How much do you notice how your co-workers dress?

This happened a few weeks back and I keep wondering how to take it.....

I subscribe to the "dress just a *little* better than expected at work" school of thought. Not to show anybody up, but to show I am a serious person. Plus I generally don't like wearing jeans at work as I also beleive you work better when you are dressed better. Not that I am super-fashionable, but we are allowed to wear jeans and "casual." I wear a collared shirt or golf shirt. It just is what you should wear in an office to me.

Well, on Fridays I will sometimes wear jeans. So a woman comes up to me and mentions she should take a picture as "they were saying by her how I never wear jeans."

It was said in a friendly way, but I couldn't believe anyone really noticed, much less cared to bring it up. After I thought about it, I think the same thing happened at a previous place I worked.

So I ask, how many of you notice how someone dresses on a regular basis?

I'm in HR, and my job is to hire people. I feel like I'm the least observant person in the world. One time after an interview, the hiring manager said to me, "Can you believe that guy, there's no chance we can hire him". I said "Why, he seemed ok." Hiring manager's response "He was wearing sandals! You didn't notice?" No, I had no clue.

I find that women are much much more observant about that type of stuff. I couldn't tell you anything my co-workers wear. They could probably wear the same outfit every day for a week, and I wouldn't notice.

I almost never notice such stuff. There was one guy I worked with for years whose attire I did know well -- unless there was some special occasion, he wore blue jeans and a black T shirt every day. Same outfit away from work, too.

As for women being more observant, I recall a conversation I had with a girl back in high school. It was February, and she commented on the French teacher's wardrobe. She claimed that the woman had worn a different outfit every day for the entire school year to that point. My friend said that she recognized some of the outfits as being part of the wardrobe when the same teacher taught middle school several years earlier, but she was amazed that one person could have that many outfits suitable for work. For my part, I was amazed that anyone, even a teen girl, would pay that much attention to what anyone was wearing.

The only time I notice is when there's a well-dressed woman I see often. Noticing women is much more pleasant.

Quote: FinsRule

... "He was wearing sandals! ..."

I work with a guy who wears sandals every day - no socks. (Sandals with socks is actually "fahionable" around here.) So every day I get to listen the sound of sweaty feet sticking to his sandals.

Ew. Ick. Thanks for making me think about this on a weekend!! :-)

From an opposite perspective, I work for a 2,500 employee IT company in San Antonio that has no dress code. The normal attire is a shirt, shorts, and sandals. If not, you're overdressed.

It's quite awesome. :)

One way to look at it is, if anyone normally dresses at a certain level and then dresses differently for a day, pretty much everybody would notice.

Other than that, I would go by:

If I wore the same exact hoodie three days in a row (which I have, I work in a small software company), who would notice? And I'd say probably the women might notice and the guys mostly wouldn't.

Of course, we only have a few women, so I always see what they're wearing, but would I notice if a woman wore the same exact thing two days in a row? Probably only if her hair was also still wet when she walked in on day 2.