DavidDexter's Blog

In my former career I conducted business with a good number of reputable Fortune 500 companies in Northeastern Ohio. While developing business partnerships for economic development, there is this trend I watched (and continue to see even now) evolve over time when I met with various clients and suppliers that started to make me wonder about just how seriously these people took their business. How much pride did they have in their work and respective companies. And even more so ... how much quality did they put into their product?

People in Ohio businesses are beginning to look like rumpled, bed-headed slobs in the workplace.

Like they just crawled out of an overflowing back alley dumpster after an all night drinking binge.

And they don't seem to care about it. And not to be sexist, the women seem to be the worst culprits. They seem sloppier in their dress than men do.

I'm not referring to those who work on the manufacturing shop floors in our area. I know the difference between a hard hat/steel toed shoe press operator and a white shirt/tie office accountant. I'm talking about Corporate Officers, Office Managers, CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, Lawyers, Auditors, etc. The first faces of an organization that greets you in the corporate lobby. Those in power who sit down with you to hash out deals and partnerships.

Wrinkled loose dockers without belts, sweatpants, mini-skirts that reveal more than they cover, untucked shirts, flip-flops, sweaters with ripped holes in them, unbuttoned open collars, overweight women bulging out of spandex, thigh-high boots, beach sandals, frayed/worn out polo shirts with stains, jeans with holes in them, and the women whose dresses would be more appropriate if they were standing on a street corner. Then there's the greasy, unwashed hair and too-cool to shave off last night's stubble look.

The concept of Business Casual Friday has somehow lost it's meaning and has degenerated to "dress like you are going to mow the lawn and then wallow around in the pig slop any day of the work week."

Bermuda shorts, T-shirts, Beachwear, and Pajama Bottoms may have infiltrated the office environments of startup ventures during the Dot Com boom days ... but we all know what happened to those ventures.

I feel that when a person gets up in the morning to dress and groom themselves, they determine how people are going to interact with them that day. Although our appearance doesn't necessarily dictate the way we are or the quality of work we do, it's that first impression that sticks with people and appearance definitely plays a large part in how a person is judged. No matter how many people go "but it's the person inside that counts." Sorry ... if you normally look like derelict bum on the outside, I'm not sticking around to find out what the inside looks like. I'm going to find someone who takes some personal pride in themselves.

What happened to clothing that is clean and pressed? What happened to blouses and shirts that were tidy and tucked in? What about hair is brushed and neat (you can still be a guy with long hair and still have it look groomed). Has face washing, shaving, deodorant and tooth brushing become optional in Ohio?

Some people out there like to point out that business only has an emphasis is on outcome and not necessarily looks (of its employees). That when an individual dresses however comfortably they want ... it allows creative flow and avails the individual to express their individuality in the sterile cubicle farms of Corporate America.

I don't buy it. I don't believe the entire "the scummier I look, the better I work" idealism. The whole idea that this sub-casual, grunge culture lack of responsible dress has been good for the business sector is pathetic. I don't think this line of thinking even works with Seattle garage bands anymore.

If you have to define your creative business talent or personality by how trailer park trashy you can dress at work (what I've heard people term Hooker Casual) ... you don't have much creativity or personality to begin with. And how much baby fat your low riders show really doesn't reflect upon how business savvy you are. Just how big your middle is. And that maybe you should lay off the fast food.

Seriously, who wants to sit in a business meeting with a CEO that smells as rank as a dead skunk with a wrinkled suit and greasy hair? Yet this happened to me in Cleveland with a company you'd expect higher standards from because of the type of business they are in. In my case, their product/service may have been fantastic ... I just couldn't get past the body odor and cut my meeting short to get out of that office. Their competitor at least had the sense to bathe before the meeting.

Then there was the 40-something executive who dressed like a nightclub hopping 20-something in a tight low-cut high-hem black dress, knee boots, and fishnets who assured me that her company held our community's highest moral standards when it came to public events. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I wasn't very reassured by her and chose another company.

And these companies were definitely not some mom and pop back alley operation. (I don't know about you, but if my mother and father had a business, they wouldn't dress that bad even on their worst bad hair days.)

Okay, so I'm old-fashioned because I don't think boxer shorts should be hanging hanging out the back of the Company President's trousers in the board room (unless we're talking about Hanes or Fruit of the Loom). But this conscious lack of self appearance in the work place, this is probably another indication why our country is rapidly becoming less and less of a prime mover in the world.

Not that suddenly wearing a suit and tie is going to get us back to the position we once held in the world, but it begs the question - if you are sloppy in your dress and let your appearance slide, what else are you letting "slide" in your work and life?

It's a pretty poor commentary when the kids working at McDonald's flipping burgers dress better than a CEO in Tower City who is on the Fortune 500. Corporate Northeast Ohio, if you look sloppy ... you are sloppy. Get some better clothes, get rid of those worn out polo shirts, learn to tie a tie, polish your shoes, wear a blouse you don't flop out of and at the very least ... brush your teeth and comb your hair in the morning.