It’s that time of year: some businesses are gearing up and others are laying off staff – employers are looking around for new talent and employees are looking around for a job that will satisfy them now their summer holiday is over and they are realising that it’s another whole long year before they can escape the workplace for another few weeks of sunshine. And if affects the way we dress.

When somebody shows up for work dressed differently to usual, there are two things that go through the heads of their colleagues and three things that go through the heads of their bosses. Colleagues think:

1. She’s got a date with a man she wants to impress or
2. He’s got an interview in his lunch break

Bosses think

1. She’s got an interview
2. He’s after my job and trying to look like he deserves my desk
3. She’s on her way to see her bank manager for a loan

In other words, when you upgrade your work style co-workers and bosses tend to view your behaviour with suspicion rather than respect. Overdressing is tolerated in bosses, new employees and very young people but mocked as pretentious in our contemporaries or colleagues who suddenly seem to think they are better than the rest of us. A day spent perusing the advice of Trinny and Susannah or Gok Wan might make you feel great but it will demoralise your workmates if you suddenly turn up dressed differently – in fact they will think you look like a dog’s dinner!

If you want to upgrade your work clothing, do it piece by piece over a period of weeks, and never ignore the unwritten guidelines for your workplace. Take your cue from the people around you who and don’t great an unbridgeable gap between you and other people in the organization. If the boss wears a polo-shirt and chinos, your Armani suit won’t have the effect you expect it to – in fact, it could lead to you being shown the door!

Suit and tie courtesy of Janiebell