Can Casual Dress Codes compliment the Agile Way of Working?

This year, ‘World Casual Day’ celebrated its 25th anniversary on the 06 September 2019 and i thought that it would be timely to also gauge if casual dress code actually does play an important part in Agile teams and Agile setups in the new Agile way of working?

Many case studies & stats have shown that employees in an Agile setup where smart casuals & jeans are allowed has better productivity & performance were also improved.

“In fact, one study, sponsored by The Master’s College in California, published the following conclusions: “There is an effect on… performance in the workplace because of casual dress… Casual dress has equally positive and negative effects, and… dress codes may or may not be necessary for professional performance.”

Some Managers may argue that casual attire will lead to casual attitude which further results to a casual (lazy) work ethic.

https://www.andrewjensen.net/how-does-workplace-attire-affect-productivity/

While many organizations are starting to adopt the ‘Google-like’ environment for their workplace and work attire, many are still bounded & restricted by HR policies especially if the roles requires interactions with customers.

During my time with the several banking organizations that i were attached to, our departments were fortunate to be allowed to be in smart casual wear. Some started by allowing Fridays for smart casual wear which slowly turned into a daily culture. Peers who usually takes the day off or call in sick 🤒 on Mondays now tend to show up.

This had positive vibes on my peers & colleagues as i could see them ‘opening up’ more on Fridays vs the tensed feeling earlier in the week.

It’s funny how a simple shirt-jeans-sneakers can make a difference to employees work & fun rate but it still goes down to how each individual bring out their own positive vibes and spread these around the workplace. There’s no point coming in to the workplace with casual wear but with a heavy heart.

So for me personally, Agile teams and Agile setups in the new Agile way of working be it co-location of squads, usage of DevOps tools or even having a super cool workspace aided by casual wear does help to boost productivity and bring out the more in me and i’m sure the vast majority of people too especially if we’re in our own ‘Gear’. I/we may wana suit up for meetings 👔💼👞and functions and i/we may wana go casual on some days. 👕👖👟🕶 so lets come in with the right attitude & mindset to challenge status quo 🙌🏻 to make the workplace more ‘Agile-centric’.