Too Sexy at Work

As quarterlifers are we increasing our chances of promotion by dressing sexy at work or are we secretly creating our own glass ceilings?

Below is an excerpt for an article in the Chicago Tribune-- Too Sexy for Work? You can find the entire article here Too sexy for work?

"A lot of my younger clients are coming out of a college experience where it doesn't really matter what you wear," Bremer says. "It doesn't occur to them that they have to make a switch when it comes to the workforce."

From "pants tight in the crotch" to see-through blouses and sleeveless tops, Wildermuth, too, is facing an uphill battle with twentysomething clients."They say to me, 'If I'm really smart, what difference does it make what I'm wearing,' " Wildermuth says. "I always respond that if your co-workers or boss are always talking about the shoes you're wearing or your earrings, they are not getting the chance to see the real you. It's a distraction."

There is no doubt in my mind that people like to work with people who are attractive...physically as well as in personality. Yet the article points to a generational difference. As quarterlifers we are use to low jeans, plunging necklines, tight shirts, piercings, and skin...lots of it. Our parents and grandparents aren't.

Not only aren't they use to it...it frightens most of them. They don't trust it.

To many quarterlifers, clothes are the last attempt to hold onto their individuality and youth. It's a way of saying "I'm different. I'm not going to end of a clone like the rest of you." Yet as the article points out this "individual expression in clothes" can also create barriers in truly allowing other co-workers to get to us. The preconceived judgment of co-workers over shadows anything we may do or say.

As the article points out this occurs less for men, because we have fewer clothes options. Unless we break out a purple suit a black suit is a black suit.

My opinion is that there are societal standards that exist. As quarterlifers we shoot ourselves in the foot when we buck the system in every direction. There are more ways of standing out than in the style of shoe we wear. If we are really determined to make a change I think it's easier to start a revolution from the inside.

What do you think? Are quarterlifers selling out by dressing according to the standards set by their profession?