No longer do employees have an implicit understanding of “professional protocol expectations.” The examples Traditionalists and Boomers saw in action during their childhoods and early careers have disappeared. Many Millennials had nominal training at home or in college that required self-restraint, putting others first, or polite etiquette.
In a 2011 Society for Human Resource Management study, the top concerns managers had about younger workers included inappropriate dress and poor work ethic. Today, leaders need to recognize that training new talent to recognize and implement your professional protocols such as business dress is part of the job. While I was consulting for a national healthcare organization, an elegantly coifed female Boomer manager, with apparent frustration in her voice, said, “Okay, I’m going to address the elephant in the room. What about dress code? These young people think they can wear just any old thing and get away with it. Even when they are meeting with clients, they still look like they are in their pajamas.” Clearly this was a huge point of pain and irritation for her as it is for many Boomers. The business dress policy is something that can be a sore point for the older generations because it seems to be something that they each feel is obvious. Unfortunately, their perspective of what is obvious is not necessarily what the other generations think relevant.

For our Traditionalists who came of age with the military uniform being in popular vogue, they went to work dressing formally. For them, the appropriate dress code was a Brooks Brothers suit or a pinstriped suit with two or three buttons being the norm. Sometimes it was double-breasted, but it was always a suit with a tie, a jacket, slacks, and a shiny pair of shoes.

Baby Boomers thought it was a huge success when they changed the business dress code to include business casual, which included the options of blazer and slacks or a tie and suit for the most formal meetings.

Xers took it (up or down another level depending on your generational viewpoint) to more casual than business. They introduced the blazer and jeans and casual Fridays. The dot-com world advanced this agenda more quickly because the technology savvy Xers were highly sought after, and if what they demanded were blazers and jeans, then blazers and jeans it would be. Casual Fridays are something that many generations have come to enjoy.

Millennials have been allowed, and in fact, encouraged to use their dress as personal self-expression, and organizations that get frustrated by Millennials’ lack of understanding are working on the assumption that Millennials have not been exposed to or educated to know anything else.

But in the movies, on TV, and in their own personal experiences in the workforce, or in their parents’ expression of the workforce, they may have never been exposed to the business formal of the Traditionalists or even the business casual of the Baby Boomers. They may have only seen the casual of the Xers. Millennials have taken the workplace from casual to comfy. Millennials come to work ready to express their personal style and viewpoints freely in their choice of wardrobe from flip-flops to pajama bottoms. Millennials feel they should be comfortable as they do the job. In their minds, as long as no one sees them dressed that way, what’s the big deal?

Know Your Audience: Dress for the Client
Boomers and Traditionalists know the adage, “We dressed for the job we want, not the job we have.” If Xers and Millennials are seeking to move upward and garner respect from senior generations in the workplace, they need to take their dress code cues to heart. How you dress means a lot to your client, customer, or audience in any forum.
Being respected by a Boomer or a Traditionalist involves integrating their dress codes into your wardrobe choices. It may include ladies wearing plain nylons and closed toe shoes with a business suit. Gentlemen, when approaching a senior Boomer or Traditionalist, it will be wise to wear a suit, and tie, not a jacket, open-collared shirt, and slacks.

Generationally Savvy Solution:
Take time to establish context and allow for creative collaboration around the reasons for the protocol or policy. Too often, the rationale of “We’ve been doing it this way for one hundred years” is expected to be enough to commandeer compliance. While it may have sufficed in the past, it will not have the same effect today. Instead of pitting yourself against the Millennials and turning everything into a fight for self-expression or self-suppression, proactively examine your current policies, protocols, and practices for their practicality and relevance in how you do business today. Ask the tough questions:
• Is this protocol/policy still relevant?
• Are there situations where it no longer applies?
• Is the cost of enforcing it more than the payoff of having it?

If you can answer these questions, then you can come to a Generationally Savvy Solution that fits you and your customer’s needs.