Tyreshia Morgan wasn’t planning to have an interview that day.
A few hours before, a hiring manager from a big tech company called to ask if she could come in that afternoon to interview for a job as an office manager. Morgan didn’t wear a jacket because it was almost 100 degrees in San Antonio. Instead, she wore a white top, a cardigan that matched, and black shorts.
Morgan, 28, told MarketWatch, “I just grabbed what was close by.” “I said to myself, ‘I still look great.'”
That night, she put up a video on TikTok with the words “The recruiter REJECTED me because of this.”
Under the picture, she wrote, “I can’t believe the recruiter asked me to change into something else for the interview and then come back.” “I look clean and put-together, so no!”
A lot of people saw her video overnight, and not all of them agreed with Morgan that the outfit was appropriate for a job interview.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@mtyreshiadaily/video/7403102441257962794" data-video-id="7403102441257962794" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@mtyreshiadaily" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mtyreshiadaily?refer=embed">@mtyreshiadaily</a> I cannot believe the recruiter asked me to change my interview clothes then come back. I look very neat and professional, so no! <a title="jobhunting" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/jobhunting?refer=embed">#jobhunting</a> <a title="fypã‚·ã‚šviral" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp%E3%82%B7%E3%82%9Aviral?refer=embed">#fypã‚·ã‚šviral</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Tyreshia | Content Creator✨" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7403102351076215595?refer=embed">♬ original sound - Tyreshia | Content Creator✨</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>Somebody on TikTok wrote, “I have never seen someone interview in shorts in my life.”
Someone else wrote under a different video criticising Morgan’s choice, “I’ve never seen someone in an office setting wear anything above the knee area.”
Morgan told them that she was shocked by their answers. She said, “If I saw someone wearing that, I wouldn’t think they were out of style.”
There have been a few recent popular videos that show how young people are still learning how to act at work. Her video is one of them. This month, creator Jools Lebron became famous overnight on the internet after posting a video making fun of how she wears her hair and makeup to work and encouraging others to do the same. People on TikTok raised their eyebrows earlier this year at “office siren” outfits with short skirts and tight clothes that, in the opinion of one user, could lead to “a visit to HR” in a real workplace.
Some managers say that these conversations are a sign of a larger problem: the newest workers seem to have a worse understanding of how things work at work. This is probably because they started their first jobs in remote workplaces during the pandemic.
A 2023 Glassdoor study found that Gen Z (people between the ages of 12 and 27) would have more full-time workers than baby boomers (people between the ages of 60 and 78) this year. About 17.1 million people of Gen Z were working full-time at the end of last year, compared to 17.3 million baby boomers.
Half of companies surveyed in December 2023 said they had seen recent college graduates come to a job interview dressed “inappropriately.” The people surveyed weren’t asked to explain what they meant by “inappropriate.”
“Being aware that you need to be a different person at work would have been a basic idea before the pandemic,” said Josh Millet, founder and CEO of Criteria, a software business that helps companies hire people. “But it’s not so clear-cut anymore because those lines are getting fuzzy.”
Before the pandemic, people were wearing less formal clothes to work. In 2019, even Goldman Sachs GS -0.30% loosened its dress code for employees. But as remote work became more popular, workers could only be seen from the waist up, if their cameras were on at all. It was normal for them to work in their pyjamas.
To be “very demure” at work
Jamie Jackson, who works in human resources, recently gave a talk on how employees could get ready for the company retreat. She made sure to include a timely reminder about what to wear.
Jackson told her workers not to wear low-cut tops or shorts or skirts with high cuts. “Let’s keep it very demure, very mindful, and very cutesy,” she said. She said that the video call chat “blew up” with texts.
The mention was to one of LeBron’s own videos that has been seen more than 47 million times. “Do you see how I put on makeup for work?” “Very quiet and careful,” she says in the film. “When I go to work, I don’t look like a clown.” I don’t do a lot. Think about why they chose you. Dear diva, this is your wake-up call: who should I write it to?”
Three posts about LeBron became famous all over the world. The movie was one of them. Over the last few weeks, Google searches for “very demure” have gone through the roof. Dozens of brands jumped on the “demure” trend.
That being said, Jackson said LeBron’s advice was a good summary of how to act at work and a necessary lesson.
She said, “Gen Z didn’t always have it drilled into their heads.” She said that when older millennials started working, it was cool to wear business casual clothes everywhere, even to a bar.
According to Jackson, some of that lack of awareness may be due to the fact that young people have had to adjust to work in every age. However, some of it seems to be unique to this new group of employees.
“I would say it’s a little of both,” she said, adding that changing work arrangements like remote and mixed work has changed how this generation thinks about what to wear to the office. “The people in Gen Z may have started working when going to the office wasn’t cool.” They don’t know what dress pants, shoes or skirt lengths are.
“A brand-new dress code for business”
Some dress codes can help make the workplace more professional, but Jackson said that some rules can do more harm than good.
People of different races or religions have said that certain dress rules are unfair. The Texas Department of Agriculture was criticised in 2023 for requiring employees to dress “in a manner consistent with their biological gender.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said this policy unfairly targeted LGBTQ+ workers and was against the law. Women have also had stricter dress codes at work in the past. For example, female members of Congress were only allowed to wear trousers in the 1990s. It’s also important to note that LeBron’s video, the “office siren” trend, and the debate about Morgan’s shorts are all about how women dress and present themselves at work, not men.
Jackson said that young people will probably still be judged by how they act at work.
She said, “It’s how people see you.” “It’s terrible…” But it’s true. It’s more possible that your career will go in a different direction if you look more professional.
It may not be the best idea to wear shorts to a job interview, even in a workplace that is becoming less formal, Millet said.
He said, “A scary number of interviewers are making up their minds in the first five minutes.” He used study to back this up, showing how important the first greeting can be in a job interview.
Morgan said that she thinks these rules should be updated and that they are already being changed in some places of work. She wrote on TikTok that during the interview, she saw people wearing jeans in the office while her interviewer was wearing a dress with bra straps.
Some people who watched Morgan’s video said she wouldn’t be able to find work, but she has already taken an offer for a similar job at a different company.
Morgan says that the interview where she wore shorts went pretty well at first. She was only asked to change after the first talk with the hiring manager, and that was only because she was given the chance to meet another manager and look around the office.
“I learnt something from it,” she said. “I wouldn’t do it again, but that doesn’t change how I see it.”
But she does believe that some of the present talk about work clothes is a bit out of date. In September, she’s going to post a new set of TikTok videos called “The New Standard.” These videos will show more casual, up-to-date outfit ideas for work.
She said, “It’s just a new day and age.” “I agree that we should go ahead and make a new dress code for work.”
