Before recently arriving for duty at the Pentagon, the first question I asked my colleague was, ‘‘What’s the uniform?” or in other words ‘‘What’s the dress code?” I was told what it was and satisfied I understood, went about ensuring all of my duty uniforms were up-to-date and in clean and serviceable condition. As military members this is spelled out for us pretty clearly.

The Marine Corps pays particular attention to the ‘‘dress code,” prescribing what uniforms are appropriate for various times of the year and even day of the week. I believe they take great personal and organizational pride in their collective appearance and standards.

What is unclear to me is what the ‘‘dress code” for civilians is. It seems that there is an ‘‘anything goes” as long as it covers your body rule around campus. Most civilians I see dress professionally or tastefully. Other civilians, however, seem to have some pretty strange ideas for what is appropriate in the office place. I routinely pass people in the hallways in jeans and ‘‘hoodies” and in clothing that my 16-year-old daughter would wear to the mall. I do not exaggerate when I say I see khaki cargo pants with the bottoms frayed out, T-shirts with all types of emblems, shirt tails hanging out and every conceivable form of tennis shoe.

I am not mistaking them for maintenance workers, etc., who of course must have a different standard due to the type of work they engage in. I am definitely talking about office workers. As supervisors and leaders, shouldn’t we encourage personnel to dress professionally? This will engender pride and puts us in the frame of mind to work. I am not picking on civilians. As a reservist and former investment banker, everyone in our organization from banker, to administrative assistant to teller to mail personnel — all had a professional appearance due to a proscribed dress code. Having been in private industry I can honestly tell you that in the many large and small civilian companies I worked in or around, comparatively, the Pentagon’s dress standards are really pretty disappointing. Just a new guy’s observation.

Wow.

-- Air Force Lt. Col.
W. Gregory Kleponis,
division chief, Policy, Requirements &
Applications, Global Combat Support,
Headquarters Air Force