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PQ magazine for part qualified accountants.
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The workplace: what not to wear |
Should you worry about what you wear to work? |
All us girls worry about what to wear in the mornings (it's an innate female trait), but one accountancy firm recently sought to help put our worries to rest. Female employees at Ernst & Young were offered the chance to take part in a workshop designed to improve their physical appearance. Over 400 women from E&Y, a top 50 'Where Women Want to Work' company, attended the 'Dress for Success' event.
There they received a variety of tips and advice, from what to wear to how to best bring out their complexion and hair colour. Surely most young professional women are acutely aware of how to make themselves look good. Or is there a real problem here with women dressing inappropriately? An insider at Ernst & Young told us: "I've never known any issues with the way women dress for work. The workshops were a waste of time and money."
But Fleur Bothwick, head of diversity and inclusiveness at Ernst & Young, defended the workshops, describing them as important for personal development. The impetus behind these image workshops was to "attract and help people achieve full potential", she said. In other words, providing the women with the skills to present themselves in a way to realise and maximise their achievements in the workplace. She said: "It's not that our women have been dressing incorrectly. But you don't want to be remembered as the woman with red lips, or leave people wondering 'how does she walk on those heels?'." Indeed, there is a difference between dressing to impress and dressing appropriately.
Everyone likes to look good, but there is an awful lot of pressure on women to dress each day to impress. This assumes how you look affects your chances of success in the workplace. Appearances are crucial to create a good first impression, but real success comes through merit. The workshops may be part of a shrewd business strategy, but are they just adding extra unnecessary pressure on women to look good?
Tatiana Armstrong |
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| [«all Career Advice] |
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