??Kirk Norris is an advertising professional and writer living in Columbus, OH. His goal with “Fly on a Dime” is to document his quest  to build a champagne inspired young professional’s wardrobe on a malt liquor budget. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, but hopes that you can.

This week’s post is going to be a little different.

I’m not going to talk about any specific clothing items or how to find great deals. I’m not going to tell you about what trends I think are currently stylish. I’m not going to make absurd parallels comparing bow ties to wild animals.

Nope. Instead I am going to tell you a story.

You see, I just finished the first week of a job at a new company. I work in advertising, and have for the past three years. It’s what I love and I really couldn’t dream of doing anything else. To some that may seem silly, but I can’t imagine going to work everyday for forty plus years and not thoroughly enjoying what I do. To me the idea of anything else seems silly. But that’s a topic for another time.

(For those of you at home who are counting, yes, I did just throw a double negative at you.)

Now my old company was a large media company where the dress code was pretty formal; business casual at the bare minimum. Account Executives were expected to wear a jacket and tie during client appointments, and many frequently wore suits. Women were expected to maintain the same level of dress, respectively. I worked in creative/operations and our dress code wasn’t quite as strict, but it was close.

I got pretty used to that culture. Wearing a shirt and tie with dress slacks and dressy shoes became the norm. I never really thought “Ugh…I have to get dressed up for work”. It was just part of the deal and it was all good.

My new position is with a small advertising agency (When I say small I mean that only in the physical sense. We have far fewer employees than my last company, but we aren’t short on doing big things. Not in the least bit.). Here the culture is much different. The dress code is much more relaxed. The other creative guys often wear sandals and shorts (I’ve already given my opinion on this in a previous post, but hey, it’s exactly that: an opinion. Chad and Nathan, I’m not hating.). My boss Brent, who is the VP of Client Services, either wears a shirt and tie combo, or – depending on the client- a nice polo during business meetings.

Note: I threw that little “depending on the client” caveat in there because some clients are more casual than others. Some of our clients would never think of wearing a tie to work so Brent tries to fit in with them by dressing accordingly.

Here’s my point.

A company’s dress code is a reflection of its culture. The dress code is more flexible at my new company and that’s pretty cool. It’s a creative environment where being comfortable is important. My previous company had a different image that it wanted its employees to buy into, and that’s cool too.

I’ve started relaxing my work wardrobe somewhat. Now I don’t mean that I show up for work looking unkempt and sloppy, I’m just toning it down a bit in an attempt to mesh with the culture.

And that’s what I think is important here.

If you can adapt to your environment and connect with the culture, however different it may be from what you are used to, then you are already one big step in direction of success within that culture.

Now I must ask, what dress code lesson have you learned along the way?

Related posts:

1. Fly on a Dime: Summertime Fly
2. Poll of the Week: Which social networking platform is most effective in keeping you in contact with your professional network?
3. Day in the Life: I’m Cold (calling)
4. Day in the Life: Finding Sales
5. Day in the Life: Matchbox Cars & Business