Trend 1: Collar Mandates
Don't call it a comeback.
But it's totally a comeback. Collared shirts are on the upward trend as many employers force their employee's hands back into the office, and even virtual Zoom mandates.
The first wave of employees that are feeling this pressure are typically in customer-facing roles, and we're seeing upper management squeeze the casual t-shirts out of the game.
We heard from an account executive at Miro that their sales leaders are now mandating collars on Zoom calls.
And we heard the same over at ClickUp. QBR's are requiring button-downs.
And so the mandates to get rid of pajamas have begun.
The big driving reason behind the trend can be pinpointed to two reasons:
1. The work market is spooky right now. The perception of job security is at an all-time-low, which is making people less resistant to giving up their old comfortable ways to look more professional. There's a bit of truth here, since collared shirts have always come off as putting in more effort.
2. The era of Covid-19 is coming to a slow end. Travel is increasing, offices are opening, and people have a desire to return to normal. I personally love the flexibility of working from home, but see many colleagues being forced back into their offices. Best case scenarios seem to be Hybrid approaches (work from the office 2-3 days a week).
With everyone reverting back to t-shirts and athleisure, wearing collared shirts has become a VERY easy way to differentiate yourself. On Zooms when we see folks wearing collared shirts they normally get positive comments from our peer employees. Bonus points for your personal brand.
There are always going to be the tech-casual folks, and we don't think that's every completely going away, but if dress-to-impress was a stock option, we'd start investing right now.
Trend 2: End WFH & the Covid-19 era
We hate to say it folks. But it's starting to look like this is the end of the WFH pajama era. We're starting to see the end of the tunnel as executives begin to mandate the end of WFH.
Travel is up and trending, customer facing roles now have budget to visit customers, and executives of large organizations are squeezing down on WFH policy.
As we saw with Covid, it only takes a few leading organizations to set the path for the rest to fall like dominos. While WFH is here to stay for many, we are starting to see trends of the opposite -- and ramping up quickly.
At a macro-level, people want to return to normal. We've temporarily forgotten how crappy working from the office really is, and are suffering from a global level of wanting to get the hell out of the house.
We believe that the world is going to end somewhere in the middle of WFH & the office, which is called a "hybrid approach". Hybrid means that employees in nexus cities are required to go to the office 2-3 days per week. We're cool with it, as long as they keep providing free lunches and coffee
How 2022 WFH feels like to some people, Colorized
It's fascinating that while some people love WFH, others despise it. We're looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in 2023!
Which do you prefer? We'd love to hear it.