Last week I attended an Advi­sory Com­mit­tee meet­ing of a pro­gram that helps tran­si­tion high school stu­dents to col­lege. It’s a great pro­gram with excel­lent focus and results. The 14 mem­bers in atten­dance were over­whelm­ingly Baby Boomers and Gen­er­a­tion Jones, many with dis­tin­guished careers in the pub­lic sec­tor and edu­ca­tion. Two down from me sat an impec­ca­bly dressed suit with spit shined shoes, well groomed sil­ver hair and large gold col­le­giate rings on man­i­cured fin­gers. He appeared suc­cess­ful accord­ing to the stan­dards of his gen­er­a­tion as a senior Baby Boomer.

The agenda flowed and it came time for him to speak. He reported on the annual busi­ness plan com­pe­ti­tion and how this year’s stu­dents didn’t seem as sharp as other years. This was very con­cern­ing and we all sat on the edge of our seats wait­ing for details of the fall out.

The stu­dents seemed bright prior to the pre­sen­ta­tions he reported, but some­thing just wasn’t right that evening. One had on pants that hung kind of low and sneak­ers. Another had hair like a girl. A girl had an ear­ring on her face. They lacked pro­fes­sion­al­ism and they weren’t “sharp”. Next year we would have to do some­thing about it, these kids would never make it in the real world.

As he spoke I observed how oth­ers were tak­ing in his com­ments. Some nod­ded their heads in agree­ment, some sat like stone stat­ues just look­ing at him and those few Gen Y and Gen X mem­bers that were there had abnor­mally big eyes. As a Joneser who admit­tedly tries hard to dress in paja­mas dis­guised as busi­ness casual I was in the mid­dle. I tuned out for a moment after, “When I was 7 my mother told me.…” then I came back.

When the suit was fin­ished air­ing his griev­ances I asked, “How was the con­tent of the pre­sen­ta­tions they gave?” It turns out that the kid with the bag­gys won, though it was a tough deci­sion. I con­tin­ued on. “If you would have closed your eyes and just lis­tened would your opin­ion be any dif­fer­ent?” That appar­ently was not the point.

I lodged in a few thought­ful and hope­fully respect­ful sen­tences about the War for Tal­ent and how the best present could come in a brown paper bag and cos­tume jew­elry could be wrapped in gold gilded paper with rib­bons and bows. I think my rebel­lious nature came through. 

Shouldn’t it be all about performance?

With the excep­tion of good per­sonal hygiene and attire that would present poten­tial safety con­cerns in cer­tain envi­ron­ments, why does it matter? 

Gart­ner Dataquest reported in 2008 that 25% of work­ers telecom­muted in 2007, and in their recent 2009 pro­jec­tions, they esti­mate that num­ber to hit 27.5%. Com­pa­nies like Booz Allen Hamil­ton, eBay, Gart­ner, Gold­man Sachs, Prin­ci­pal Finan­cial Group, S.C. John­son & Son, Yahoo, and Qual­comm, con­tinue to lead the pack with flex­i­ble work and telecom­mut­ing benefits.

I’ll bet a good num­ber of them work out of flan­nels and do just as good of a job as when they are all decked out.

At the end of the dis­cus­sion I offered to go into the class­room to talk about employer expec­ta­tions. But I won’t be speak­ing about how self-expression can be achieved by wear­ing a slightly bold tie or col­or­ful scarf. I’ll be talk­ing about gen­er­a­tional dif­fer­ences, ask­ing about the dress code prior to the inter­view, under­stand­ing busi­ness dress code norms and choos­ing a career and employer that meet lifestyle pref­er­ences — the things kids don’t learn in school.

I’ll con­tinue to mon­i­tor work­place vogue and help stu­dents and new pro­fes­sion­als under­stand it. When it is no longer a topic for dis­cus­sion I’ll have my Gen Jones self in a flan­nel shirt, jeans and sneak­ers work­ing right along­side them. Oh, and I’m sup­port­ing the City of Brooksville, FL in their com­mon sense approach to the employee dress code of deodor­ant and under­wear required. Go Brooksville!