Study Finds Casually Dressed Workers More Productive

Matt PalumboMarch 27, 2022

Columbia Business School PhD Candidate Erica Bailey joins Yahoo Finance Live to talk about work from home fashion trends as it correlates to productivity, preferences towards loungewear overdressing casually, and creative ways to balance comfort and casual dress.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, fashion photographer Bill Cunningham once said fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. Well, a new Columbia Business School study shows that’s never been more true, as many of us return to work in person after two years, and our appearance comes into sharp focus. Well, let’s welcome Erica Bailey, Columbia Business School PhD candidate, for more on this. So first of all, what’s the motivation behind this study? And what are you hoping comes from it in terms of real life application?

ERICA BAILEY: Thank you so much for having me. The motivation behind this study is that attire is a choice that most of us make every single day. And what we wear sits at this interesting intersection between signaling who we are, our personal taste, our personal sense of style, and where we fit, both within our organizations and even the jobs that we have.

So as social scientists, we are really interested in looking at how attire impacts our psychological states, specifically when we’re working from home in this weird phase where we’re both working, but we’re in the context of home. We wanted to know which type of attire strategy was best for remote workers.

DAVE BRIGGS: Nice to see you, Erica. I conducted my own experiment today. Usually, I’m in a coat and a nice shirt, and I went with the sweats today, expecting to feel, quite frankly, unprofessional, unenergetic. Because I like being dressed up. It makes me feel more dialed into the work. It shocked me. I actually feel more engaged in the work, more relaxed. What did the findings show in terms of the clothing as it relates to your authenticity and your engagement?

ERICA BAILEY: Oh, I love to hear that, first of all. Good to hear that it’s replicating in a real world context. In our studies, we randomly assigned participants to one of three different outfits. So one would be the professional style that you mentioned, going against. This is sort of your typical going to work suit. The other style is something more comfortable, what you would wear maybe on a weekend when you’re relaxing at home. And the third was this novel strategy known as the Zoom mullet, where you’re half dressed for work within the frame of the video camera and half dressed for home.

And we ran two multi-day experiments. And we found that there was one clear winner. That was dressing like you’re being at home when you’re working from home increased both feelings of authenticity, like you said, and also engagement at work that day. So because workers were feeling more like themselves, they were actually able to focus more on the work at hand and the task that they were working on.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah, I have to tell you that we were chatting about Zoom mullet before the show. It was a fascinating concept for me. I’m probably one of the most egregious offenders. During the pandemic, I wore sometimes a three-piece suit on top and shorts. Yeah, I’m just going to go out there and admit it.

ERICA BAILEY: Wow.

JARED BLIKRE: I got the entire ensemble correct today because I’m actually in my office. But do you find ridiculous stories like that? I mean, you interviewed, what, 400 people– your team did. Just any anecdotes that kind of go along with that?

ERICA BAILEY: Yeah, some people took the casual attire to the extreme, wearing just robes and pajama pants. Other people, like yourself, took the Zoom mullet to the extreme, wearing perhaps a really nice top and no pants at all. But we found that really being consistent internally, so a consistent attire, as well as being consistent with the environment that you’re in, seemed to prompt the best authenticity.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Now, for me, it was a case of wearing Uggs instead of shoes. And now when I try and wear heels, I’m like a newborn giraffe. I barely remember how to walk in heels anymore. So what are some of the ways that employers and employees can really bridge that gap if they are coming back to sort of in-person work or hybrid work so that they could still feel comfortable, but not sort of get the raised eyebrows from their bosses?

ERICA BAILEY: There’s a lot of strategies to merge a professional look with something that is more comfortable that people tend to gravitate to on their own. So the Patagonia sweat or the Patagonia vests are a good example of this, where it’s both comfortable and relaxing, but it still can signal your organization with a logo or something like that.

So I hope that organizations look for creative ways to let their workers dress more comfortably or more casually, something they would usually want to wear with something that’s organizationally appropriate. And it might even be as easy as relaxing our ideas of what we consider professional, and signaling that it’s OK to be yourself in what you’re wearing.

DAVE BRIGGS: You’re talking to our audience here. Half of them probably where that Patagonia vest right now with their hedge fund patch right there. So are there situations, though, according to your research, where– and I believe you studied a third. It was authenticity, engagement, and power. Are there situations at which the formal dress does help in the workspace?

ERICA BAILEY: We were surprised that power did not robustly happen as a result of dressing sort of in that power suit or dressing like you would for the office. That’s what prior research would suggest, that you want to dress for the job you want, dress for the person that you want to be. And to feel more powerful, maybe put on your power suit. But it didn’t seem to have the same effect if you were working from home.

I think people just kind of feel a little silly. We might be working, but work is a small part of our lives, especially if we’re sitting at the kitchen table. So we didn’t find robust effects on power from wearing that power suit. But it might also be that the power suit and the effects of the prior office are just far enough away in our minds. It’s been two years since we had normal commutes and normal office experiences. And it might just be too far away to kind of latch back into.

JARED BLIKRE: Well, we’ve got to leave it there, but certainly appreciate the fodder for our discussion here. That was really fun. Erica Bailey, Columbia Business School PhD candidate.