Wearing shorts to work in Hungary might not merit a second glance but in India you are likely to be deemed a slacker who won’t make senior management, according to a global Reuters/Ipsos poll.
A survey of 12,500 people in 24 countries found Europeans are the most casual when it comes to work clothes, with only 27 per cent wearing a business suit or smart clothes to work. Hungary came bottom of the table, with only 12 per cent of workers saying they wore a suit or smart dress to work.
Indians were found to be the smartest when it came to work attire, with 58 per cent donning a suit or other smart clothing for work. Only 21 per cent said it was fine to wear shorts. Overall only 21 per cent said it was appropriate to wear thong sandals to work and just 24 per cent approved of wearing shorts to work.
“It’s clear that around the world dressing to your place in the hierarchy is more often the case than dressing to the elements,” said John Wright, a senior vice-president at Ipsos, a market research company.
The poll found 66 per cent saying senior managers should always be better dressed than employees. Indians particularly felt casual dressers wouldn’t rise up the ranks: 64 per cent saying they wouldn’t make senior management and 58 per cent describing casual dressers as slackers.
—Reuters