Going toe-to-toe on office etiquette
By Olivia Barker and Sarah Bailey, USA TODAY
Mon Aug 15, 7:13 AM ET



Even though he was never given a dress code, rising Syracuse University junior Michael Swartz knew enough not to turn up on the first day of his summer internship on the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette design desk wearing sandals and iPod earbuds. Yet by the second week the sandals were on and the earbuds were in - and no one seemed to mind.


Just the other day, he sported a T-shirt emblazoned with a Budweiser logo. (OK, so it peeked out from under a button-down shirt.) A co-worker noticed. "He goes, 'Dude, you wore a beer shirt to work?' "


It must not have been an egregious misstep "because no one has sent me home yet," says Swartz, 20, who is unapologetic about bringing his campus-casual habits to the office.


Then there's Justin Young, 22, who IMs at his architectural consulting job in Manhattan as often as he did in college (read: all the time) and does so with impunity. Nonetheless, he compromises when it comes to his iPod; he listens to it only when he's doing mindless work (faxing, scanning) and only with one earbud. "To me, that sort of says, 'Hey, I'm ready if you want to say something to me. I'm ready to work, but I just really want to hear Ludacris right now.' "


This is what Generation Y - and its ultra-casual culture - hath wrought at work, a place where style and technology trends are more woven in than ever. It's neither a Gen-Y dream nor a human resources nightmare but something in the middle, where adjustments and concessions are made by young people and their employers alike. And this summer in particular proved one in which underlings and bosses learned a lesson or two about good behavior and fair practices.


Office culture varies, of course, according to the kind of office; a law firm is always going to be more polished than a newsroom. But the atmosphere of the workplace is changing dramatically - becoming more informal, more gadgetized, more employee-centric - in large part because of the expectations of today's crop of college interns and recent graduates. And considering the thirtysomething staffers who now duck out to the hall to take cell phone calls or wear heeled flip-flops on Fridays, the rules are shifting for everyone as a result.


Those who have been logged on since grade school "are a different breed," says Teresa Alewel, career services director at Central Missouri State University. She speaks from 20 years of experience.


It's no 8-to-5 world


Talk to career counselors and corporate recruiters and they'll say today's kids multi-task - IM-ing, e-mailing and reading, all while chatting on their cell phone or listening to their MP3 player. (And they assume they'll have at least some access to their toys at work.)


Technology has allowed them to blend their schoolwork into their personal lives seamlessly and wirelessly, so they balk at the image of a rigid 8-to-5 office where everyone's tethered to a desk. Still, they seek a balance between work time and free time, so they inquire about vacation plans and lunch hours.


They want instant gratification in their first jobs, with meaningful responsibilities right away. They're passionate about finding jobs that fit their values, but they're clueless about negotiating workplace basics. They wear jeans to the theater and camisoles to church - and if their shoulder tattoo is exposed, so what? They think they dress better than the boss, even as supervisors roll their eyes at the nightclub-friendly attire that constitutes "dressed up." The pumps-and-pinstripes professionalism their parents practice is foreign to them.


To wit: They wouldn't think twice about wearing flip-flops to the White House, which members of Northwestern University's women's lacrosse team did in July, to much clucking from mostly baby-boomer disbelievers.


Call them Generation Why. "This group wants an explanation: 'You tell me why I have to dress up,' " Alewel says.


Don't call them lazy


Though they shun corporate conformity, they're not a bunch of slackers, says Deb Chereck, director of the University of Oregon career center. "They want to view work in its place - that it's part of a lifestyle, but it's not what rules the lifestyle."


So they request - and increasingly receive - flexible hours, like 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., to avoid rush hour and keep their afternoons and evenings free for gym workouts and graduate school classes. "They value their time, more than older people who'll stay an extra hour" to ratchet up their face time, says Scott Price, executive director of the Virginia High-Tech Partnership, a networking liaison between the state's historically black schools and major corporations such as AOL and Comcast.


In many ways, "students feel that the real business world has not caught up," says Lisa Townes, director of career services at Virginia State University. "They expect everything to be as forward-thinking, as open, as loose" as they are.


Still, even as dress codes have generally relaxed, whether your hair is brown or pink still makes a difference in hiring.

A 2005 survey of employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 49% said non-traditional attire would have a "strong influence" on their opinion of a candidate; in a 2002 study, 38% of respondents had such an opinion.

The 2005 report also listed interview gaffes culled from the real world, some of them head-scratching and some downright disturbing, from the student who prattled away on her cell phone for 38 of the interview's 45 minutes to the one who discussed drunken exploits.

Rising Princeton sophomore John Spivey learned something this summer: that showing up to an internship interview in shorts and sneakers probably isn't the best way to impress your slacks-and-loafers-wearing bosses. He got the gig, a desk job at a tractor company in his Little Rock hometown, but he didn't start work until his mom took him shopping for long pants. (He left his in storage at school.)

"It's not like they looked down their noses at me or anything, but I figured I'd be better off dressing more like them," says Spivey, 19. He spent the previous two summers mowing lawns, so before June, "I didn't even think about" what constitutes an appropriate office ensemble.

A flip-flop on flip-flops

Then again, the HR department at Fairchild Publications also learned something this summer: that issuing an edict against miniskirts, flip-flops and strappy tank tops - aimed at the interns - probably isn't the best way to attract emerging fashionistas to a company that publishes fashion magazines. (Fairchild president and CEO Mary Berner and Women's Wear Daily executive editor Bridget Foley wore flip-flops the next day in a sign of intern solidarity.)

The now-infamous memo, which decried cleavage-baring tops and decreed "creased and tailored" pants, proved a public-relations wrinkle. It "will not be enforced, I will tell you that," says Fairchild chairman and editorial director Patrick McCarthy. The order "came from a good place," he says, but it's unfair to set a double standard - to ban minions from sporting many of the things the top brass wears regularly. The solution: Supervisors will confront only the most overt offenders, and they'll do it individually and in person.

The fashion world is the only industry where flip-flops might possibly pass muster with propriety police like Leah Ingram, author of the forthcoming Everything Etiquette Book: A Modern Day Guide to Good Manners. Even if you can wear the poolside staple to work, Ingram says, that doesn't mean you should. "The flip-flop won't ever be acceptable in the office," she sniffs.

Tank tops 'not recommended'

Still, even a place like JPMorgan has loosened its collective tie. Georgetown University senior Mallie Smith, in her second summer internship at the financial services firm's New York office, is struck by the contrast between this year's dress code and last year's. Last summer the guidelines advised women to be mindful of "everything from runs in their stockings to too-tight tops." Bare legs, perfume and tank tops were "not recommended." This year's policy is "much more simple," says Smith, 21, suggesting that employees "sit in front of a mirror and make sure you don't look distracting."

JPMorgan interns can listen to their iPods at the office. IM, too, is increasingly becoming an accepted part of the workplace. According to a report in September by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 21% of IM users send instant messages at the office; a third of those at-work IMers acknowledge that they're usually blitzing friends and family. And even as some businesses brand IM a distraction to productivity and ban it outright, 47% of at-work IM users say it has "regularly provided moments of relief from the daily work grind."

Considering that a Pew Internet study in July found that three-quarters of online teens use IM, the second-most-common tool among this group for communicating with friends after the good old landline, a future of taking IM breaks at work instead of coffee breaks isn't far-fetched, says Mary Madden, co-author of the more recent report. It's akin to the idea that employees increasingly use their downtime to shop or check the news. "We're the IM generation," Young says. "They're going to put our screen names on our tombstones."

Nonetheless, he compromises when it comes to his iPod; he listens to it only when he's doing mindless work (faxing, scanning) and only with one earbud. "To me, that sort of says, 'Hey, I'm ready if you want to say something to me. I'm ready to work, but I just really want to hear Ludacris right now.' "

Change can be good, change can be bad. I'm sure it will all pan out. People like to make money. In the end, I'm sure THAT will happen.

The fashion world is the only industry where flip-flops might possibly pass muster with propriety police like Leah Ingram, author of the forthcoming Everything Etiquette Book: A Modern Day Guide to Good Manners. Even if you can wear the poolside staple to work, Ingram says, that doesn't mean you should. "The flip-flop won't ever be acceptable in the office," she sniffs.

I like this thread. Of course, you set the bar so low on the other one, that this has exceeded all expectations.