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R&D teams within HP Enterprise Services received memos this week reminding them about the company's rules regarding workplace fashion. "If you aren't dressed like the models in the posters that HP displays around its locations, then your appearance is sapping the productivity of the workers around you," was one summary of the memo by an anonymous source. Many employees have become comfortable wearing t-shirts and shorts on a regular basis, and it is believed that "scruffy-looking" engineers might alienate visiting customers.
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HP Enforcing Dress Code for R&D Employees
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* m2 stares at the monitor... it looks like a hamburger...
m2 - that's a bad sign
(Score: 4, Insightful) by RedBear on Sunday July 26 2015, @10:18PM
The assertion that there should be literally no limits to the discarding of social conventions always just seems to mean that the speaker hasn't had their own personal limits tested. You personally feel that they should be allowed to wear t-shirts and shorts, so you disapprove of HP's new dress code. But should they be allowed to wear wifebeaters and speedos? How about mankinis? Maybe everyone (bot men and women) should be allowed to go shirtless on the job?
I somehow doubt that it would be fine with you if you walked into a public business and all the employees were naked and covered in human waste while wearing horse tail and bunny rabbit tail butt plugs. Something tells me you would probably choose not to do business with that establishment again, no matter how "professional" the staff was otherwise.
Social conventions like clothing of a certain type has many reasons for existing, and there is no such thing as a person who has no use for some level of such social conventions. The only difference between people is that everyone has their own personal limits and we all disagree where those limits should be. HP's management has decided that they might be risking losing business with certain customers if their employee dress code is seen as too lax. Or they just want to exercise their managerial authority. Oh my God, it is the literal end of the world. Or maybe it isn't.
It may not be right or perfect, but the way employees are dressed will always be a part of how we judge the professionalism of an organization. How important that part is depends largely on the type of customers you're trying to impress. Businesses that treat the customer as unimportant tend not to last very long. The same goes for businesses that treat employees as unimportant. The key, as with everything in life, is finding a balance. HP is adjusting the balance. Employees will either make the adjustment, protest it, or seek new employment. Unless they're being asked to wear something embarrassing like Playboy bunny suits, what's the big deal?
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday July 26 2015, @11:42PM
That's a well thought out and rational response, I'll give you that. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
OK, I understand, you're giving an extreme example to illustrate that everyone has their limits. Personally though, if they provided excellent products or services, I'd probably still buy their stuff (and possibly, in exceptional circumstances, consider working with them) if it weren't for the part about the human waste. If you really want me to take the argument seriously then I would say the human waste is introducing other factors in (smell, risk of disease) that wouldn't normally be understood to be encapsulated in the accepted definition of clothing. Aside from that, most people would assume that a company with many naked employees or employees in surreal costumes or anything else extremely unconventional would be doing it for the sake of publicity and even shock value to gain brand recognition. Stranger things have happened.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Monday July 27 2015, @01:14AM
That is high praise, especially on the Internet, and agreeing to disagree is a cornerstone of civilization.
At least you got the point, that if you think there is no point at which you yourself would be sorely tempted to start implementing some form of authoritarian "order", you just haven't thought hard enough. I had to make it an extreme example to be sure you would suddenly find yourself on the authoritarian side of the spectrum, thinking, "Hey, wait a minute, I'm not OK with that part." Your personal limit is just a lot closer to the anarchy/liberal side of the spectrum than HP's authoritarian/conservative management. Personally, although I'm no fan of button-up shirts, starched collars, ties and double-breasted suits, I can't seem to find in myself the ability to get upset about people being asked to wear collared shirts and pants to work. To me that's very close to the minimum to show other people that you care about yourself and your job. In a corporate office environment that's already "casual" attire, and quite comfortable to work in all day long. Not something to get upset about.
But that's just me.
A point to ponder: If you wear ultra-casual clothes to work all the time, how will you ever be able to "dress down" when you get home or go on vacation, and feel like you aren't working anymore? That's one of the best things about vacation, wearing stuff you'd never be allowed to wear at work! A dress code is a time-honored way to help separate work life from real life. Anyone who has been a part of some uniformed service will also tell you that putting on specific clothing to do a job puts you in a different frame of mind that can and will affect how professionally you behave while wearing that uniform. It's a minor, but measurable effect. Non-conformity and conformity both have their place in the world.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @02:40AM
Vacation is whenever you get some time to code what you love, not the code that pays
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 27 2015, @08:38AM
Already happened. There was a controversial magazine in the 70s whose editors used to work in the nude. I forget its name now, but it's featured, in all its fleshy glory, in part 3 of the BBC's /Rude Britannia/ documentary.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday July 28 2015, @10:39PM
You personally feel that they should be allowed to wear t-shirts and shorts, so you disapprove of HP's new dress code. But should they be allowed to wear wifebeaters and speedos? How about mankinis? Maybe everyone (bot men and women) should be allowed to go shirtless on the job?
Of course. Only a shallow fool would think otherwise, but our society is filled with irrational, shallow fools.
And it's funny how a male going shirtless is often seen as okay, but if a female does it, then it's obscene and horrible (in the eyes of puritans anyway).
I somehow doubt that it would be fine with you if you walked into a public business and all the employees were naked and covered in human waste while wearing horse tail and bunny rabbit tail butt plugs. Something tells me you would probably choose not to do business with that establishment again, no matter how "professional" the staff was otherwise.
As long as they can do their jobs properly, I don't care. That place sounds entertaining.
Social conventions like clothing of a certain type has many reasons for existing
Worthless authoritarians enjoy controlling others and forcing them to conform to their subjective sense of aesthetics.
but the way employees are dressed will always be a part of how we judge the professionalism of an organization.
There is no "always" unless you give up.