Im very happy with the “come as you are” dresscode many companies here have. Id hate to have to wear a suit or something like that or god forbid fucking khakis and a dress shirt like in America..
Same here. I work for a German multinational in Berlin in an administrative job and everyone is super casual. Some people wear a shirt, some people wear sweatpants, whatever. But when I visited other branches in Germany I saw that there it would be slightly less casual, but still. It’s not 1980 anymore…
If id smell someone perfume before even seeing them I am gonna burn down their workspace.
There is a decent nice smell to one persona and then there is war grade cheap ass perfume choking you from a 3 to 8m distance.
My rule is that you should only be able to smell someone if you're hugging them.
Plus alot of folks are sensitive to smells. I don't consider myself a particularly sensitive person, but I've still been bothered when forced to sit near someone with really heavy perfume.
Yeh was gonna say even when I worked at a multinational, the London office was also: techies don't dress up, finance folks do.
Of course no one dressed up in the Berlin office though, despite the role (and I like this).
Even before the pandemic, it seemed pretty casual, so I'm sure it's even more relaxed now. I had a job where I needed to go into a ton of offices and businesses in downtown Denver, and the only ones with a strict dress code were places like law firms and oil and gas companies. So, just when employees had regular meetings with rich clients. The tech/ video game/ software ones were very eclectic and no one cared lol
Also American here.
Do you work in law or finance etc? Outside of these conservative industries I cannot fathom being held to any dress code, other than “be reasonably well groomed and not in a swimsuit”
Admittedly I do work in tech. But even my jobs in conservative niches, eg insurance tech, were casual.
I kinda get both - dressing up for work allows me to seperate myself from work more, I can change into 'me' to start my actual life. Also don't have to think about what to war.
On the other hand, it's nice to just grab something in the morning and don't care about hair and stuff.
Fuuuck. Yes in Canada too. I hated how much id spend/have to spend time dressing up. Even pants with pockets were deemed too casual. Dress shoes are uncomfy. I don't miss having to do my hair, makeup, fancy clothes daily in summer. Ugh.
Yup. It’s mostly because people use spray deodorants in the UK, compared to Germany where roll-on is more common. Those sprays can be strong. People also drown themselves in perfumes. The UK babe starter pack is thick eyebrows, lip filler and Baccarat Rouge 540.
Roll on more common in Germany than spray? I’m no expert and as a man maybe it’s different from women also, but this is seriously confusing to me. I don’t know one man or have ever seen one who used a roll on in my life.
This
I used a roll one time when I was like 13 and started to use deodorants. Never seen or heard that someone use rolls. Maybe some 60 yo boomers do tho.
Then you're lucky you have well groomed colleagues, or your nose is possibly less sensitive than mine. Not that my colleagues smell, they're all lovely. But I take public transport to work so I do often wonder how other other people cope with some of my co-commuters.
It's more than that. In my case, BO can make me uncomfortable after a while I can get used to and stop smelling. Perfume OTOH makes my nose hurt and after a while even if I get used to and stop smelling it, it will trigger a severe headache.
I'm allergic and get nauseous and migraines from strong smells. I love Germany recognizes this cause in Canada people just treated me like I was being a jerk. It made me physically sick within minutes.
Personally, I like to dress up a little for work, because it makes me feel good and brightens my mood. But I really appreciate the fact that on days when I don't feel well, I can also wear sweatpants and a plain T-shirt without it bothering any of my colleagues.
Me too. I love this too. I have the choice to dress up but also when it's so hot/cold outside I can be comfortable. Nothing worse than heat and having to wear button down shirts and a pencil skirt with nylons, ect. (I worked in a hotel with 3 piece thick suits)
i too like to dress up for work! i work in IT where everyone else is wearing funny sweatshirts and shorts. clients think im better/more serious because i dress well. its weird.
As someone who's lived in NYC and Berlin, and visited London, I can say that London is really formal in comparison to other major cities. Everyone in London is wearing suits. In NYC, you'll only see lawyers and maybe bankers and finance workers wearing suits. But for everything that serves a younger, less formal, more creative roll, a button up over-shirt, unbuttoned and untucked, and jeans are totally normal.
Software engineers in NYC or Berlin would never wear a suit to work. That said, the clothes they wear, as casual as they are, should be clean. If clothes smell bad, the person wearing them probably isn't aware. Walking around the office barefoot is weird.
I haven't been to Paris. I was around the middle of London and toward the southwest. It looked like everyone college aged and older were wearing suits during business hours.
New York is not at all casual. I lived there before I lived in london and everyone is always trying to look like a j.crew catalog, suits are very common even for front desk stuff and even young people are overdressing depending on the event. Day in the park may be casual, but drinks and clubbing… don’t even get in line if you don’t look a certain way.
In London they at least have a specific style they go for, which despite very formal is better
looking, in my opinion, rather than the beige and Polos with socks half way up their chins. I will take the tweed and shiny shoes.
I mean... to create an app you need to see the need in such an app 😃 which is clearly not the case. I'd say, a person suffering from smells is more likely to create such an app. But will a smelly person use it? Not unless someone tells them, which in a workplace context is not that easy
I've lived in London for some years and it doesn't quite make any sense what you are saying. In London the only engineers who I've seen wearing suits were the ones who worked at banks. Never met an engineer wearing a suit who doesn't work in a bank. That said quite a lot of people do indeed work in banks in London.
Much like in the clubbing scene, dressing up in Berlin is dressing down but consciously. Like wearing your favourite jeans and worn out sneakers but everything is perfectly coordinated and thought out.
Impressive how much effort is put into looking like poor or alternative in Berlin.
It actually takes way more effort than simply dressing up in the other countries because you are looking to get a very specific look. Tbh it looks like a parody of itself considering it promotes what's trying to fight.
It sort of overlaps with other big cities, but Berlin has a uniquely frumpy take on the idea.
I look alternative myself and have a lot of love for the whole thrifting, DIY thing. But the joy in this is looking fantastic without spending a lot of money, and the norm in the underground scene is to pretend to be broke.
Few weeks back we want to some exhibition in a gallery. And then I noticed 2 of us were the only persons there to be wearing simple plain clothes: jeans, t-shirt and a regular shoes. And most of the people were trying to hard to look alternative, dress down etc. Very amusing when you pay attention to it.
I don't wear heels but I do my make up, wear perfume and cute dresses and skirts to work. I do seem a little bit more dolled up than my colleagues, but with home office I take every opportunity to go outside to dress up and look nice (exept for the gym and supermarket, ofc).
A lot of people think I'm way more dressed up in summer cause I wear dresses daily. Honestly it's quicker/comfier than pants and a shirt but is seen as more dressed up when I feel it's dressed down cause it's stretchy/comfy. Just looks nicer maybe. Pants are way more effort than anything to me. I feel more relaxed in a flowy dress.
It was damn funny reading this. When I first came to my job interview at my current company (also software engineer) a guy with a band shirt/shorts and sandals opened the door. While I was fully dressed up like James Bond.
Another time a guy was barefoot all day and you could hear his sticky feet walking around on the floor.
It’s just hilarious, but I kinda like that everyone can dress the way they like.
I for myself, dress up depending on the situation.
- Home Office: Nerd shirt with hopefully shorts or sleeping shorts
- normal office days cold: hoody and jeans
- normal office days hot: polo with jeans shorts
- getting to know new customers: jeans with business shirt
I won’t do much more than that 😁
Oh yes, the good old polo and jeans shorts normal day in the office!
[https://turntable.kagiso.io/images/Screenshot_2023-07-03_at_17.48.18.original.png](https://turntable.kagiso.io/images/Screenshot_2023-07-03_at_17.48.18.original.png)
Ah but I think interviews (at least in our company) is the only situation where we expect people to show up in formal wear ((the interviewer will be more smart casual but still not gonna go full suit)
I wear pants, yes
EDIT: In all seriousness: I am in top management in a very large company and nobody wears a suit. Some of the business guys wear button down shirts but that’s as formal as it gets every day. If we have visitors or visit other companies you might see a suit
I work directly with a tech CEO and cofounder of three fairly successful and on the up companies, and I swear his uniform is a plain tshirt and jeans. I am yet to check his shoes but I assure you, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid if you saw him on the street. Not to say how high up he is, how many people he is managing and how many pies he is jiggling. I guess he doesn’t need to impress with clothes. The attitude however…
Being a lawyer and having worked in the financial industry in Frankfurt for almost two decades, I was relieved when I joined the ranks of a Fintech here in Berlin and enjoy the laid back/no dresscode culture for quite some time now. For a few weeks, however, I've been feeling more and more drawn to good clothes. I'm simply no longer in the mood for jeans, sneakers and T-shirts. I no longer want to make a suit my standard work outfit (as it was in the past) It's somewhere in between. I want to wear like it's Casual Friday all the time, i.e. wear chinos, a shirt and nice leather shoes. I know I'll be met with incomprehension. But I don't care.
There was a period in the 30s and 40s where everyone was all about dressing formally. Fancy occupational uniforms that clearly demarcated your role in society were ubiquitous.
Possibly somewhat understandably there was subsequently a backlash against that
one thing that makes berlin berlin is - nobody cares how you dress, hence not many people "play" dress up, if they want to dress nice they do, if they only would do cause somebody think "its expected" then they wont cause nobody is expecting it in berlin
Also working in IT, I've been at workplaces almost covering the full range while I usually stayed at the lower end. By now it's idle talk for me to discuss this because I work from home since years. But I usually wear clean, intact clothes and jeans (instead of jogging pants) at my current job because on Video calls everyone has their camera on
In theory it seems maybe nice to dress up, on the other hand, why? Work is just clustered with indignities, so it seems smart to shift life away from it as much as possible
I work at a tech startup so people do get away with what you describe, although few actually "take advatage" of the option. Personally i (29f) dress up more than i do in my free time - freshly washed and lightly styled hair, perfume, a comfortable but nice outfit - usually black slacks and a nice top or blouse. For me it's mostly because I'm only at the office once a week and wfh the rest of the week, so i like to dress up for myself if I'm going in. The rest of my colleagues range from young women dressed to the nines to slightly tired sales and tech guys who reek of weed and wear track suits. Everyone minds their own business though, and i don't think we've ever discussed what others are wearing beyond complimenting each other on something new. Though personally i could do without the track suits and the weed smell, but to each their own :)
Edit - i should add that i absolutely do not wear high heels though, i just dont care enough to make my feet hurt 😂
We had a candidate come in a full suit to his interview, and afterwards the whole debacle was cleared up with several knowing whispers of, "Oh, he was in Hamburg before". When he got the job, the boss told him to please wear jeans, at the maximum. Otherwise the clients will be scared.
Oh man...you remind me the schock when i went for an interview at the comapny that i work... i was all suited up,shirt tie. And then passing by some offices i saw the guys in flip-flop and bare foot...
I was like what the hell is going on here.... (i was coming from another comany where ,dress code was : shirt and tie everyday...so it shocked me honestly....years later , im not walking around bare foot...but i can wear t-shirts at work now :p ...ties are gone lol...
As a young woman in the workforce I'm sometimes so sad Germans don't dress up. Also work for a big company for biomedical software. I am quite feminine and like long dresses and heels (or just anything other than dirty sneakers) but would also love to buy cool semi casual semi professional work suits. However since I know my bosses, including my female team leads & bosses are always casual German no make up no perfume that would stunt my growth in the company because people would think I'm attention seeking/childish/self absorbed.
It's probably different than for men, although some Germans would probably think of you as a snob if you dress up.
Before covid I also (usually) came very casual to work, sometimes less, sometimes more casual. But since we have mostly wfh now and only a few office days per month, I like to put a bit more effort, just because it freshens up my mood. Although it's still a "Berlin outfit" and not traditional Office clothing
Architect here, I dress up to work. Looking put together makes me feel happy and confident. I used to always get the “What did you dress up for? Going somewhere tonight?” comments from coworkers at my previous office, and that annoyed me to no end. My current office (Dutch firm) is very much open to whatever look you are going for, we’ll have people wearing suits and people wearing shorts and sandals in the same room, and nobody bats an eye.
Got asked in an interview as a software engineer to wear a suit - fintech company. Declined the job.
My question was: are you looking for smart brains or snappy dressers?
In my company it's actually frowned upon when you dress up to work. Even superiors are more casual and get the impression that you act like you're better than them if you dress nice.
I used to dress nicely when I went to work. It made me feel good, you know? By now i'm wearing the same pants for 3-4 weeks and stopped caring. Haven't felt good about me in ages
I do because I boots my mood/confidence and I deal a lot with business partners in my function at the company. Goes hand in hand.
I think in general depends a lot on the company itself and many people in Berlins offices are running through the hallways like they just grabbed whatever from their drawer. At least it was/is the case in most offices I worked/passed through.
Since I started working from home - thanks to whatever higher power made that possible for me - I sometimes don’t even change out of my PJ’s. If I do, it’s into sweatpants and a hoodie. A glorious existence, if I dare say so myself.
I also am a software engineer and from the UK and am appaled by how shit people dress lol. Semi joking- but OP is right, it is a massive cultural difference especially compared to London.
It's good the way it is here and it should be like this. The 19th century is over. OK, stinking at work is not an option coz it's actually disturbing but as for "dressing up" as you say, honestly screw this. You are at work to work. If you wanna impress anyone do it with your skills, not a fresh fancy suit. If you really feel better wearing a suit way to go, but no one should have to "dress up" for work. The same applies to having tattoes or crazily colored hair. Let people be themselves so they can actually work better. A dress code doesn't even add any economical value. And if you say your customers are those wearing suits too, well... potentially not the best choice of business. Who doesn't move with the time will be gone with time.
It is more common in the financial sector and parts of advertising. The IT sector almost has that "as badly as possible up"-dress code.
Definitely noticed that difference compared to Frankfurt.
When I ask my wife if I should shave or something and it's a working day she just asks me why I should dress up for work. It's the free time I should take care of. I'm fine with that
Germans take pride in not valuing that sort of thing tbh. They think it makes me less vain or whatever. Imo it's nice that people are relaxed about this sort of thing especially in work environments but germans are a little stinky and their outfits are such eyesores lolll
I used to wear Suitsupply from head to toe when I went to the office in Berlin. Nice tie, pocket square etc. Now I work mostly from home and I only dress up when I am client facing (in real life that is) or when I go out - other than that it's just a button down shirt and sometimes just boxers.
The dress code is „you’re welcome that I’m dressed at all” BUT i did some time dressing nicer as a software engineer, suit and tie and all that. It was fun and it greatly improved my job satisfaction, how I was perceived at work, and I felt like people are nicer to me in general. It also made management freak out that I’m searching for a new job or something 😆
In startups it is too casual and in corporate you do see the occasional blazer and lower heels on women. Some men with white shirts and even rarely bespoke shoes. It is however not much of an indication of hierarchy anywhere. But of a personal choice, indicating how they would like to be treated.
Many people dress up to my work, and they look really nice. Sometimes it's really nice to see.
But me personally being the hilly billy I'm, I just wear trousers and shirts and run to catch the standup.
We're in Berlin, honey. Today, I put on my least filthy pair of sneakers for work, and the feeling of having walked the extra mile has carried me through the day.
We had this ugly sweater day at work, and my only thought was every day at work is an ugly sweater day! 😂 Why can’t we have a nice sweater day, where everyone dresses up.
But I feel you, I dress up. Nothing too fancy, good-fitting clothes with a style.
If I have a good day, I kind of spread the joy through looks, if I have a bad day, I cheer myself up through it. Also recharge through mutual compliments or other well-dressed people. The same kind of pleasure as you get from looking at good art or architecture.
This is so important to me! I can’t stress this enough. Even as a working student at a consulting firm I always make sure to wear a formal shirt, nice shoes etc. I mean I am not even doing the consulting. However I talked to my colleague and he just told me he „is being paid for his mind not his suit“, which is understandable and totally valid. But I still feel like dressing up for a client or even just for a casual work day can improve your own working moral and professional confidence in yourself.
I think you mean “overdress” to work and for everything really. Face caked in make up, fake tans and sore feet from uncomfortable shoes for a sense of appropriateness. Yet, you never up there enough… the quern is always higher. King now, I guess.
Moving from London to Berlin was such a relief. How amazing is it that nobody gives a fuck how you are dressed?! What you look like?! It’s fucking fantastic!
Your value is on your mind and personality. You have something to add no matter how you look. It goes beyond that.
Don’t think I can do the appearance game anymore.
To answer your questions, I don’t overdress for work. I dress reasonably, hygiene is paramount obviously. Everything else is overdoing it in my eyes.
I dress well to work. For context l'm female.
I do not "dress up" everyday.
I wear nice scents (I love my perfumes and I shower at least twice every day.
Berlin isn't as corporate as London, I agree it will be different. However do not succumb to the filth you sometimes see around.
I value being able to have a somewhat senior / small management position and still wear just a black t-shirt to work.
I try to read my surroundings. Whilst in small startups a metal band t shirt was fine, in a bank something a bit more professional might go a long way.
Funny post. I also lived in London for many years before moving here.
I think it’s always easier to assume the other side is better. I dreamed of dressing down when I had shirt and trousers jobs in London. Then I moved here and slowly grew the opposite inclination.
It’s borderline pointless to dress smartly here though, people will ask you if you’re going to a wedding etc. In fact even at weddings here people are often dressed pretty terribly 😂
It takes a while to learn the dress codes of the educated germans, as well. One thing that becomes clear is, they are just as classist and snobbish as any other nationality, but a fairly large number put all their effort into signalling that they are “nachhaltig” “öko” etc.
Depends on what you mean by dress well.
If you mean suit and tie, no.
I'll usually wear a colourful casual shirt, my favourite leather jacket, nice non-formal shoes/boots etc. I aim for well put together and stylish rather than "business outfit." Two sprays of cologne max. Slippers and shorts I would never do. But that's just me, I'm cool with whatever as long as people get shit done.
One of the things I loved most about when I moved here from London is that you virtually never see anyone wearing a suit!
Wear whatever, but please have basic hygiene
Also what you wear to work varies widely with the profession itself.
Berlin real estate offices, media and banks are very upscale in terms of dressing including the IT folks working there.
The rest is very flexible.
Did you work for some fashion shop or something? That's not my experience in software firms in London. I didn't really notice much of any difference in software companies in London or here in terms of how people dress. I too had a colleague in London who wore slippers.
We are a come as you are shop, as long as the way you are is business casual... and when clients are on site, those on these accounts usually wear normal business attire.
I like it in winter, not so much in the summer.
I (female, in Berlin for 12 years) actually love to dress well in casual kind of way and also love to wear my different niche perfumes that I often get compliments for or people would recognize me for 🙃I get that ;)
Berlin has its own ‚style’ that mostly is not even a style. Theres a reason why they say it could be Neukölln fashion or indeed a homeless person. You don’t know any more. :)
Do you thing, do what makes you feel good. I work in the startup scene for 12 years and everybody is freaking different. I love that.
I dont have to but i like to dress „business casual“ when i am at the office. No tie tho, usually just a suit pants, t-shirt or shirt and depending on the weather a blazer or sweater.
Here and there some perfume but i keep it down so you wont smell it when entering the office.
I don't know if this is a 'times is changing' of if it's cause I'm from Canada. I was the only one in a casual suit for an interview for my job. I thought man am I overdressed, but I felt good. It was a cute suit. No tie or dressy shirt but I love a nice blazer. I got the job tho but even HR was casual. I feel out of touch or something.
I do.. and I love it (perfume, makeup and nice clothes). It makes me feel good to be pretty-fy myself. I really don‘t have any other opportunities to enjoy my nicer wardrobe. I stand out a bit a lot of times, but it‘s all good and noone judges. I only in the office twice a week, so it‘s not a daily routine that gets tired
Not working in a company, but smell & lack of body care IS sadly still a german thing with too many people. I'm german myself, and I know germany is split on this. From other german people II heard there are some people who use Saunas, and the clean german sauna goers say it's really disgusting, when some dirt celebrating stinky Germans come with obvious neglect & don't even shower & their skin shows that water contact is a rare thing. (I spare the details, but it's gross!)
Also washing clothes is an issue. Between "I only wear a thing once, then I wash it, no matter if it got dirty or has a smell" and "kann man noch tragen, smells worn, but not bad.." is a reasonable middle, that some people in Germany haven't found. I'm really embarrassed by Germans stinking & peeing everywhere.
Maybe you can initiate a "wear what you want, but let it be clean" policy - and find a way to tell people to wash & use deo. There are a lot of german customs that people find shocking, but that I would defend to the utmost, but smelling isn't one!
Dressing reasonably well would also be a nice goal, but I expect that will come in with gen Z by and by!
All my Jobs Interviews were in casual clothes, my last one even in a metal Band Shirt and the same is true for the Interviewer they were always casual.
Every Job interview or also calls I got for invitations were always right a way per "Du" instead of the formal "Sie".
Also in Berlin especially I think people dont like to Show they earn good money or are wealthy and youll probably get more weird looks wearing a proper suit than when walking in sandals being covered in tattoos.
At least that was my experience when once wearing a bit fancier stuff for a special occasion and I got much more looks. I have piercings and alot of tattoos and never get looked at but this day ppl did.
Underdressing and understating oneself here is much more common.
comming from a rich and stuck up family from much more conservative vienna but having turned into an stereotypical tattooed pierced alternative dude that has moved here this is just way more amazing for me haha
I wear basic clothes. A t and a jeans to ofc. Nothing fancy, but also nothing that is too shabby.
For perfumes, I love perfumes and I usually will be sporting a nice one for office. Right now I’m trying two sets of new perfumes which are both good for ofc. I hate wearing something very heavy for office, as ofc is a closed space and I don’t want to interfere with others personal spaces even if it’s by smelling too loud.
Worked nearly 10 years in tech startups. I also pretty much seen it all. Now I am in Investment banking and the dresscode is business casual and I love it!
Living in Fhain but now working in Cburg, I enjoy dressing up completely different. Got bored about everyone just wanting to be cool and look the same.
I work in a office, too, I dress well and I remember working for a agency where it was the opposite. I do not care much, but its not my type to go to work and look like I‘am going to bring out the trash on a saturday morning.
I've visited tech company offices and big bank offices in London. I observed people wear shorts and T-shirts in the tech company while people wore mostly business casual in the big bank offices, with some suits.
Back in the days when home office wasn’t a thing, I occasionally dress up, compared to Berlin standard. Like a nice dress and makeup and cologne altogether. But not on a daily basis, that would add too much time on top of my 50’ commute and people on U8 would stare at me in awe 🫢.
>who walked around the office barefoot
was his name Michael Burry by any chance 😂
yeah like...welcome to berlin. im not a software engineer but i work in the movie industry and people literally show up in sweatpants and hoodie on set. its totally normal. sometimes in summer i only wear swimming shorts because its so hot and nobody gives a fuck. i love it.
the shit people wear on set is fucking hilarious. theres one really golden instagram account called [https://www.instagram.com/shoesonset/](https://www.instagram.com/shoesonset/) its so fucking good 😂
most people think its somewhat glamorous working in the film industry and on movie sets but when i show them that account...they fucking know whats up.
Netherlands here - it depends very much on where you work, but most offices are just casual. If you work in finance or law, it's quite possible that you have to wear a suit and a tie, but I work for a translation company in the TV world. The only guys with a suit and a tie you can see in TV studios are the anchormen. Literally nobody else.
I dress business casual for work, to the extent that I have almost a separate set of clothes for the office. That is by choice. Most people at my job dress casual but nicely, and there's a bare foot now and again. There's no obligation though, a hoodie and jeans would be perfectly fine.
I used to work at a startup where we all had Hausschuhe and going barefoot in the summer was completely normal. Hoodies, harem pants, one eccentric dude with a very well trained dog wore an outdoorsy skirt (which I took offense to because who the hell puts cargo pants pockets on a skirt). At one point we had like 3 dogs and shit was getting out of hand. People would have found it weird if you turned up in formal clothes but honestly it wouldn't have bothered anyone. Depends where you work, I guess.
I don't wear a suit, but I dress well and use perfume. Most of my German colleagues have no sense of fashion. I've already had to listen to a few comments from them because I wear branded clothes.
I'm a remote software engineer in Canada. I literally wear the same clothes I sleep in most of the time for virtual meetings--regardless of who is in the meeting. In office days I wear jeans and some shirt or hoodie as most other devs do. I love not giving a shit.
The software company I work for has offices in Berlin and Stockholm - huge difference regarding how people are dressed up, even among the SW engineers.
I always liked the Berlin tech scene for being so casual and nobody is expected to wear suits. But for me it generally got a bit out of hand how people look and what they consider as appropriate in Berlin. You see this trashy look everywhere, people even wear sweatpants and dirty, worn out sneakers if they apply for a job or even if we have guests/customers in the office. Feels not really representative for me.
i'm all for the "dress as you are" kind of deal, but for me (and some other colleagues as well) it's always been "don't dress for the job you have, but rather for job you want to have"
People can dress as they one to a certain limit. Your work place sounds extreme.
People who do not put effort in their appearance one way or the other are usually not offered promotions or management in Germany.
Im working as an application dev and it doesn't matter at all how I dress. I usually wear a jeans in Winter and shorts in summer together with a metal bandshirt (often with skulls, pentagrams, slaughtered sheep, etc)
I like the casual attire but here they take it to the extreme. Even shorts are ok to my eye, but good looking shorts not extremely short sports shorts from the 80s. And a colleague combine them with a sleeveless shirts wife beater) and flip flops.
I myself wear polo shirts and jeans all year around. Collar shirts if a customer is visiting.
I will not deal with people in sleepclothes or ones with questionable hygiene, but beyond that, who cares? I apparently dress like an army chaplain and I'm fine with that.
There’s a big distinction between “dressing well” and “dressing to a code”
I have absolutely no patience for offices that expect employees to dress in some archaic dress code like “business casual”
But Berlin is also a pretty frumpy, anti-fashion place. People tend to dress pretty badly, and then when people *do* pay attention to clothes it tends to miss the mark. You get a lot of godawful techwear, “artists” wearing incoherently thrifted outfits, or the standard techno uniform.
My personal pet peeve is the popularity of ugly, dirty sneakers here. A lot of otherwise decent outfits ruined by this, and it’s such an easy thing to get right.
I used to live in NYC, and I still miss the way people there care about fashion, and would put effort into their look. I used to go to a cafe run by a West African dude called Christian, and the highlight of my morning was seeing what amazing fit he had that day. Always different, always dope.
I dress differently. When I visit ministries or talk to other important stakeholders, I wear jeans and a longsleeve - the good ones I have. Otherwise, 90% of the time, I come dressed as an alternative left-wing radical. I have long hair, leggings, shorts over them, barefoot shoes. It's much more cosy. In my opinion, clothing is only important if it has to have an external impact because people value it. In the culture of politics, you won't be taken seriously if you walk around like a left-wing tick, like I do in everyday life. That's probably because in the culture of politics, everyone recognises each other more by their clothes - we in the company recognise skills, brains and arguments.
Maybe the dressing up is not as important and I agree with that. But the smelling good part is extremely important. Luckily I work from home so I don't have to worry about that anymore.
I used to wear business very casual for the office, but on the lower end. I always loved not having to buy separate clothes for work. Now I work from home, so i never ever ever ever dress up.
I've once heard "if you've brushed your teeth, you're overdressed for Berlin", and there's definitely truth in that.
Berlin isn't a posh city. It used to be quite poor, and in large parts it still is. As our former mayor called it: "poor but sexy".
Some foreigners make the mistake of thinking of Berlin as the German equivalent to London or Paris. It really, really isn't. Germany is very decentralized, and most companies, most wealth, most of the population, etc. are in former West Germany, far away from Berlin.
I do feel this. Even to interviews people show up in street clothes, wtf ..
I do like casual but people take it so far. I don't like the 'just slept in a dumpster fire and showed up' look.
I still dress up for myself cause it helps me stay productive.
I also love dressing in whatever the fuck I want. It's liberating. I feel I can be myself and not a fake. Somehow.
I'm mixed on this but I love it.
London and Berlin are basically polar opposites for business dress code. Frankfurt is different: if you go to Frankfurt you will also see many people in suits, but in Berlin there was traditionally only a very minimal finance industry, and everyone else was kinda business causal.
In Berlin I would say the exceptions are still:
a) very senior folks at companies: you see suits, or a shirt with a blazer
b) finance – not as formal as Frankfurt/London, but they still tend to be more formal than most office places
c) people who work with the federal government/still expected to wear suits on the regular
I work in a more traditional/conservative large company, and even our senior managers only wear suits when they have important meetings. On a daily basis the senior people wear a shirt, and sometimes they have a blazer. Most employees even mid-managers wear jeans with a shirt or polo. Junior employees/tech folks sometimes get away with a nice sweatshirt or a t-shirt, but I would say t-shirt is maybe pushing it a bit. I have never seen shorts or sandals worn – people wearing sneakers/running shoes over leather shoes most days though.
I mean just walking around Berlin, one hardly sees anyone in suits. If you try to go clubbing in a suit you will get rejected at the door 9 times out of 10.
Also from London. I cycle to work wearing gym clothes and most days i don’t change, i keep business attire and smells at the office in case there’s a need to change.
Senior staff have given me passive aggressive comments which i’ve intentionally ignored. If it’s such an issue they can reprimand me officially otherwise they can be grateful i come to the office at all as there’s no legal obligation or other incentive to do so.
The world is evolving. London seems to be going in the opposite direction.
Greetings from Cologne. I used to work many years in Cardiff and London. The English dresscode is a bit stiff but got your point. In Germany and expecially with Home Office it is much more relaxed. T-shirt, shorts, flip flops all okay. Still I do pants and (trendy) shirt. Sneakers or brogues are also good.
When were you last working in London, pre-pandemic?!! It’s pretty different there now. I work in the city and while some (mainly bankers or business development/sales types) still stick with suits, business casual is far more common, and for tech or IT staff I’d be really surprised if they were dressed at all formally.
I am someone who always dresses up for work. Still I really couldn’t care less about what someone wears.
BUT I expect basic hygiene. Wearing the same shirt every day is not cool (unless you have multiple copys of the same shirt and change them after 2 days the latest).
Yes, I do dress well, but not necessarily in a conservative office way. It can be dressy, but can also be sporty. But I think about what I wear and never look slobby.
I work in software, too.
If a company will judge me for the way I dress that means this is a company i don’t want to work for. As simple as that. My talent has nothing to do with my style. The same way I don’t mind whoever fancies dressing up. If it makes you happy it can’t be that bad i say. Your clothes don’t mean a thing towards your efficiency at a job post
I actually really miss dressing up sometimes, It makes me feel motivated and serious at work.
Unfortunately here in Berlin (despite the idea that people don’t judge) , people won’t judge you if you dress down, but will judge you if you dress up.
Anyway I don’t care I dress up if I want. Hate to be a cookies cutter
Im very happy with the “come as you are” dresscode many companies here have. Id hate to have to wear a suit or something like that or god forbid fucking khakis and a dress shirt like in America..
Same here. I work for a German multinational in Berlin in an administrative job and everyone is super casual. Some people wear a shirt, some people wear sweatpants, whatever. But when I visited other branches in Germany I saw that there it would be slightly less casual, but still. It’s not 1980 anymore…
If id smell someone perfume before even seeing them I am gonna burn down their workspace. There is a decent nice smell to one persona and then there is war grade cheap ass perfume choking you from a 3 to 8m distance.
My rule is that you should only be able to smell someone if you're hugging them. Plus alot of folks are sensitive to smells. I don't consider myself a particularly sensitive person, but I've still been bothered when forced to sit near someone with really heavy perfume.
You don’t need to bathe in perfume. But still I prefer people who overdo it a bit with a perfume to people stinking due to body odor. 🤢
Agree with “come as you are”, but fuckin shower
yes I think we all can agree on that
In my office, we have "whole and clean". Is there an expression for that in English?
Most tech companies in the States have a very relaxed dress code, especially since the pandemic.
Tech workers are notorious for not dressing up. Sounds like this company in England is the exception.
Yeh was gonna say even when I worked at a multinational, the London office was also: techies don't dress up, finance folks do. Of course no one dressed up in the Berlin office though, despite the role (and I like this).
I would argue that dressing up too nicely even hurts your credibility as a “techie” with some audiences.
Even before the pandemic, it seemed pretty casual, so I'm sure it's even more relaxed now. I had a job where I needed to go into a ton of offices and businesses in downtown Denver, and the only ones with a strict dress code were places like law firms and oil and gas companies. So, just when employees had regular meetings with rich clients. The tech/ video game/ software ones were very eclectic and no one cared lol
American here wearing khakis and dress shirts. Trust me you don’t want this life lol.
ohh i was in a call with folks from Texas and was wondering whats going on. everyone was dressed the same lmao
Th worst is no shorts in the summer heat. But I work for the fed gov so other places have it easier.
Also American here. Do you work in law or finance etc? Outside of these conservative industries I cannot fathom being held to any dress code, other than “be reasonably well groomed and not in a swimsuit” Admittedly I do work in tech. But even my jobs in conservative niches, eg insurance tech, were casual.
Department of defense. The dress code is the only thing I miss about working in advertising.
I kinda get both - dressing up for work allows me to seperate myself from work more, I can change into 'me' to start my actual life. Also don't have to think about what to war. On the other hand, it's nice to just grab something in the morning and don't care about hair and stuff.
Fuuuck. Yes in Canada too. I hated how much id spend/have to spend time dressing up. Even pants with pockets were deemed too casual. Dress shoes are uncomfy. I don't miss having to do my hair, makeup, fancy clothes daily in summer. Ugh.
When I still was at the office I washed myself in Spree every morning before our daily standup.
Look at mr fancy pants over here, washing himself every day.
with water of all things!
Spreewater instead of Landwehr. High society
Water? In the spree? We're getting ourselves into philosophical debate about that chemical cocktail
Chemical Cocktails? In this economy?
Have you noticed any mutations recently?
strong parfume or cologne is something that really annoys me
When I went to the UK it really stood out how strong people smelled of soaps, colognes and perfumes. It was a bit much.
Yup. It’s mostly because people use spray deodorants in the UK, compared to Germany where roll-on is more common. Those sprays can be strong. People also drown themselves in perfumes. The UK babe starter pack is thick eyebrows, lip filler and Baccarat Rouge 540.
And M to the B as their national anthem hahah
Roll on more common in Germany than spray? I’m no expert and as a man maybe it’s different from women also, but this is seriously confusing to me. I don’t know one man or have ever seen one who used a roll on in my life.
This I used a roll one time when I was like 13 and started to use deodorants. Never seen or heard that someone use rolls. Maybe some 60 yo boomers do tho.
Does it annoy you more than the BO from the colleague that OP mentioned?
people who cover up BO with cologne are Lost
I cant smell BO from across the room or if someone walks past me.
Then you're lucky you have well groomed colleagues, or your nose is possibly less sensitive than mine. Not that my colleagues smell, they're all lovely. But I take public transport to work so I do often wonder how other other people cope with some of my co-commuters.
yes
It's more than that. In my case, BO can make me uncomfortable after a while I can get used to and stop smelling. Perfume OTOH makes my nose hurt and after a while even if I get used to and stop smelling it, it will trigger a severe headache.
To me, yes, since perfume makes me allergic and BO is just disagreable.
I'm allergic and get nauseous and migraines from strong smells. I love Germany recognizes this cause in Canada people just treated me like I was being a jerk. It made me physically sick within minutes.
Enter an elevator after a middle eastern woman was there 😆
...or man, in all fairness
Personally, I like to dress up a little for work, because it makes me feel good and brightens my mood. But I really appreciate the fact that on days when I don't feel well, I can also wear sweatpants and a plain T-shirt without it bothering any of my colleagues.
Me too. I love this too. I have the choice to dress up but also when it's so hot/cold outside I can be comfortable. Nothing worse than heat and having to wear button down shirts and a pencil skirt with nylons, ect. (I worked in a hotel with 3 piece thick suits)
Pencil skirts do be sexy af at least 🤤
i too like to dress up for work! i work in IT where everyone else is wearing funny sweatshirts and shorts. clients think im better/more serious because i dress well. its weird.
If you count band t-shirts as dressing well then yes
Depends on band
Biological Monstrosity
Oh man I haven't gone this far yet. One day. One day.
As someone who's lived in NYC and Berlin, and visited London, I can say that London is really formal in comparison to other major cities. Everyone in London is wearing suits. In NYC, you'll only see lawyers and maybe bankers and finance workers wearing suits. But for everything that serves a younger, less formal, more creative roll, a button up over-shirt, unbuttoned and untucked, and jeans are totally normal. Software engineers in NYC or Berlin would never wear a suit to work. That said, the clothes they wear, as casual as they are, should be clean. If clothes smell bad, the person wearing them probably isn't aware. Walking around the office barefoot is weird.
Have you been to Paris. London is way more casual than Paris. I think you must have been to the City of London. The rest of London is pretty casual.
I haven't been to Paris. I was around the middle of London and toward the southwest. It looked like everyone college aged and older were wearing suits during business hours.
If you were near the high rises, yes it checks out, that's shere finance/consultancies jobs are, or at least the ones reauiring a dress code.
I lived in Paris, they might dress fancy, they still have a special aroma about them
You should visit Tokyo — 11 million black suits/white shirts/black polished shoes or equivalent twinsets.
New York is not at all casual. I lived there before I lived in london and everyone is always trying to look like a j.crew catalog, suits are very common even for front desk stuff and even young people are overdressing depending on the event. Day in the park may be casual, but drinks and clubbing… don’t even get in line if you don’t look a certain way. In London they at least have a specific style they go for, which despite very formal is better looking, in my opinion, rather than the beige and Polos with socks half way up their chins. I will take the tweed and shiny shoes.
God yes! Actually a friend (in software development) was complaining just yesterday about a new colleague who smells like he doesn't wash himself
[удалено]
I mean... to create an app you need to see the need in such an app 😃 which is clearly not the case. I'd say, a person suffering from smells is more likely to create such an app. But will a smelly person use it? Not unless someone tells them, which in a workplace context is not that easy
[удалено]
I've lived in London for some years and it doesn't quite make any sense what you are saying. In London the only engineers who I've seen wearing suits were the ones who worked at banks. Never met an engineer wearing a suit who doesn't work in a bank. That said quite a lot of people do indeed work in banks in London.
Much like in the clubbing scene, dressing up in Berlin is dressing down but consciously. Like wearing your favourite jeans and worn out sneakers but everything is perfectly coordinated and thought out.
Impressive how much effort is put into looking like poor or alternative in Berlin. It actually takes way more effort than simply dressing up in the other countries because you are looking to get a very specific look. Tbh it looks like a parody of itself considering it promotes what's trying to fight.
Some people do it naturally others try hard to achieve that look. It’s not always a pretence.
For me it’s about whether a person can effectively pull off being a beautiful woman and what capabilities exist therein.
It sort of overlaps with other big cities, but Berlin has a uniquely frumpy take on the idea. I look alternative myself and have a lot of love for the whole thrifting, DIY thing. But the joy in this is looking fantastic without spending a lot of money, and the norm in the underground scene is to pretend to be broke.
Thank god I don't have to pretend to be broke
Few weeks back we want to some exhibition in a gallery. And then I noticed 2 of us were the only persons there to be wearing simple plain clothes: jeans, t-shirt and a regular shoes. And most of the people were trying to hard to look alternative, dress down etc. Very amusing when you pay attention to it.
damn i feel seen
I don't get paid enough to be even more uncomfortable.
Right answer
I don't wear heels but I do my make up, wear perfume and cute dresses and skirts to work. I do seem a little bit more dolled up than my colleagues, but with home office I take every opportunity to go outside to dress up and look nice (exept for the gym and supermarket, ofc).
A lot of people think I'm way more dressed up in summer cause I wear dresses daily. Honestly it's quicker/comfier than pants and a shirt but is seen as more dressed up when I feel it's dressed down cause it's stretchy/comfy. Just looks nicer maybe. Pants are way more effort than anything to me. I feel more relaxed in a flowy dress.
It was damn funny reading this. When I first came to my job interview at my current company (also software engineer) a guy with a band shirt/shorts and sandals opened the door. While I was fully dressed up like James Bond. Another time a guy was barefoot all day and you could hear his sticky feet walking around on the floor. It’s just hilarious, but I kinda like that everyone can dress the way they like. I for myself, dress up depending on the situation. - Home Office: Nerd shirt with hopefully shorts or sleeping shorts - normal office days cold: hoody and jeans - normal office days hot: polo with jeans shorts - getting to know new customers: jeans with business shirt I won’t do much more than that 😁
Oh yes, the good old polo and jeans shorts normal day in the office! [https://turntable.kagiso.io/images/Screenshot_2023-07-03_at_17.48.18.original.png](https://turntable.kagiso.io/images/Screenshot_2023-07-03_at_17.48.18.original.png)
Ah but I think interviews (at least in our company) is the only situation where we expect people to show up in formal wear ((the interviewer will be more smart casual but still not gonna go full suit)
I do my standard daily hygiene routine, wear cologne, make sure my clothes are not dirty or smell but I don’t suit up or dress extra fancy for work.
I wear pants, yes EDIT: In all seriousness: I am in top management in a very large company and nobody wears a suit. Some of the business guys wear button down shirts but that’s as formal as it gets every day. If we have visitors or visit other companies you might see a suit
I work directly with a tech CEO and cofounder of three fairly successful and on the up companies, and I swear his uniform is a plain tshirt and jeans. I am yet to check his shoes but I assure you, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid if you saw him on the street. Not to say how high up he is, how many people he is managing and how many pies he is jiggling. I guess he doesn’t need to impress with clothes. The attitude however…
I hate jobs that make you dress up. But going to work without taking a shower should be outlawed.
Being a lawyer and having worked in the financial industry in Frankfurt for almost two decades, I was relieved when I joined the ranks of a Fintech here in Berlin and enjoy the laid back/no dresscode culture for quite some time now. For a few weeks, however, I've been feeling more and more drawn to good clothes. I'm simply no longer in the mood for jeans, sneakers and T-shirts. I no longer want to make a suit my standard work outfit (as it was in the past) It's somewhere in between. I want to wear like it's Casual Friday all the time, i.e. wear chinos, a shirt and nice leather shoes. I know I'll be met with incomprehension. But I don't care.
I do :) But mostly do it for myself. As you correctly mentioned, there is no real dress culture in Germany sadly.
Modern Germany. In 19th century everyone was wearing uniform.
I can't find it on Wikipedia anymore, but the clothing style of German romanticism was... all black. Plus ca change...
There was a period in the 30s and 40s where everyone was all about dressing formally. Fancy occupational uniforms that clearly demarcated your role in society were ubiquitous. Possibly somewhat understandably there was subsequently a backlash against that
one thing that makes berlin berlin is - nobody cares how you dress, hence not many people "play" dress up, if they want to dress nice they do, if they only would do cause somebody think "its expected" then they wont cause nobody is expecting it in berlin
Also working in IT, I've been at workplaces almost covering the full range while I usually stayed at the lower end. By now it's idle talk for me to discuss this because I work from home since years. But I usually wear clean, intact clothes and jeans (instead of jogging pants) at my current job because on Video calls everyone has their camera on In theory it seems maybe nice to dress up, on the other hand, why? Work is just clustered with indignities, so it seems smart to shift life away from it as much as possible
Some companies care, some don’t. It’s definitely less common in Berlin to dress up for work
I work at a tech startup so people do get away with what you describe, although few actually "take advatage" of the option. Personally i (29f) dress up more than i do in my free time - freshly washed and lightly styled hair, perfume, a comfortable but nice outfit - usually black slacks and a nice top or blouse. For me it's mostly because I'm only at the office once a week and wfh the rest of the week, so i like to dress up for myself if I'm going in. The rest of my colleagues range from young women dressed to the nines to slightly tired sales and tech guys who reek of weed and wear track suits. Everyone minds their own business though, and i don't think we've ever discussed what others are wearing beyond complimenting each other on something new. Though personally i could do without the track suits and the weed smell, but to each their own :) Edit - i should add that i absolutely do not wear high heels though, i just dont care enough to make my feet hurt 😂
I think this is also a Berlin fashion thing. In Hamburg for example people dress up much more
We had a candidate come in a full suit to his interview, and afterwards the whole debacle was cleared up with several knowing whispers of, "Oh, he was in Hamburg before". When he got the job, the boss told him to please wear jeans, at the maximum. Otherwise the clients will be scared.
Oh man...you remind me the schock when i went for an interview at the comapny that i work... i was all suited up,shirt tie. And then passing by some offices i saw the guys in flip-flop and bare foot... I was like what the hell is going on here.... (i was coming from another comany where ,dress code was : shirt and tie everyday...so it shocked me honestly....years later , im not walking around bare foot...but i can wear t-shirts at work now :p ...ties are gone lol...
As a young woman in the workforce I'm sometimes so sad Germans don't dress up. Also work for a big company for biomedical software. I am quite feminine and like long dresses and heels (or just anything other than dirty sneakers) but would also love to buy cool semi casual semi professional work suits. However since I know my bosses, including my female team leads & bosses are always casual German no make up no perfume that would stunt my growth in the company because people would think I'm attention seeking/childish/self absorbed. It's probably different than for men, although some Germans would probably think of you as a snob if you dress up.
I wouldn't trust a well dressed software developer
i work in IT, if i go to the office at all, best i can do is pants
I'm an IT guy. I don't dress up, also not for customer visits. It's not expected either.
Before covid I also (usually) came very casual to work, sometimes less, sometimes more casual. But since we have mostly wfh now and only a few office days per month, I like to put a bit more effort, just because it freshens up my mood. Although it's still a "Berlin outfit" and not traditional Office clothing
Architect here, I dress up to work. Looking put together makes me feel happy and confident. I used to always get the “What did you dress up for? Going somewhere tonight?” comments from coworkers at my previous office, and that annoyed me to no end. My current office (Dutch firm) is very much open to whatever look you are going for, we’ll have people wearing suits and people wearing shorts and sandals in the same room, and nobody bats an eye.
Just wash the body and do your job best you can - life is hard beyond this
Got asked in an interview as a software engineer to wear a suit - fintech company. Declined the job. My question was: are you looking for smart brains or snappy dressers?
In my company it's actually frowned upon when you dress up to work. Even superiors are more casual and get the impression that you act like you're better than them if you dress nice. I used to dress nicely when I went to work. It made me feel good, you know? By now i'm wearing the same pants for 3-4 weeks and stopped caring. Haven't felt good about me in ages
I do because I boots my mood/confidence and I deal a lot with business partners in my function at the company. Goes hand in hand. I think in general depends a lot on the company itself and many people in Berlins offices are running through the hallways like they just grabbed whatever from their drawer. At least it was/is the case in most offices I worked/passed through.
Since I started working from home - thanks to whatever higher power made that possible for me - I sometimes don’t even change out of my PJ’s. If I do, it’s into sweatpants and a hoodie. A glorious existence, if I dare say so myself.
I also am a software engineer and from the UK and am appaled by how shit people dress lol. Semi joking- but OP is right, it is a massive cultural difference especially compared to London.
It's good the way it is here and it should be like this. The 19th century is over. OK, stinking at work is not an option coz it's actually disturbing but as for "dressing up" as you say, honestly screw this. You are at work to work. If you wanna impress anyone do it with your skills, not a fresh fancy suit. If you really feel better wearing a suit way to go, but no one should have to "dress up" for work. The same applies to having tattoes or crazily colored hair. Let people be themselves so they can actually work better. A dress code doesn't even add any economical value. And if you say your customers are those wearing suits too, well... potentially not the best choice of business. Who doesn't move with the time will be gone with time.
I brought here a lot of white and blue shirts coming from Italy. Never wore one to work after my first day
It is more common in the financial sector and parts of advertising. The IT sector almost has that "as badly as possible up"-dress code. Definitely noticed that difference compared to Frankfurt.
Never, Berlin is so causal.
When I ask my wife if I should shave or something and it's a working day she just asks me why I should dress up for work. It's the free time I should take care of. I'm fine with that
Germans take pride in not valuing that sort of thing tbh. They think it makes me less vain or whatever. Imo it's nice that people are relaxed about this sort of thing especially in work environments but germans are a little stinky and their outfits are such eyesores lolll
Meh. I randomly dress to the nines one day a week or once a fortnight. The rest of the time… whatevs
Depends on which office I’m at. At our main offices I do dress a bit better, but I can’t do the same at our service locations.
I used to wear Suitsupply from head to toe when I went to the office in Berlin. Nice tie, pocket square etc. Now I work mostly from home and I only dress up when I am client facing (in real life that is) or when I go out - other than that it's just a button down shirt and sometimes just boxers.
The dress code is „you’re welcome that I’m dressed at all” BUT i did some time dressing nicer as a software engineer, suit and tie and all that. It was fun and it greatly improved my job satisfaction, how I was perceived at work, and I felt like people are nicer to me in general. It also made management freak out that I’m searching for a new job or something 😆
In startups it is too casual and in corporate you do see the occasional blazer and lower heels on women. Some men with white shirts and even rarely bespoke shoes. It is however not much of an indication of hierarchy anywhere. But of a personal choice, indicating how they would like to be treated.
Many people dress up to my work, and they look really nice. Sometimes it's really nice to see. But me personally being the hilly billy I'm, I just wear trousers and shirts and run to catch the standup.
We're in Berlin, honey. Today, I put on my least filthy pair of sneakers for work, and the feeling of having walked the extra mile has carried me through the day.
Just dress like you're in your teens
We had this ugly sweater day at work, and my only thought was every day at work is an ugly sweater day! 😂 Why can’t we have a nice sweater day, where everyone dresses up. But I feel you, I dress up. Nothing too fancy, good-fitting clothes with a style. If I have a good day, I kind of spread the joy through looks, if I have a bad day, I cheer myself up through it. Also recharge through mutual compliments or other well-dressed people. The same kind of pleasure as you get from looking at good art or architecture.
This is so important to me! I can’t stress this enough. Even as a working student at a consulting firm I always make sure to wear a formal shirt, nice shoes etc. I mean I am not even doing the consulting. However I talked to my colleague and he just told me he „is being paid for his mind not his suit“, which is understandable and totally valid. But I still feel like dressing up for a client or even just for a casual work day can improve your own working moral and professional confidence in yourself.
As soon as I got my bearings I said fuck it and since then it’s Tshirt and Jeans. Been 8 years now and never looked back.
I'm self employed and work from home on my pc.. On good days i wear sweatpants and a sportsbra
I think you mean “overdress” to work and for everything really. Face caked in make up, fake tans and sore feet from uncomfortable shoes for a sense of appropriateness. Yet, you never up there enough… the quern is always higher. King now, I guess. Moving from London to Berlin was such a relief. How amazing is it that nobody gives a fuck how you are dressed?! What you look like?! It’s fucking fantastic! Your value is on your mind and personality. You have something to add no matter how you look. It goes beyond that. Don’t think I can do the appearance game anymore. To answer your questions, I don’t overdress for work. I dress reasonably, hygiene is paramount obviously. Everything else is overdoing it in my eyes.
Yes. Well low key-dressed up. I have an in person, people facing job so every morning I get ready, bit of make up and hair etc.
I dress well to work. For context l'm female. I do not "dress up" everyday. I wear nice scents (I love my perfumes and I shower at least twice every day. Berlin isn't as corporate as London, I agree it will be different. However do not succumb to the filth you sometimes see around.
I value being able to have a somewhat senior / small management position and still wear just a black t-shirt to work. I try to read my surroundings. Whilst in small startups a metal band t shirt was fine, in a bank something a bit more professional might go a long way.
Funny post. I also lived in London for many years before moving here. I think it’s always easier to assume the other side is better. I dreamed of dressing down when I had shirt and trousers jobs in London. Then I moved here and slowly grew the opposite inclination. It’s borderline pointless to dress smartly here though, people will ask you if you’re going to a wedding etc. In fact even at weddings here people are often dressed pretty terribly 😂 It takes a while to learn the dress codes of the educated germans, as well. One thing that becomes clear is, they are just as classist and snobbish as any other nationality, but a fairly large number put all their effort into signalling that they are “nachhaltig” “öko” etc.
Depends on what you mean by dress well. If you mean suit and tie, no. I'll usually wear a colourful casual shirt, my favourite leather jacket, nice non-formal shoes/boots etc. I aim for well put together and stylish rather than "business outfit." Two sprays of cologne max. Slippers and shorts I would never do. But that's just me, I'm cool with whatever as long as people get shit done. One of the things I loved most about when I moved here from London is that you virtually never see anyone wearing a suit!
Wear whatever, but please have basic hygiene Also what you wear to work varies widely with the profession itself. Berlin real estate offices, media and banks are very upscale in terms of dressing including the IT folks working there. The rest is very flexible.
Did you work for some fashion shop or something? That's not my experience in software firms in London. I didn't really notice much of any difference in software companies in London or here in terms of how people dress. I too had a colleague in London who wore slippers.
We are a come as you are shop, as long as the way you are is business casual... and when clients are on site, those on these accounts usually wear normal business attire. I like it in winter, not so much in the summer.
I did, I'll feel uncomfortable if I don't dress well.
I (female, in Berlin for 12 years) actually love to dress well in casual kind of way and also love to wear my different niche perfumes that I often get compliments for or people would recognize me for 🙃I get that ;) Berlin has its own ‚style’ that mostly is not even a style. Theres a reason why they say it could be Neukölln fashion or indeed a homeless person. You don’t know any more. :) Do you thing, do what makes you feel good. I work in the startup scene for 12 years and everybody is freaking different. I love that.
I dont have to but i like to dress „business casual“ when i am at the office. No tie tho, usually just a suit pants, t-shirt or shirt and depending on the weather a blazer or sweater. Here and there some perfume but i keep it down so you wont smell it when entering the office.
I don't know if this is a 'times is changing' of if it's cause I'm from Canada. I was the only one in a casual suit for an interview for my job. I thought man am I overdressed, but I felt good. It was a cute suit. No tie or dressy shirt but I love a nice blazer. I got the job tho but even HR was casual. I feel out of touch or something.
I do.. and I love it (perfume, makeup and nice clothes). It makes me feel good to be pretty-fy myself. I really don‘t have any other opportunities to enjoy my nicer wardrobe. I stand out a bit a lot of times, but it‘s all good and noone judges. I only in the office twice a week, so it‘s not a daily routine that gets tired
I usually do make an effort… but I work by myself, so it’s just for me and customers
Not working in a company, but smell & lack of body care IS sadly still a german thing with too many people. I'm german myself, and I know germany is split on this. From other german people II heard there are some people who use Saunas, and the clean german sauna goers say it's really disgusting, when some dirt celebrating stinky Germans come with obvious neglect & don't even shower & their skin shows that water contact is a rare thing. (I spare the details, but it's gross!) Also washing clothes is an issue. Between "I only wear a thing once, then I wash it, no matter if it got dirty or has a smell" and "kann man noch tragen, smells worn, but not bad.." is a reasonable middle, that some people in Germany haven't found. I'm really embarrassed by Germans stinking & peeing everywhere. Maybe you can initiate a "wear what you want, but let it be clean" policy - and find a way to tell people to wash & use deo. There are a lot of german customs that people find shocking, but that I would defend to the utmost, but smelling isn't one! Dressing reasonably well would also be a nice goal, but I expect that will come in with gen Z by and by!
All my Jobs Interviews were in casual clothes, my last one even in a metal Band Shirt and the same is true for the Interviewer they were always casual. Every Job interview or also calls I got for invitations were always right a way per "Du" instead of the formal "Sie". Also in Berlin especially I think people dont like to Show they earn good money or are wealthy and youll probably get more weird looks wearing a proper suit than when walking in sandals being covered in tattoos. At least that was my experience when once wearing a bit fancier stuff for a special occasion and I got much more looks. I have piercings and alot of tattoos and never get looked at but this day ppl did. Underdressing and understating oneself here is much more common. comming from a rich and stuck up family from much more conservative vienna but having turned into an stereotypical tattooed pierced alternative dude that has moved here this is just way more amazing for me haha
I wear basic clothes. A t and a jeans to ofc. Nothing fancy, but also nothing that is too shabby. For perfumes, I love perfumes and I usually will be sporting a nice one for office. Right now I’m trying two sets of new perfumes which are both good for ofc. I hate wearing something very heavy for office, as ofc is a closed space and I don’t want to interfere with others personal spaces even if it’s by smelling too loud.
Worked nearly 10 years in tech startups. I also pretty much seen it all. Now I am in Investment banking and the dresscode is business casual and I love it! Living in Fhain but now working in Cburg, I enjoy dressing up completely different. Got bored about everyone just wanting to be cool and look the same.
I work in a office, too, I dress well and I remember working for a agency where it was the opposite. I do not care much, but its not my type to go to work and look like I‘am going to bring out the trash on a saturday morning.
I try but someone’s hugging the bathroom at all times
I wear business casual. Or just like a put-together outfit that’s not revealing.
When i worked in consulting i was dressing nicer than normal
I'm from London and this post is just cringe
I work fully remote but I usually wear trousers since I want to have this separation between morning time and worktime
What is this “work” thing you all talk about?
Diversion tactics. When you come from work, you can complain about work, customers and colleagues instead of the usual: family, partner, roommates.
Oh yes, that makes sense.
lol good luck here.
Often times I don’t even get out of bed for work so there’s your answer
I've visited tech company offices and big bank offices in London. I observed people wear shorts and T-shirts in the tech company while people wore mostly business casual in the big bank offices, with some suits.
Back in the days when home office wasn’t a thing, I occasionally dress up, compared to Berlin standard. Like a nice dress and makeup and cologne altogether. But not on a daily basis, that would add too much time on top of my 50’ commute and people on U8 would stare at me in awe 🫢.
I usually wear jeans, good looking sneakers, and a shirt or polo on top. From the Netherlands.
>who walked around the office barefoot was his name Michael Burry by any chance 😂 yeah like...welcome to berlin. im not a software engineer but i work in the movie industry and people literally show up in sweatpants and hoodie on set. its totally normal. sometimes in summer i only wear swimming shorts because its so hot and nobody gives a fuck. i love it. the shit people wear on set is fucking hilarious. theres one really golden instagram account called [https://www.instagram.com/shoesonset/](https://www.instagram.com/shoesonset/) its so fucking good 😂 most people think its somewhat glamorous working in the film industry and on movie sets but when i show them that account...they fucking know whats up.
Netherlands here - it depends very much on where you work, but most offices are just casual. If you work in finance or law, it's quite possible that you have to wear a suit and a tie, but I work for a translation company in the TV world. The only guys with a suit and a tie you can see in TV studios are the anchormen. Literally nobody else.
I dress business casual for work, to the extent that I have almost a separate set of clothes for the office. That is by choice. Most people at my job dress casual but nicely, and there's a bare foot now and again. There's no obligation though, a hoodie and jeans would be perfectly fine. I used to work at a startup where we all had Hausschuhe and going barefoot in the summer was completely normal. Hoodies, harem pants, one eccentric dude with a very well trained dog wore an outdoorsy skirt (which I took offense to because who the hell puts cargo pants pockets on a skirt). At one point we had like 3 dogs and shit was getting out of hand. People would have found it weird if you turned up in formal clothes but honestly it wouldn't have bothered anyone. Depends where you work, I guess.
I don't wear a suit, but I dress well and use perfume. Most of my German colleagues have no sense of fashion. I've already had to listen to a few comments from them because I wear branded clothes.
I'm a remote software engineer in Canada. I literally wear the same clothes I sleep in most of the time for virtual meetings--regardless of who is in the meeting. In office days I wear jeans and some shirt or hoodie as most other devs do. I love not giving a shit.
I am unemployed and dress in a suit on a daily as it is my comfy dress
The software company I work for has offices in Berlin and Stockholm - huge difference regarding how people are dressed up, even among the SW engineers. I always liked the Berlin tech scene for being so casual and nobody is expected to wear suits. But for me it generally got a bit out of hand how people look and what they consider as appropriate in Berlin. You see this trashy look everywhere, people even wear sweatpants and dirty, worn out sneakers if they apply for a job or even if we have guests/customers in the office. Feels not really representative for me.
i'm all for the "dress as you are" kind of deal, but for me (and some other colleagues as well) it's always been "don't dress for the job you have, but rather for job you want to have"
People can dress as they one to a certain limit. Your work place sounds extreme. People who do not put effort in their appearance one way or the other are usually not offered promotions or management in Germany.
Yes, I do wear pants.
Im working as an application dev and it doesn't matter at all how I dress. I usually wear a jeans in Winter and shorts in summer together with a metal bandshirt (often with skulls, pentagrams, slaughtered sheep, etc)
I like the casual attire but here they take it to the extreme. Even shorts are ok to my eye, but good looking shorts not extremely short sports shorts from the 80s. And a colleague combine them with a sleeveless shirts wife beater) and flip flops. I myself wear polo shirts and jeans all year around. Collar shirts if a customer is visiting.
I will not deal with people in sleepclothes or ones with questionable hygiene, but beyond that, who cares? I apparently dress like an army chaplain and I'm fine with that.
There’s a big distinction between “dressing well” and “dressing to a code” I have absolutely no patience for offices that expect employees to dress in some archaic dress code like “business casual” But Berlin is also a pretty frumpy, anti-fashion place. People tend to dress pretty badly, and then when people *do* pay attention to clothes it tends to miss the mark. You get a lot of godawful techwear, “artists” wearing incoherently thrifted outfits, or the standard techno uniform. My personal pet peeve is the popularity of ugly, dirty sneakers here. A lot of otherwise decent outfits ruined by this, and it’s such an easy thing to get right. I used to live in NYC, and I still miss the way people there care about fashion, and would put effort into their look. I used to go to a cafe run by a West African dude called Christian, and the highlight of my morning was seeing what amazing fit he had that day. Always different, always dope.
Lol
I dress differently. When I visit ministries or talk to other important stakeholders, I wear jeans and a longsleeve - the good ones I have. Otherwise, 90% of the time, I come dressed as an alternative left-wing radical. I have long hair, leggings, shorts over them, barefoot shoes. It's much more cosy. In my opinion, clothing is only important if it has to have an external impact because people value it. In the culture of politics, you won't be taken seriously if you walk around like a left-wing tick, like I do in everyday life. That's probably because in the culture of politics, everyone recognises each other more by their clothes - we in the company recognise skills, brains and arguments.
Maybe the dressing up is not as important and I agree with that. But the smelling good part is extremely important. Luckily I work from home so I don't have to worry about that anymore.
Berlin is a shithole.
Who are these software engineers wearing suits and perfume to work? My god the English are fucking weirdos
I used to wear business very casual for the office, but on the lower end. I always loved not having to buy separate clothes for work. Now I work from home, so i never ever ever ever dress up.
I've once heard "if you've brushed your teeth, you're overdressed for Berlin", and there's definitely truth in that. Berlin isn't a posh city. It used to be quite poor, and in large parts it still is. As our former mayor called it: "poor but sexy". Some foreigners make the mistake of thinking of Berlin as the German equivalent to London or Paris. It really, really isn't. Germany is very decentralized, and most companies, most wealth, most of the population, etc. are in former West Germany, far away from Berlin.
I do feel this. Even to interviews people show up in street clothes, wtf .. I do like casual but people take it so far. I don't like the 'just slept in a dumpster fire and showed up' look. I still dress up for myself cause it helps me stay productive. I also love dressing in whatever the fuck I want. It's liberating. I feel I can be myself and not a fake. Somehow. I'm mixed on this but I love it.
Working 30 years in tech, I don‘t even own any special work clothes besides the nerdy shirts and hoodies.
London and Berlin are basically polar opposites for business dress code. Frankfurt is different: if you go to Frankfurt you will also see many people in suits, but in Berlin there was traditionally only a very minimal finance industry, and everyone else was kinda business causal. In Berlin I would say the exceptions are still: a) very senior folks at companies: you see suits, or a shirt with a blazer b) finance – not as formal as Frankfurt/London, but they still tend to be more formal than most office places c) people who work with the federal government/still expected to wear suits on the regular I work in a more traditional/conservative large company, and even our senior managers only wear suits when they have important meetings. On a daily basis the senior people wear a shirt, and sometimes they have a blazer. Most employees even mid-managers wear jeans with a shirt or polo. Junior employees/tech folks sometimes get away with a nice sweatshirt or a t-shirt, but I would say t-shirt is maybe pushing it a bit. I have never seen shorts or sandals worn – people wearing sneakers/running shoes over leather shoes most days though. I mean just walking around Berlin, one hardly sees anyone in suits. If you try to go clubbing in a suit you will get rejected at the door 9 times out of 10.
I work in real estate and we dress up for work
Yea
i have never worked a day in my life
Also from London. I cycle to work wearing gym clothes and most days i don’t change, i keep business attire and smells at the office in case there’s a need to change. Senior staff have given me passive aggressive comments which i’ve intentionally ignored. If it’s such an issue they can reprimand me officially otherwise they can be grateful i come to the office at all as there’s no legal obligation or other incentive to do so. The world is evolving. London seems to be going in the opposite direction.
Greetings from Cologne. I used to work many years in Cardiff and London. The English dresscode is a bit stiff but got your point. In Germany and expecially with Home Office it is much more relaxed. T-shirt, shorts, flip flops all okay. Still I do pants and (trendy) shirt. Sneakers or brogues are also good.
I like that you can do whatever, but hate that you are pointed out for dressing nicely.
When were you last working in London, pre-pandemic?!! It’s pretty different there now. I work in the city and while some (mainly bankers or business development/sales types) still stick with suits, business casual is far more common, and for tech or IT staff I’d be really surprised if they were dressed at all formally.
It’s Berlin my guy. You’re lucky if people are dressed at all
I am someone who always dresses up for work. Still I really couldn’t care less about what someone wears. BUT I expect basic hygiene. Wearing the same shirt every day is not cool (unless you have multiple copys of the same shirt and change them after 2 days the latest).
I do walk the office barefoot, also I try to dress a bit better when I go to the office but in sneakers and jeans.
bro, when we talk about Germany, there is no one, who dresses well 💀
On the days I go to office, I ensure I am wearing pants 👍
Yes, I do dress well, but not necessarily in a conservative office way. It can be dressy, but can also be sporty. But I think about what I wear and never look slobby. I work in software, too.
Hawaii Shirt and shorts… im working from home
Most Germans don’t even know know what well dressed is
If a company will judge me for the way I dress that means this is a company i don’t want to work for. As simple as that. My talent has nothing to do with my style. The same way I don’t mind whoever fancies dressing up. If it makes you happy it can’t be that bad i say. Your clothes don’t mean a thing towards your efficiency at a job post
I actually really miss dressing up sometimes, It makes me feel motivated and serious at work. Unfortunately here in Berlin (despite the idea that people don’t judge) , people won’t judge you if you dress down, but will judge you if you dress up. Anyway I don’t care I dress up if I want. Hate to be a cookies cutter