Companies spent years dragging employees back to the office, but forgot to tell them what to wear. The result is confusion stretching from junior employees to the executive suite.

One of Grant Alexander’s longtime clients is the COO of a big private company. He recently lamented that a few of his vice presidents had asked him what they should wear to an event.

“He looked at me, and he’s like, ‘When was the last time a VP had to ask the COO what they should be wearing for something?’” Alexander, the founder of Grant Alexander Studio, an executive image and styling consultancy, tells Fast Company. “A lot of the executives I work with have never talked to their employees about this.” 

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, people still wore their office attire for the first few weeks. But as the lockdowns went on, smart trousers were replaced with sweatpants, and shirts were put away to make room for T-shirts and hoodies.

“Now there’s a gap between what people believe they should be wearing at the office, and what their wardrobe actually has become,” says Alexander. “So they’re just like, ‘I don’t know what I should be wearing right now’.”

The uncertainty is far reaching. S. by International Workplace Group (IWG) found that workers reported feeling stressed or anxious about what to wear to the office around seven times a month. Almost half (46%) said this happened at least weekly, while 14% experienced it daily.

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