Is this an issue raised too high?

[EdgeleyRob]

Where I worked there used to be a requirement to wear a tie,even if the role didn't involve dealing with members of the public.
Then a few years ago there was a story in the news about someone who took his employer to court over the matter and the ruling was that he couldn't be forced to wear one.
From that day on we refused to wear ties.
There was a kerfuffle,threats of sackings,wailing and gnashing of teeth for a while.
It all eventually died down and we never wore ties since.
I'm not advocating mutiny but if you feel strongly enough.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It could be argued that the difference between ties (for men) and high heels (for women) is that men aren't lured into wearing ties because women thinks it makes them look sexier.

It could - but for the more "practical" outlook of legally-binding law cases, the more important difference might be that ties (for all talk of their being "strangulating") are not physically/anatomically damaging in the way that high heels are.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sexier - perhaps no, but nagging wives have had habits.

Then why marry one?

[MrGongGong]

Surely one of the things about being an ADULT is that one should be able to choose what to wear?

Uniform is fine if you are a policeman or doing a performance that requires you wear a blue dress (I've been trying to persuade the ROH that they should do Grand Macabre at last) but for sitting in front of a computer or talking on the phone?

We seem to be becoming a nation of conformists in fear of those "above" us.

[Richard Tarleton]

the more important difference might be that ties (for all talk of their being "strangulating") are not physically/anatomically damaging in the way that high heels are.

Policemen wear clip-on ties, so that they come off when grabbed by malefactors who might actually try to use them to strangle the wearer.

[french frank]

The last place I worked there was a, possibly unofficial, rule that men and women dressed tidily if they came in contact with the public during their work. As sub-editors didn't, they dressed as scruffily/tidily as they wanted. When the deputy chief sub was ordered to wear a tie (to set a good exaample) he complied:

.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Policemen wear clip-on ties, so that they come off when grabbed by malefactors who might actually try to use them to strangle the wearer.

An excellent idea!

[Petrushka]

Surely one of the things about being an ADULT is that one should be able to choose what to wear?

Uniform is fine if you are a policeman or doing a performance that requires you wear a blue dress (I've been trying to persuade the ROH that they should do Grand Macabre at last) but for sitting in front of a computer or talking on the phone?

We seem to be becoming a nation of conformists in fear of those "above" us.

As pointed out earlier, you are self-employed and can do as you wish. I assume that you have never worked otherwise and thus can have no idea what office employees have to tolerate. Start up a lone mutiny by all means but in so doing you will make life so unbearable for yourself that it's just not worth the candle. Everybody conforms in the end and that's the sad truth.

[MrGongGong]

From the rather wonderful Eugene Skeef

In this photo I am about to enter the Atheneum, the fancy private club on Pall Mall, London. The photo was taken by my close friend David Wilson, founder of the charity War Child and first Director of the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina. We were about to enter the Atheneum to attend a meeting about our vision for creative education in South Africa, when I was reminded that I had to wear a tie; so I wore a tie in the best way I knew how to honour the rules of entry to the exclusive club, but still maintain my resistance to putting a colonial noose around my liberated African neck.

[MrGongGong]

I assume that you have never worked otherwise and thus can have no idea what office employees have to tolerate.

You wrongly assume

[Flosshilde]

As pointed out earlier, you are self-employed and can do as you wish. I assume that you have never worked otherwise and thus can have no idea what office employees have to tolerate. Start up a lone mutiny by all means but in so doing you will make life so unbearable for yourself that it's just not worth the candle. Everybody conforms in the end and that's the sad truth.

That's the point Mr GG was making - everybody conforms to (mostly) unwritten rules & expectations. But as long as one is tidy & presentable surely it shouldn't matter what you wear? If you're sitting in front of a computer most of the day why wear a suit? why not jeans & a tee-shirt? If you're a bank clerk dealing with the public why not an open-necked shirt, or even a tee-shirt?

[Flosshilde]

Sexier - perhaps no, but nagging wives have had habits.

"You can't go out looking like that!"
"Why not?"
"It's untidy."
"So what?"
"At least comb your hair."

This might work ....
"You'll look like Boris Johnson ..."

"OK - I'll do the hair, at least ...."

"Then put on a clean tie...."
etc.

Re shirts ....
"Your shirt hasn't been ironed. you can't go out like that!"
"Why not - it's drip dry, it'll smooth out?"

"People will think I didn't iron them for you."

or for more PC households "People will think you're too lazy to iron your own shirts."

etc.

Heavens! Do wives really treat their husbands like recalcitrant teenagers? At least Mrs Beeton only recommended that a wife should glance at her husband's hat & hand him his umbrella as he left the house.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Start up a lone mutiny by all means but in so doing you will make life so unbearable for yourself that it's just not worth the candle. Everybody conforms in the end and that's the sad truth.

No it isn't, Pet - as Ms Thorp so superbly demonstrated.

[vinteuil]

As pointed out earlier, you are self-employed and can do as you wish. I assume that you have never worked otherwise and thus can have no idea what office employees have to tolerate. Start up a lone mutiny by all means but in so doing you will make life so unbearable for yourself that it's just not worth the candle. Everybody conforms in the end and that's the sad truth.

No it isn't, Pet - as Ms Thorp so superbly demonstrated.

... brave words, fferny - but not always realistic. When I was in HMG's Foreign Service if I had not turned up in suit and tie, it would not have been thought very clever.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... brave words, fferny - but not always realistic. When I was in HMG's Foreign Service if I had not turned up in suit and tie, it would not have been thought very clever.

Yes - and, had I thought about it, Ms Thorp had the "advantage" of fighting against an obviously demeaning (and demonstrably harmful) demand that no employer could have hoped to win when "challenged". I suppose that, if one resents the accepted dress code of such occupations as the Foreign Service one does not look to a career there in the first place.