Recently around the world more and more of us have been forced to stay indoors due to the pandemic. 

 

This has resulted in much more time being spent at home and our social life’s all but grinding to a halt. 

 

As such our day-to-day habits have changed and this is perfectly normal, we went from travelling to the office every day to working at home. We used to go for dinner at restaurants a few times a week and now we can’t as nothing is open. 

 

As a direct impact of these lifestyle changes our dressing habits will have changed to perhaps without us noticing. 

 

For most of us our day-to-day dress code for the office would have been smart casual or business casual. However, when working from home will you get up in the morning and dress for the normal business day. 

Perhaps initially but if like me after the first few weeks of working from home the novelty wears off and it becomes a much more dressed down affair. 

 

The star of lockdown attire.

As we mentioned when working from home our attire naturally changed from the smart to the casual and there has been a particular stand out star of the lockdown wardrobe and that has been none other than cropped sweatpants. 

 

Yes, cropped sweatpants the item you only used to wear on a Sunday morning for trips to the grocery store has now become a staple of your day-to-day attire. But why has this happened and why have cropped sweatpants became so popular well in short, they are:

 

• Comfortable 
• Convenient 
• Multi-functional 
• Easy to get on

 

Now all of these traits are not new to us I mean let’s face it this is the reason we own cropped sweatpants in the first place.

 

But I bet that at the beginning of the pandemic no one would have anticipated that these would become the global work uniform for all of us. 

 

But I mean when you think about it properly it actually makes sense why would we get up every morning and put on a suit or the like to sit in front of a computer. Now of course there is the caveat that some meetings etc via video call will require a more formal attire, but it is very unlikely that any of us would spend our entire day on camera. 

 

So, it makes perfect sense to perform our day-to-day work activities in something that we find comfortable as this has been proven to increase productivity.

 

Is there a downside?

So is there a downside from wearing less-formal clothes to work from home. We may think not as it makes us more comfortable and allows us to focus on our work more. 

But there is an argument that if we are too comfortable it can actually affect our focus and make us less productive. 

 

Be honest how many of us started working from home sitting at a desk as if we were in the office and then a week or two later found ourselves doing the same tasks from the sofa or even the comfort of our beds 

 

Some minds out there believe this is directly linked to our beloved cropped sweatpants. So could it be that our much-loved day to day garment is affecting our work productivity. 

 

The argument is that being too comfortable can cause us to adopt more comfortable and laid-back working positions and thus lower the amount of work we actually do. 

 

Are sweatpants to blame?

Absolutely not we cannot blame a garment on a change in behaviour if this were true it would mean every time, we wore a cap we would want to play baseball. 

 

However, there is truth in a change in environment can cause a change in behaviour and being forced to stay from the office would make us adapt to our home environment more where we naturally feel more comfortable, I mean it is our home after all. 

 

Summary 

To summarise this whole debate, we cannot blame cropped sweatpants for taken a different approach to our working day if anything we should thank them as they have been a constant comfort throughout this challenging time. They have been there every day with us through these difficult times. 

 

If anything, we should buy more cropped sweatpants as who knows what the future will hold for us and the world of work and we never know when we may have to adapt to a new daily routine again.