If you work a white-collar job in an office and head there this week, few people would be able to accurately guess your occupation from the way you dress. But that's not true for many of the people you interact with. The bus driver who takes you to your destination, the barista who makes your coffee, the receptionist who says “good morning” as you enter the building — they, and many others, are likely to be wearing some sort of company uniform. A Gallup poll of American workers last summer found that while most employees dress casually (some smart, some not at all), nearly a quarter wear a uniform.
Premium For employers who require uniforms, there are several arguments in favor of uniforms. (Pixabay) {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
For employers who mandate uniforms, there are several reasons to support them: Uniforms maintain a certain level of outward professionalism. From the red coats of Virgin Atlantic flight attendants to the “Browns” uniforms of UPS delivery drivers, uniforms project brand identity. Uniforms may have useful job-specific functions. Chef jackets are double-breasted to prevent burns and can be turned inside out to hide stains. Uniforms make it clear to customers who they should ask questions to, avoiding those awkward “do you work here?” moments.
These customers draw different conclusions, for better or worse, depending on whether staff are in uniform. In a study by Robert Smith and his colleagues at Tilburg University, participants were asked to imagine they were on the receiving end of bad service while picking up a pizza. They were then shown pictures of uniformed and non-uniformed employees and asked to circle the person who had hypothetically given them the worst experience. When a uniform was involved, participants were more likely to blame the company, rather than an individual or the situation, for the bad experience. If a company's uniform makes each employee appear more representative of their employer, the authors suggest, it might be a good idea to not give uniforms to less experienced employees.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Uniforms also have an impact on employee psychology. In 2012, Hayo Adam, now at the University of Bath, and Adam Galinsky, now at Columbia Business School, coined the term “enclosing cognition” to describe the effect that certain clothing has on the way people think and feel. Although the validity of enclosing cognition has been questioned, a new meta-analysis by Adam and Galinsky, along with Carl Blaine Houghton of Columbia Business School, concludes that the phenomenon is real.
In one study, Guillaume Pech of the Free University of Brussels and Emily Kaspar of Ghent University gave participants the choice of administering electric shocks to others in exchange for money, and participants wearing Red Cross uniforms showed more empathy than those wearing plain clothes. Xuehua Wang of the Asia-Europe Business School and her co-authors found that wearing formal clothes made people more likely to make healthy food choices. A paper by Saad Mendoza of Providence College and Elizabeth Parks-Stam of the University of Southern Maine found that people wearing police uniforms were more likely to shoot unarmed targets than those wearing plain clothes during a video game simulation designed to test reaction times. The clothes produce explosions.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Uniforms have a naturally mixed impact on workers. Uniforms that give a professional identity, such as a doctor's white coat, are more likely to motivate than those that don't. If people feel proud of their employer, they will be happy to be a poster boy for the company. Some work clothes look good, while others celebrate polyester. Rather than representing a brand, they symbolize a fire hazard. Some uniforms are comfortable, others are not, and women are usually at the most disadvantage. It wasn't until 2023 that female police officers in the UK were issued bulletproof vests that were tailored to their body type.
The obvious argument against uniforms, at least from people who don't wear them, is that they stifle individuality and autonomy. But employees who don't have to wear a formal uniform are often drawn to costumes. Some programmers seem to have an unspoken obligation to wear T-shirts. The combination of shirt, trousers, and Patagonia gilet is known among New York financiers as the “midtown uniform.” Executives wear cult corporate lapel pins. Celebrity bosses build their brands by wearing the same clothes every day. You may not need to wear a uniform to work. But you might still do so.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. Published under license from The Economist. Original content can be found at www.economist.com.
