Citing health study, mayor wants to ban workplace necktie requirements
Californians aren’t exactly known for their stuffy workplace attire. Even so, Lancaster, Calif., Mayor R. Rex Parris wants to forbid all city employers from requiring workers to don the enemy of the casual wardrobe: neckties.
At a council meeting this week, Parris asked the city attorney to look into whether such a policy is feasible.
The seemingly random proposal is a matter of public health, Parris said. Last week, the mayor came across a new study published in the journal Neuroradiology that suggests wearing neckties may lower blood flow to the brain, potentially curbing creativity and analytical thinking. The study contends that restricting circulation by such an amount—7.5 percent on average, according to the research—could have fatal implications for someone with high blood pressure.
“I spend a lot of hours every week on an elliptical or a bike just to increase blood flow to my brain,” Parris said, “and it turns out every morning when I put on a tie I’m diminishing it.”
The mayor’s proposal comes at a tenuous time for the tie.
The late Steve Jobs’ iconic uniform of black turtleneck and blue jeans—sans tie, of course—inspired many a think piece, and a generation of techies followed suit (good luck spotting a tie on the Facebook campus). In 2015, the New York City Commission on Human Rights released guidance on gender identity and gender expression protections, which clarified that employers who enforce policies that require men to wear ties or women to wear skirts could technically be violating the law.
JP Morgan introduced a business casual clothing policy in 2016. The next year, even the notoriously formal British Parliament dropped ties from its male dress code.
But the question of ties as a safety hazard has rarely entered the discussion.
Parris said he wants Lancaster employers to make wearing ties to work optional, at the very least. He likened the tie requirement to demanding women wear heels to work, characterizing it as an issue of compelled gender presentation.
Parris said he wasn’t sure how many Lancaster employers require neckties, but said city department heads customarily wear them to work.
Because the policy would involve issuing infractions to offending employers, Parris has asked the city’s Criminal Justice Commission to look into whether such a rule is practical.
Parris, a well-known litigator, said he “could buy a car” with the amount of money he’s spent on ties. And he’s not stopped wearing them yet. That’s because most courts require attorneys to wear “business attire” in the courtroom, and for most judges that means wearing a tie.
For the necktie study, researchers at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Germany scanned the brains of 30 men, half of whom wore neckties. A third of the men in the necktie group experienced at least a 10 percent drop in blood flow.
Because of the study’s small sample size, Parris has asked the city’s Healthy Community Commission to check its reliability.
The study does not explain how the 7.5 percent average decrease in blood circulation might affect brain function. But generally speaking, poor cerebral blood flow can lead to brain tissue death and result in stroke, hemorrhage and other conditions, according to Healthline.