Friday 6 September 2013

Why you need to dress like your boss

First the bad news: if you think your co-workers dress like drones and pride yourself on your own "unique" sense of style, you're committing an act of sartorial career sabotage. A depressing new study has found that a "cohesive sense of style" in an office is perceived to create a better team spirit and foster higher levels of productivity. Accordingly, co-workers often subconsciously develop a uniform "look". And before you start claiming the sartorial high ground, nope, it doesn't matter if you dress better than your dull colleagues. Dressing differently is all it takes to find yourself rudely ejected from their style tribe and out in the cold.

Now the even worse news: it's specifically your boss you need to style-stalk. In the same study, commissioned by Debenhams, more than two-thirds of managers admitted to a "heightened awareness" of staff with a similar style to themselves. Such colleagues "gain brownie points" they added.

Yes, the idea of copying your boss's wardrobe to make them like you seems undeniably creepy; decidedly Single White Female. But the fact that employees emulate bosses, and that bosses approve, comes as no surprise to me. I worked in fashion journalism for eight years. I used to share a lift with the GQ team; I know that on any given day the office resembles a slightly unimaginative set for a Burberry campaign, so perfectly co-ordinated are their suits with ties all at identical widths. READ MORE

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