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I totally agree that dress codes are sort of silly but it's hard to turn down a job if you need one. I have a family that I need to look after and I can't reall

I totally agree that dress codes are sort of silly but it's hard to turn down a job if you need one. I have a family that I need to look after and I can't really afford to put my preferences ahead of them having a nice place to live in and eating. I might turn down the offer if the economy was better but if I had to get a job and a financial services company offered me a job and I felt like my options were limited I'd have no choice but to take it. I'd leave that job at my first opportunity in all likelihood because I don't like dress codes much at all. It's possible though that the job is great apart from that silly policy so maybe it'd be worth putting up with for other reasons. My mom is a CPA and she asked me why programmers always wanted to wear jeans and a t-shirt. The only reason I gave to her that made sense to her was that it's a culture thing.

KirkWylie 17y ago
Actually, you've hit the nail on the head as to why I ended up at Big Bank B wearing "business casual" in the first place: I got caught up in one of the mass casualties of the Credit Crunch, and I needed to support my family, and they were hiring. It's totally understandable. Still a stupid policy on the part of the employer though.
gcheong 17y ago
I'd say it's more of a comfort thing than a cultural thing, like the same reason I don't wear a suit to bed, but I agree it's not worth sacrificing financial stability. Incidentally, the last financial services company I worked at was pretty casual about their "business casual" dress code. As long as you weren't in a client-facing position you could pretty much wear what you wanted.