I'm a software developer based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. I've got a wide range of experience in companies of varying sizes and cultures, and in roles of varying degrees of responsibility.
I understand the thinking behind "dress to impress", but personally, I prefer the idea that we can value people's contribution to the workplace in the same way as we can value their contribution to websites like this one.
That is to say, by focusing on the things that matter - The very best posts on Dev.to could have been written by someone who looked like they were on their way to a wedding, or they could've been written by someone who was lying naked in a bathtub, and in neither scenario would the content of their post be better or worse.
Professionalism is not, after all, a "look". That said, people do (for reasons I personally can not fathom) seem to think it is, but I tend to think of that as the problem here, myself.
As everyone's (most recent) favourite fictional dwarf once said, "It's easy to confuse what is with what ought to be, especially when what is has worked out in your favour". In your post, you say that a developer who wore a suit to work every day, even though he didn't have to, was respected by everyone. Would he have garnered that same respect if he was severely overweight, and couldn't buy a suit to fit him, but still produced the exact same output? If the answer is "no", then to be honest, that only further convinces me of the problems with the "everyone" in question than it does about the benefits of wearing a suit to work for no reason.
Maybe the next time we see someone wearing a suit, we can ask ourselves how much better that suit is actually making them at their job, rather than unhelpfully tying value to appearance. :)
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I understand the thinking behind "dress to impress", but personally, I prefer the idea that we can value people's contribution to the workplace in the same way as we can value their contribution to websites like this one.
That is to say, by focusing on the things that matter - The very best posts on Dev.to could have been written by someone who looked like they were on their way to a wedding, or they could've been written by someone who was lying naked in a bathtub, and in neither scenario would the content of their post be better or worse.
Professionalism is not, after all, a "look". That said, people do (for reasons I personally can not fathom) seem to think it is, but I tend to think of that as the problem here, myself.
As everyone's (most recent) favourite fictional dwarf once said, "It's easy to confuse what is with what ought to be, especially when what is has worked out in your favour". In your post, you say that a developer who wore a suit to work every day, even though he didn't have to, was respected by everyone. Would he have garnered that same respect if he was severely overweight, and couldn't buy a suit to fit him, but still produced the exact same output? If the answer is "no", then to be honest, that only further convinces me of the problems with the "everyone" in question than it does about the benefits of wearing a suit to work for no reason.
Maybe the next time we see someone wearing a suit, we can ask ourselves how much better that suit is actually making them at their job, rather than unhelpfully tying value to appearance. :)