automotive supplier. We're usually jeans and golf shirts unless customers are visiting, and its only certain customers. We don't dress up for our largest because their rep doesn't.

So-called "business formal" attire is pretty much limited to those organizations dominated by the 50+ crowd, or those who have dealings with the public, particularly the older portion. Banks, certain other financial institutions, and government.

-Eric

[bankwalker]

Ties are silly. Nobody has ever adequately explained to me why men should wear them.

IMHO, the decision should be made the employer. If a person doesn't like the dress code, they can go work someplace else. Better yet, they can go start their own business and establish their own dress code.

That reminds me, I really miss the ladies in their skirts, stockings, and heels. Does anyone have any pictures to refresh my memory?

[southern rock]

Ties are silly. Nobody has ever adequately explained to me why men should wear them.

The entire concept of the suit is idiotic. There is absolutely NOTHING functional or practical about it at all. Suits and ties should be abolished forever.