What Not to Wear If You Want to Get Promoted

By Beverly Linao | Feb 01, 2016 10:25 PM EST

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Some people think that when he or she has landed the job, he or she does not have to worry about what to wear on a daily basis. After, the job is already won. Normal working clothes will work - or so they thought.

The truth is that what we wear to work actually has an effect on how your co-workers and managers treat you and how your team perceives you.

To give you more idea, consider the following tips on what NOT to wear if you want to get promoted:

Dress for the job you want

This is the most common yet the most taken-for-granted advice. We all want to standout in our workplace, but we don't want to make it very obvious that we go out of our way and accessorize ourselves too much. What you can do, however, is to be observant. Take a look at how you bosses dress up. Once you've gotten the kind of work fashion they have, try to follow in their footsteps. This does not mean that you have to buy the same style or cop their fashion statements. This instead means that you try to follow the common things like the skirt length, the shoe style (open, closed, flats, heels, etc.), the color scheme, etc. "You have to really rechannel everything into being open and communicative without crossing boundaries," says Naomi St. Gregory, director of the clothes closet at the Employment Action Center in Minneapolis. "You don't know who's sensitive and who isn't." 

If you want to level up from the rank and file, then do not immediately change your work outfit. Try to change one style at a time. Change your outfit in an understated way "to send the message that you are ready to take on more responsibility. Men can switch from khakis to dress pants, or add a suit coat to dress pants; women can change to more formal outfits." 

Dress for the job you don't want 

For those who would want to change their outfit to send a message, like you don't exactly like the job you have, then you can be "less serious or industrious than your better-dressed peers, and can be passed over or not even considered when it's time for a promotion." 

A lot of factors, of course, are in play when it comes to a promotion. However, the clothes we wear is definitely one of the things that can affect the management's decision. 

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