I work for a large financial services company in Zurich. I am currently giving some career coaching to a colleague who is looking to move out of a personal assistant role into a more business related/project function. The coaching is going pretty well.

However, my style tips: get rid of the jeans, sports shoes and tight tops...and replace with smarter attire, including at least one suit for interviews/big meetings seems to be less appreciated and has generated the response...'I will never wear a suit..EVER!'

Am I totally wrong about this?

I don't think one has to wear a suit every day, but in a corporate environment...it is called for sometimes.

With her permission, take a photo. Crop out her head, so people can only see what she's wearing. Ask them if they'd employ her for a project, all things being equal. Respond to coachee with results

What surprises me is, if she is a PA, she should already have a decent business wardrobe.

Anyway, if she wants the part, she's got to look the part. She's lucky to have a coach.

good for you !

Its not her choice of whether she wants to wear a suit ("EVER") or not. It depends on the corporate culture of the company she's working in and how serious she is about her new job if it "required" her to wear a suit at the bigger meetings.
Personal choice versus being taken seriously. Some people...

What nationality is your colleague?

I know that Swiss don't go in for office formality in a big way.

If your colleague is British, then absolutely NO EXCUSE!!!!!!!!!

Whether or not you are "wrong" depends upon the culture of the company in question.

ARE the folks in more powerful positions wearing business suits and similar attire... or are they more dressed down?

A lot of the corporate types I'd seen in the US in recent years (granted, I was living in the south) were wearing more "corporate casual" type stuff (polo style shirts with khaki pants and deck shoes) for day-to-day attire rather than business suits.


So, while we who are not Swiss may feel that folks are a bit dressed down for business, it may be part of their culture to NOT be stuffed into uncomfortable suits.

I have dress code at work too and at first it bothered me a lot since I couldn't be more fare from the suit-type.
But, I've been able to keep somewhat of my style in a more tasteful way, with skirts and tops.
It takes time to get used to, but you will, and you just need to find this fine line between yourself and the dress code.

I work for a financial services company and I wear a suit each and every day. Not only do I feel smart enough to approach anyone in the company, regardless of level, on an equal footing... but I feel great in it and it projects professionalism. In contrast one of my colleagues wears relaxed jeans and trainers, and his attitude matches. I always think your attire reflects that personally.

That is very true. I dress up more fancy if I have more important meetings or have to do trainings. I feel much more confident in myself when I'm dressed up.

For non-client facing roles I would expect to wear casual clothes. That of course excludes ripped jeans, sports trainers, belly showing or high-riding strings popping out of the back of your jeans that are way too common in my workplace.

No she should be encouraged to get out of her tight tops as often as possible.
Seriously though she should observe the workplace she is consdering and dress according to how the majority of other staff dress there. At least to start with.

The company we work for is very international. However, the dress trend is defintely more on the formal side. Senior management all wear suits at all times. In her PA role, my colleague already interacts with senior management so she can already see what the score is.

best advice I heard from a colleague who like to have a tie on even though no one else at his level does:

"I don't dress up for my job. I dress up for the job that I want".

So if she wants that job, she should dress accordingly.

Her allergy to smart clothing might have something to do with an attitude of casual clothes = personal freedom...Does she wear socks?

Then she is just cutting off her nose to spite her own face. You cant do much if she refuses to wear a suit. Will she be in a senior management position?

If not, what do people of her level wear? Formal doesnt necessarily equal suit all the time if she's terribly against it. Might just come back and bite her in the backside in the future if she is strongly against suits.

If a suit isn't an absolute must I would say someone can look very good in jeans,
maybe the darker ones, a nice white blouse, a lovely pair of shoes and if need be a classy jacket.

This wouldn't be a too much of a drastic uncomfortable change for the person and avoid getting both of you worked up about this
and who knows one day she might even say yes to a real suit.

I too started work in Zurich for a large bank. I turned up day one all suited and looking a bit more dapper than usual. After a week, I turned to teh usual IT office attire, jeans and t-shirts , to match everyone else. I thought it was great. That feeling lasted about a week. I am now back to formal office attire. How you dress , I believe, says a lot about the way you feel and the confidence you have in yourself and your career.

Slightly off topic, I just love all the leggings/boots jeans/boots and so many slim booted legs around Zurich. It's the leggy capital of the world methinks. At work it is quite a distraction, cant be drooling on my new formal wear now can I...

I'd lean a bit this way too.

Go with compromise styling for now, she may not have the money to get a whole new wardrobe anyhow and it's not like I've seen any stores here like the Ross, TJ Maxx or Marshall's chains in the US - where you can get "last season" and closeout items including business wear and designers dirt cheap.

If you've not been to her house, go and review her existing wardrobe, maybe she even already has a few things that she can wear that will dress up her day-to-day.

Could this be the problem for not wearing the right clothes at work?

This a real touchy subject. I would not give advice on what a person is wearing unless they ask. If you critisize what they wear then it might be taken as criticizing who they are