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.

[1L]

This is absurd. There are sensible ways to go about establishing quality dress policies without going back to the starched shirt and tie and dark suit look. I have to dress that way for court, but I never wear a tie in the office. I still wear high quality, nice looking clothing. Hey, it's simple: for men, during the week, wool or blended slacks with pressed shirt, open collar. Add a sport coat, sweater, or something similar. No chinos, nice loafers only. On Fridays, chinos with any sort of collared, button down shirt. More casual shoes, but not Dr. Martens type. On weekends, nice jeans ok with Doc Martens, golf shirt, but no t-shirt, tennies, etc. Start with that and work your way down depending on your industry. I'll let a woman with a similar attitude offer dressing advice for women, as I would probably say something silly.

I agree that conservative and nice dress does make an office function better, and does have an effect on clients. But I will guarantee you that when I see clients in a sport coat, dark slacks, nice shoes, and no tie, I look nicer and make a more professional impression than many lawyers wearing a decent suit that doesn't fit, and a tie that is either too loud or too boring.

[hole_n_one]

More important stuff......

Giuliani gets a haircut

[Vidalia]

You bet, I see your point so well, that's why, the next time I want to invest a couple of million dollars(US), I want a real slouchy bitch to handle my account...

[Arkinsaw]

Corporate types never like it, they just did it because of the labor market. Now that they are in the drivers seat its back to "normal".

The irritating thing is that employees who have already taken salary cuts and such are now going to have to go out and buy suits and ties. I myself would prefer to spend that money on my kids education or something else more useful than a monkey suit.

I threw away all my bizarre bass, trout, and Munch's "Scream" ties I wore to protest having to wear a tie at all. Will have to get some more.

[Dog Gone]

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

[Aggie Mama]

Perhaps the employees were being to liberal with the dress code. Some women, I have noticed, have no idea what business casual is. They think it is a day at the beach or something close to it.

[Skwidd]

Q. What's long, soft, and hang's in front of an a*&hole?

A. The CEO's tie.

[End Times Sentinel]

I still wear high quality, nice looking clothing. Hey, it's simple: for men, during the week, wool or blended slacks with pressed shirt, open collar. Add a sport coat, sweater, or something similar. No chinos, nice loafers only.

 

I see your point. 

I get it and you get it, but I also work in a dot com and some of the clothing people find perfectly acceptable is atrocious.  A golf shirt and jeans and black sneakers???  Believe me there's a sizeable amount of people who really think that's appropriate!  Still though, it's a dot com and that type of stuff is somewhat expected.  Bear Stearns is not a dot com and their image is respectability and dependability.

I think setting a firm and clear policy re-establishes the image that Bear Stearns is looking for without a large grey area (the attire that you describe) that will have to be policed by the management and be a cause of confusion for many employees.

Owl_Eagle

Guns Before Butter.

[Cagey]

Thank you, Calvin Klein.

[Arkinsaw]

You bet, I see your point so well, that's why, the next time I want to invest a couple of million dollars(US), I want a real slouchy bitch to handle my account...

The smartest guy I ever knew wore a torn up budweiser t-shirt half the time and I've seen whole truckloads of dumbasses in suits. If you base your investment decisions on suit wearing you probably won't have a couple of million to invest anyway.

[The FRugitive]

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

It's a symbolic leash. Don't forget your place.

[Dog Gone]

That actually makes far more sense than anything else I've been told.

[End Times Sentinel]

The smartest guy I ever knew wore a torn up budweiser t-shirt half the time and I've seen whole truckloads of dumbasses in suits. If you base your investment decisions on suit wearing you probably won't have a couple of million to invest anyway.

Maybe, but you can't deny that people make decisions on what information is available to them.  You may have heard that old business school story about people making decisions on airline safety and dependability based on how clean the seat back trays are. 

It might not be a great strategy to do business with people on how they dress, but people do it.  Therefore it is a good strategy for Bear Stearns to ask employees to dress up.

 

Owl_Eagle

Guns Before Butter.

[sinkspur]

These stiff Wall Street firms may start wearing ties and suits again, but there's no evidence that corporate America is going to adopt this "trend." As you point out, it is possible to dress casually and still look like a business person. Sitting in an office with a shirt buttoned and a tie around your neck is ridiculous.

[Moonman62]

Corporate types never like it, they just did it because of the labor market. Now that they are in the drivers seat its back to "normal".

Correct. With business, technology, and investment being villified on a daily basis, and with a Republican president guiding government growth at several times the rate of the private sector, it's a buyer's market for labor.

The irritating thing is that employees who have already taken salary cuts and such are now going to have to go out and buy suits and ties. I myself would prefer to spend that money on my kids education or something else more useful than a monkey suit.

Look on the bright side. According to Bushonomics, all those people buying suits should really light a fire under the economy. Just don't look at how the economy really works, or you might get depressed.

[okie01]

"Nobody has ever adequately explained to me why men should wear them."

Ties keep the chili and barbecue sauce off your shirtfront.

Next question.

[1L]

the next time I want to invest a couple of million dollars(US), I want a real slouchy bitch to handle my account...

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?

[Vidalia]

Tongue in cheek is hard to express without the emoticons, but I stand with my main premise.

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.

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".

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"?

What is your criteria for "smartest man I knew"? Please define smart, and when did you quit knowing (from your own statement) any smart (more or less) people?

Are you able to now guess what other part of your remark is way off base...?

[1L]

Perhaps the employees were being to liberal with the dress code. Some women, I have noticed, have no idea what business casual is. They think it is a day at the beach or something close to it.

This is the main reason why firms have gone back to so-called professional dress. It's easier to define. But that doesn't mean it looks better. 10 years ago I worked for a company where a middle manager wore clothes right out of the 1970's -- polyester pants, short sleeved shirts, and wide ties. On friday, which was casual day, he wore the same -- without the ties.

Professional dress is easy to define. Business casual, especially for women, isn't. Do you think if the firm spent a couple of meetings trying to educate people on how to dress that it would do any good?