9 Reasons Why You Should Dress For Work At The Home Office

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One of the major benefits us remote workers have over office workers is that we can wear what we want! I mean one of the things I was most excited about was being able to roll out of bed and straight into work, but was wearing whatever I wanted a good idea when working from home? Should you dress for work when working from home? 

Smart casual is the best dress code when working from home for men and women. Not only will you feel comfortable you will not look unprofessional, if you have to jump on an ad-hoc video call. For men a shirt and jeans should suffice and for women smart jeans with a professional top should be good. 

So what are the benefits of dressing up for work? And are there any clothes that you should avoid when working from home? Keep reading to find out more

Now it’s worth mentioning that this post has a lot of information and so if you’re curious about the best equipment needed to work remotely simply go to my resource page here. 

It gives you one less thing to worry about 

Probably the largest benefit of  dressing up for work when you work from home is that it gives you one less thing to worry about. 

It’s likely that your work clothes are very different to what you wear casually or when out with your friends, and so by either wearing the same clothes for work every day and cycling them you have one less thing to worry about and can focus on the business at hand…your job. 

This is even better if you work for an organisation where you have a uniform. 

Something like a work t-shirt and jeans just makes things easier to crack on and is one of the reasons why entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs wore the same outfit everyday to save their brain power on more important aspects. 

It will put you in the right mindset 

This is something I’m super guilty of. 

When I first started working from home a few years back it was no exaggeration for me to say that I barely got out of my bed clothes. 

Whilst this was fun to start off with sooner or later I started noticing things, mainly that I would feel more lethargic, instead of working from my office I would find myself working on the sofa or worse, the bed. 

Getting dressed in the morning for work when you work from a home office will put you in the right mindset to work. 

Wearing clothes like a nice work shirt or top that has been pressed and ironed will stop you from wanting to slouch or work somewhere else. 

It’s more hygienic 

Definitely the grossest thing on the list. 

If you are working from home in your comfies or PJ’s then it’s likely you’ve also let your personal hygiene slip. 

During the pandemic, firms like Unilever have found sales of their deodorants and hygienic items slip with more people opting to wait for longer in between trips to the shower. 

By getting dressed in the morning you will be setting yourself a schedule and a routine to also shower in the morning – vastly improving any lingering smells you may have noticed. 

It’s easier for spontaneous meetings 

Let’s paint a picture, have you ever taken a short break when working from home only for slack to go off letting you know that your boss has put in a spontaneous meeting? 

I know I have. 

Some companies don’t allow their employees to turn their webcams off when on a video call, so you don’t want to be caught short. 

Getting dressed for work when working from home will stop any mishaps from happening and ensure that you look fresh and ready for any meetings, regardless of if your colleagues threw it in your calendar thirty seconds before hand! 

You will be more productive 

Those of us who have the pleasure of working from home know that we are more productive then our office based counterparts, working on average 16.9 days more per year. 

Now one way to be even more productive than those of us who wear our PJ’s is dressing for the job you do with a study from the University of Warwickshire showing that people who dressed for the job they were meant to do were more productive at it. 

To take this a step further make a note of all the qualities someone good at your role has and what they dress like and try to imitate them. 

If there is someone you look up to dressed like them – what’s the old saying, success is following in the footsteps of those in front of you. 

If your interested in learning a little more about how to stay productive when working from home check out this blog post here.

Alternatively for remote working and working from home stats check this out here. 

It stops you from falling into a rut 

We touched on this a little bit earlier on but one of the major problems remote workers face is falling into a rut. 

I mean let’s face it staring at walls tucked away without any form of social interaction can definitely reap havoc and make you feel like you haven’t achieved anything. 

If you’ve ever felt like this, or are feeling like this at the moment, take a look at what you’re wearing and ask yourself if it’s what you would wear to work. 

Once again getting dressed in the morning as though you’re going to work when working from home will help to mitigate some of those feelings keeping you focused as the day goes on. 

It will give you a routine 

During the pandemic one of the major problems a lot of remote workers had was just lack of routines.

A lot of us found ourselves staying up till lantern taking fewer breaks and just generally feeling a little all over the place.

Getting dressed in the morning will nip that in the bud and start your day off right with a routine.

Setting up a morning routine and tying in all your daily duties at the same time you get dressed can set you up perfectly.

An idea would be: 

• Get up 
• Stretch Shower/use the restroom 
• Get changed 
• Journal 
• Eat breakfast 
• Start work

You will get more exercise in 

So it’s hit 5 pm and because you’re dressed in your bed clothes instead of going out and getting in some exercise you sat in front of the TV covered in Doritos watching re-runs of Judge Judy. 

Whilst I like the judge as much as the next person, exercising and getting out is super important for those of us who work remotely. 

Sadly it’s one of the first things to go when we work from home, and so by getting dressed in the morning you are much more likely to be prepared to go out. 

You can take this one step further by either getting dressed in your workout clothes ( so long as they are somewhat professional looking on camera) or go to the gym first thing in the morning and then get dressed for work, setting you up for the rest of the day. 

It’s fun 

Finally, and one of the easiest ones we are most likely to forget is that it’s fun.

I mean let’s face it, a lot of us are barely functioning adults and still get a buzz out of getting ready for the work day and adulating at life.

Getting dressed gives us purpose and meaning to what it means to be an adult at work – all of which can be lost when work from home. 

Disadvantages to getting dressed for work at the home office 

So we covered a lot of the positives and reasons as to why you should dress for work when working from home so what about the downsides, like everything there area few things to look at

It’s uncomfortable 

Casual clothes are casual clothes for a reason, they’re super comfortable. 

You likely feel a lot more relaxed and chilled out working in your pJs or loungewear and wearing clothes, even casual smart clothes can make you feel a little uncomfortable. 

It’s a lot like the feeling you get when you’ve had to wear a suit all day. By the end of it you can’t wait to take it off. 

Remote workers on average work 16.9 days more per year then their remote working counterparts 

It gives you more laundry to do 

Until a time comes when self cleaning clothes become a thing, laundry like death and taxes, is an inevitable part of life. 

Unless you have the money to pay someone to do your laundry every week the more clothes you wear for work every week, the more laundry you will have to do, eating into some of the time you might have hoped to reclaim by working remotely in the first place. 

You feel like you don’t get as much out of the remote working experience

This is more a physiological issue then anything else. 

On a subconscious level I know that when I wear professional/smart casual clothes when I work remotely, I feel as though I am not getting out of the working from home experience. 

Part of you wants the ability to wear whatever you want without a care in the world and by having to look somewhat presentable this can make you feel like it’s just another day in the office. 

What do the studies say on dressing for work at a home office

So what do the actual studies on getting dressed when working from home look like, are there any hard scientific truths to looking more professional in your home office? 

Luckily I’ve compiled a list of studies together below: 

Study	What does it say?
Kellogs School Of Management	Doctors who wore a white coat constantly performed better as doctors – showing the link between dressing for the job you are doing
Barker & Bornstien	Self esteem and dressing well/appearance are interlinked
University Of Warwickshire	Students who wore a superman T-shirt felt themselves as more confident then other students
Social psychology and personality science	People who dressed professional performed better at cognitive tests
Journal of Experimental Psychology	Dressing informally can ruin perception in things like in person contract negotiations.

To Summarize, the results above show that getting dressed up almost always improves performance, confidence and perception – all valuable traits that can help put you above and beyond others when working from a home office. 

What colours should you use? 

So now we know why you should dress for work in a home office, what are some colours you should use and some other you should steer clear of?  believe it or not colours make all the difference so the following should help: 

Black 

Open your wardrobe and you likely have a tone of black professional items and with good reason. 

They are clean, usually have great lines and are incredibly versatile. 

Green

Green speaks of freshness, nature and will help make you feel like your in the great outdoors when working from home

Blue

Blue is super soothing and neutral and can pretty much go with anything. 

My own personal preference is to go with a hue that is slightly darker like a navy color to balance out other items 

Permanent remote working roles have grown by 44% over the past 5 years

What about some colours you should avoid? 

I would steer clear of the following 

Red

Red can be a little bit to loud a color to wear in a work environment, try to mute it down opting for something like salmon instead 

Yellow 

Similar to red, yellow can also be a little bit distracting loud a color to wear in a work environment 

The added trouble of yellow is that it can be a little bit tough to find clothes that match with it making a lot of your wardrobe irrelevant

Grey 

Grey is often the easiest choice when it comes to professional clothes so you have a lot of these lying around most likely. 

One of the major issues with wearing too much grey is that it can be a little bit boring and can make you feel a little bit run down. 

Should you dress for success? 

Dressing for success should be one of the first things you do when working from a home office. This will set your mindset up to success in your current role whilst avoiding any of the distractions and pitfalls that can come with working from home. 

Should you dress casually? 

Instead of dressing casually, employees should dress casual smart when working from home which will give them the best balance of feeling comfortable whilst also working professionally, when working from home. 

What to do if your work has a dress code? 

If your work has a dress code policy when you work in the office and you currency work from home either because of covid or some other reason I would consider wearing this when working from home. 

This would help set up the barrier that you are in work mode and avoid falling complacent. Aim to get your colleagues to do the same to make you stay connected to your colleagues. 

I tried dressing professionally when working from home for a week, this happened 

So whilst writing this blog post I wanted to practice what I preached and see if dressing for work when working from home actually made me more productive. 

A few things to note about my very unscientific study: 

• These results will not be typical for every role, I work in sales and so it’s a lot easier for me to track my results in productivity 
• There are a lot of other factors that affect productivity other than  what you wear, I’ll be the first to admit this, bare in mind I have a very nice office to work from an have been doing so for coming up to three years meaning a lot of how productive I am is because of habit 
• Correlation doesn’t equal causation, meaning that the direct cause of the results isn’t necessarily to do with what I was wearing. 
• We’re currently in the middle of a pandemic with roles shifting and changing, anyone who works in sales knows just how irregular the market is at the moment day to day let alone week to week. 

What role did I do my study on

Before we go into the results I need to let you know about my role. As some of you know by now I work in sales and have been doing so for the best part of a decade now. 

I currently work in sales. Now whilst some sales roles often find you not being in control of your schedule, having paid my dues in the world of business development consultancy. Account executive roles My current role is that of a business development rep aka a sales rep. 

This means that unlike other sales roles I don’t necessarily need to be out visiting clients instead my role is mainly focused on calling and making first contact with clients. 

This means typically week in week out I can do the same activities and monitor my activity level. 

How did I set up my study 

My study took place over a two week period. In my first week I wore my pyjamas for the first week working from my home office. 

For the second week, I wore a casual smart uniform, jeans, and shoes. 

What does a typical week look like 

So the key KPIs of my role consists of picking up 6 leads from our research team per week, hammering out 200 activities split typically 50/50 between calls and e-mails.

I would also have to do other activities that would not usually be tracked via SF such as recording videos for prospects. Another area I would need to track would be activities I would get around to if I had spare time such as posting on LinkedIn or coaching calls.

The main metrics then we will be: 

• Number of leads picked up 

• Total numbers of calls/emails/ activity completed per week

• Numbers of meetings booked 

• Calls coached 

• Posts on LinkedIn 

The results 

Week 1 – working wearing pyjamas 

Metric	Number of activities completed
Number of Leads picked up	8
total numbers of calls/emails/Li messages activity completed per week	180
Numbers of meetings booked	2
Calls Coached	2
Posts on LinkedIn	1

As you can see, a bit of a mixed bag in terms of the week with a decent activity number but a lower meeting booking rate then normal. 

The break down of activity for the 180 activities where as follows: 

• 101 calls completed 
• 2 meeting booked 
• 17 LinkedIn in mails sent
• 48 e-mails sent 
• 2 general task follow ups 

Week 2 – wearing casual smart clothes 

Metric	Number of activities completed
Number of Leads picked up	10
total numbers of calls/emails/Li messages activity completed per week	207
Numbers of meetings booked	3
Calls Coached	2
Posts on LinkedIn	2

Week two of the experiment was a better week overall with increases in both activity and meetings booked and marginal improvements overall. 

The break down of activity for the 207 activities were as follows

• 138 calls completed 
• 3 meetings booked
• 12 Linkedin in mails sent
• 52 e-mails sent
• 2 general task follow up

What do the results mean? 

So the results of my very short study show that dressing in the morning in a smart casual manor can make you a more prodcutive person then if you were to wear bedclothes or casual clothes for the day. 

I managed to increase my activity level by 27, getting more done which helped me manage to book in more meetings.

Should you dress for work first thing in the morning when working from home? 

When working from home, you should get dressed first thing in the morning as this will get you into the correct mindset that you will be working from the day, and help improve your productivity. 

How should I dress when working from home? 

So what are some items people should consider when working from home? 

The first thing you should do is wear clothes that fit, wearing tight t-shirts guys won’t make your biceps look any bigger so ensure you wear clothes that look smart but also give you the ability to move and feel comfortable in. 

As mentioned several times throughout this post, It’s important to wear clothes that are casual smart for the best business performance. 

What are some essential items for men 

When working from home all men should wear a smart shirt

A nice pair of comfortable jeans (I prefer slim fits) 

And some smart shoes (Oxfords are my go to) 

H&M is my go to when it comes to work clothes so you can find my recommended items here below: 

Jeans 

Shoes 

Shirt 

What are some essential items for women 

So I asked my wife what she would consider essential items all women should wear if working from home that fall into the casual smart category and she came up with the following: 

A blouse 

Black jeans 

Once again she recommend H&M for there items which you can find listed down below

Blouse

Jeans

What are some accessories you should wear when working from home? 

Watches are a great item to wear when working from home as an accessory. Similar to clothes they will help you feel more professional and focused. Other larger item you might traditionally wear to work are unnecessary 

What should you not wear when working from home? 

Pyjamas, bedclothes and party clothes should all be avoided when working from home. This is because their focus is completely different to the task at hand and either will be too uncomfortable e ( partying clothes) or too casual ( bed clothes/pyjamas) casual smart clothes are the best items to wear when working from home. 

So hopefully this post has given you some ideas as to why you should get dressed professionally when you work from home, some colors you should avoid and some items me and the mrs recommend. 

Finally, a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.