What is Professional Anymore, and Does it Work?

What is Professional Anymore, and Does it Work?



A lot can change in 10 years.

Expectations of working in the office have changed over the past few years, especially since the ending of the lockdown restrictions.

From the changes to where you work now whether that is hybrid, remote or full-time in the office, there was not even a debate around what the best option was, before 2019 this was not even a discussion.

Also, the corporate “Meet the Team” pictures are now an ideal opportunity for employees to showcase their individuality and be able to give the first impression they want people to have of them. Compare that to a few years ago employees were expected to be a representation of the business that expectation is there still today, but it would be as if you were reading from a script versus speaking in the tone and voice that shows off your personality.

Professional is a very loose and subjective term in today’s modern climate. Professional could just be the way you dress or the way you talk, but today with a lot of interactions being based on digital text such as emails, texts or now the “DM”. How you approach that conversation could require a different approach.

Speaking from our experience we are very straight to the point and like to ensure that people are getting a transparent and honest interaction with us. We don’t believe this to be professional or not professional, but we know how we operate gets results and that everyone who deals with us is always happy with the result of our business.

Almost as the way comedy is subjective with how people like to consider what a professional culture is. With the emergence of so many companies and the technology sector lifting off in the past 10 to 15 years these companies have adopted a more relaxed outlook on the corporate world. Famously with Mark Zuckerburg when launching Facebook and having it become a “Billion Dollar Company” he remained to stay in the hoodie and trainers look rather than adopting the famous suit and expensive watch when he started to earn all his riches.

Having had entrepreneurs who don’t take on the idea that if you are rich and successful that you must dress a certain way to present that. Yes of course they will attend award nights and premiers in a tuxedo, but this is not the norm for this breed of Billionaire in the modern day. We can now see a change in the meaning of the word “professional”. Again, the vision of a professional is entirely up to what the business owner perceives it to be, a new starter sales company might want you to be suited and booted looking the part from day one, but a new FinTech or SaaS company might be relaxed with their dress code policy.

The question now is going to be does being professional work in the modern era?

Does acting in the traditional sense of the word give you an advantage where other companies may be lacking?

Let’s be realistic businesses in the modern era have one sole focus in mind and that is to make as much money as possible.

Being professional in that process will likely have a cosmetic effect rather than an operational one, being professional is more a state of mind, there is the idea that being dressed in smart office attire will get you into the mindset of wanting to work hard. There is something to suggest this can give that effect due to the feeling of being in a different environment and setting compared to being in your casual clothing. Still being in your casual clothing does not mean you can’t perform to the same level and if not at a higher level, giving the option to wear what you want with businesses now shows that they are willing to listen and create an environment that has their employee’s welfare in mind.

You can now begin to see companies adopt a more relaxed approach to the day-to-day working around the office, plenty of businesses that had to work remotely during the lockdown have either kept to that strategy or modified to a hybrid model. The “professional” theorists would probably think that being in the office 5 days a week from sunrise till sundown is the only approach that offers results. We of course now know that with the research going into the development of the 4-day working week and the productivity levels increasing during the remote working stage of COVID companies who still implement a state of remote working whether that be hybrid or fully remote that these businesses still see better productivity across the board.

Even the environments that people work in are now offering a more aesthetic feel, with a more at-home feel with design against the drab offices that came before. Each office tried to offer unique features such as an in-house bar, leisure games (e.g., pool tables and dart boards), a bespoke design and many other benefits.



Professional is subjective and should not be held to an idea that worked for some companies 10 years ago, if anything has shown us the impact of changes the last 3 years are a perfect example of this. Voices that had been quiet are now being heard and creativity being able to flourish with the encouragement of others when before maybe that had been asked to be sacrificed for the sake of the old views of professionalism.



What is professional to you and does it work?