Women who show too much cleavage at work are sabotaging their careers and could even face the sack, according to a new survey carried out here in the UK. The survey, which was carried out for famous entrepreneur Peter Jones, found that bosses feel that low-cut tops are one of the biggest mistakes a female worker can make, quite contrary to the idea that womanly curves can be an advantage to women in business.
Clearly the consequences of flashing a bit too much boob can be disastrous – one in five managers who took part in the survey admitted that they had fired a member of staff for not dressing ‘appropriately.’ The survey also found that almost half of those surveyed …
… said they had overlooked someone for a promotion or payrise for the same reason.
Jones, who stars on BBC1’s hit TV show Dragon’s Den, said that:
‘I know from all my years in business that if people look smarter, they feel they achieve more – both in terms of productivity and career progression.’
Most of the bosses who took part in the survey agreed with Jones on this point, with 80% saying that the way people dress at work can have an effect on their career, and adding that they would reject a qualified candidate at interview if they looked scruffy.
The survey, which had a large sample size of 3000 managers and employers, was designed to assess the impact of dress-down Fridays, which are now commonplace in office culture. Top of the list of managers’ bugbears were wearing trainers and flip-flops, unironed shirts and, at the top of the tree, over-exposed cleavage.
I’m torn on this one – really, I think that women (and men) should be trusted to use their own judgement regarding what they wear to work, perhaps adhering to a dress code or following the way their colleagues and superiors dress. But I also think that it’s clear just from taking a look around my own office (never mind the results of this survey) that people do take liberties in the way they dress, becoming more casual in the way they dress towards the weekend, for example.
When it comes to women specifically, it seems to me that women increasingly seem to feel a need to flaunt their sexuality at almost all times, whether or not it is appropriate. Whilst I say that both women and men should be trusted to make their own calls about the way they dress for work, the fact is that sometimes breasts on show just isn’t appropriate. I’ve mentioned before here on ZL that, as a women with large breasts myself, sometimes keeping modest isn’t always easy, but I recognise that, despite the challenges big boobs pose me in terms of the way I dress, I have to keep it office-appropriate when I’m at work. And now this survey proves me right – clearly it’s cover up, or face the sack!
From those statistics what I got was that over 50% of bosses will NOT fire you for showing some boob (and has been my experience- rightly or wrongly- that they will in fact promote you), and generally the main bugbear was about being too casual.