Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!bellcore-2!bellcore!dduck!duncan
From: duncan@dduck.ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Dress code
Message-ID: <25931@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 6 Aug 90 11:19:26 GMT
References: <29174.26ac6fe6@ccavax.camb.com> <7990001@hpclove.HP.COM>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan)
Organization: Bellcore, Piscataway, NJ
Lines: 28

In article <7990001@hpclove.HP.COM> defaria@hpclove.HP.COM (Andy DeFaria) writes:
>Ah yes I can see it now:
>
>	"Joe that shirt is to loud, too colorful, too distracting to our
>	companies business goals... Take that shirt off and bleach it white
>	so it will look like everybody else shirt!"
>
>	"I'm sorry, I really would like to hire you, Jane, but you're too
>	attractive and would too much of a distraction to our male employees
>	in our corporate meetings... Could you, say, gain 50 pounds?"
>
>Yeah I know that stuff like this really does happen in real life (although it
>is not usually put so bluntly) but when we state what's really going on in
>plain English it looks really silly, doesn't it?

It would even be humorous if it were not for the fact that it results in people
being denied opportunities as well as in lost productivity potential for the
companies.  I think enforced dress codes are simply a company's way of saying
they can't trust their employees to behave in a way the company approves, so
their behavior will be regulated to insure greater predictability.  Once you
get past the silliness of the dress code, because it is purely surface, you get
to the next (perhaps more fundamental) level of objection:  people's ideas and
other people's ability to deal with diversity.

Speaking only for myself, of course, I am...
Scott P. Duncan (duncan@ctt.bellcore.com OR ...!bellcore!ctt!duncan)
                (Bellcore, 444 Hoes Lane  RRC 1H-210, Piscataway, NJ  08854)
                (908-699-3910 (w)   609-737-2945 (h))