Work From Home: Dress For Work
Working from home has always been a bit of a dream idea, especially when waking in the depths of winter to get dressed and make a freezing commute to the office for the 9-5 daily grind.
I always imagined that working from home would be the ultimate scenario. Snuggled on the sofa in my favourite pyjamas with a soft blanket slung over my shoulders, a hot cup of tea to my side, and my laptop balanced on my knee firing off emails and getting everything ticked off from my work to-do list.
How perfect would it be to wander into the kitchen and cook myself some food, do a bit of laundry and put the bins out while taking an important work call?
This dream turned into a reality for many office workers when the Covid-19 pandemic hit; offices all over the country closed, and the message “if you can – work from home” was shared to everyone. Many of us swapped our office desk for the kitchen table, conference rooms and boardrooms for virtual meeting spaces overnight, and the new normal of home working was greeted with mixed emotions.
Routines we once had have dissipated into thin air. New routines have been put into place as we adapt to our new home/work life. For many of us, getting up and dressed for work has not seemed worth the hassle and pyjamas and loungewear have become the “work” outfit of choice. After all, as we are socially distancing, staying home and not seeing our colleagues face to face, does it really matter what we wear?
Getting ready for work in the morning mentally prepares us for the day ahead, switches our brain into work mode and helps us to feel productive, confident, professional and efficient. Getting home from work and changing into casual home clothing allows us to relax and unwind, slow down - very different feelings to those experienced when we are in work attire.
Changing from work to home clothes at the end of each day also helps us to separate our work and home lives, roles, and responsibilities. Not only is our work and home environment one of the same, they even start encroaching each other, and home life begins to blur with home responsibilities on our work time and vice versa.
Staying in our comfy clothes all day may seem like a good idea - we are at home after all - but this action is having a detrimental effect on our mental health and wellbeing. Getting dressed for work, despite your new office being 20 feet away, and preparing for the day ahead, can help with feelings of positivity and give you a purpose which is hard to find if you are wearing your favourite old jogging bottoms and a slouchy top. Getting dressed gives you mental breathing space to run through what you want to achieve in the day ahead, which rolling out of bed and straight into your job does not give you.
Taking the time to get dressed for work in suitable attire in the morning, and changing into home clothes in the evening, gives us a routine and sense of normality that we need in these uncertain times.
Changing outfits can help the transition between work and home life by adding definition to the structure of our day. The clothes you wear while working from home need not be the same as the ones that you wore while attending the office, but making a good choice in outfits can make us feel better about ourselves and the situation we are faced with at present.
From my own experience, I was away from work for around 6 weeks, initially because I was showing symptoms of Coronavirus, which then became a chest infection, which took two lots of antibiotics to clear. I was feeling sorry for myself and spent much time in my pyjamas or loungewear, lying on the sofa. All of my motivation to do anything, even cleaning the house, disappeared.
I discovered a group on Facebook called Frock Up Friday, a lovely group of people, where the ethos is to encourage us all, especially during lockdown, to make an effort and dress up at least for one day a week. Your outfit of choice can be as flamboyant or reserved as you want, and you would take a photo of yourself and post it to the group. I didn’t always take a picture and upload it but just made the effort to dress up on the last working day of the week.
I will say that at first I took part just for something to do, and I didn’t really think about the effects on my mental health and wellbeing, but, once I was dressed, I found that I was feeling happier, less sick, and I got so many tasks done that day. Frock Up Friday became something that I started looking forward to each week and made so much difference to my attitude and motivation.
So, what should you wear? Well, firstly, something that is comfortable and that you can move around easily in; your clothing should not be restrictive and chances are that you will need to move around and stretch more as your home set up will be quite different to the one you are used to in the office.
Choose something comfortable but stylish, a tunic top with plain black leggings, or jeans and a smart top, think along the lines of an outfit that makes you feel good and has happy memories attached to it (like a favourite jeans and t-shirt combo that you wore to meet friends at the pub pre-lockdown).
With meetings now taking place virtually, you still should look presentable and professional, but also keep in mind that office clothes regulations do not apply as strictly as at home. If you want to wear a denim skirt or jeans and trainers, then you can.
Working from home may be affecting all of us, but we can turn it into a positive experience by using the time to play around with our style and appearance whilst still getting work done.
Written by Suzi Tench
Suzi has a degree in Photographic Art, works as a Payments Officer, is a part-time blogger, loves colour and her dog Roxy.