Interactive humpday: What’s your dresscode?
I’ve covered dress codes a bit before: business casual, business casual for women, the alleged death of business casual, and what to do if you don’t have a dress code at all.
What I’m wondering is, how many of us have dress codes at work, and just what dresscodes do our workplaces have?
For bonus points, tell me (in comments) about a specific rule your workplace has. At my work, they used to have casual Fridays, and one Friday my boss ended up in a client meeting he wasn’t expecting. Apparently someone was horrified that he’d worn a baseball cap to said meeting, so the story is still going round, years later, about how there’s an unwritten rule of “no baseball caps”. Or maybe just “no baseball caps for $BOSS,” as I’ve seen plenty on other people lately.
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I’ve been here nearly 4 years and for most of that time it seemed that saying “business casual” for anyone not working in dusty areas or with hardware directly was enough of a common sense rule. However we work with federal government clients on-site and they have a slightly less restrictive dress code so it can bleed through to the contractors.
I believe some groups on my contract do have Casual Friday where they replace slacks with jeans, but we have supposedly have strict rules against tennis shoes, ripped jeans (even though it’s fashionable), t-shirts, etc.
Still, my team doesn’t ever dress up too much because our client has told us that it’s very intimidating when we show up closer to the business side of business casual.
Aside from “dress for clients if you’ve got ‘em”, our environment is casual to business-casual (individual variation), and our only specific rule is that you must wear shoes. (Sandals fine, socks w/o shoes not.) I’m told it’s a safety rule; even though we don’t work in a machine shop or the like, other parts of the organization do have the kind of environment where you could step on something unfortunate.
Since I’ve just moved to a fairly conservative bank, I’m the sucker who ticked the “business” box.
However, it’s not a strict code. Firstly, because I oscillate from the IT side to the business side, suit and cufflink-level dress is appropriate but also a degree of dress down.
Suits: For fitting in with the business and intimidating the techies.
Casual: For fitting in with the techies and looking appropriately propellor-headed to the business.
Horses for courses really. At the last bank I was briefly at, the dress code was Chinos and Ralph Lauren *very* strictly if you wanted to fit in.
High five, Dave! ;)
I’m also in a financial institution, very newly so after years in a more…casual…environment. Because I’m not in front of customers, I can go a little more towards the casual end of the spectrum, but I definitely had to go out and buy almost an entirely new wardrobe when I started this gig.
We have specific casual days, for which you have to participate in an event, donate to a charity, etc. Or if the weather is very snowy or hot, we can dress for the weather, if that’s been authorized.
I’m noticing now that it’s getting in towards summer (in the northern hemisphere) that people around my level are dressing a bit more casually in general, though.
I’m definitely still feeling my way through the whole dress code thing. All of my jobs have been various level of casual dress (all the way down to wearing something I could clean houses in), and I’m something of an eccentric dresser if left to my own devices. So I’m doing a lot more observation of what other people wear, more than I’m used to.
And as has been noted, office dress for women can be somewhat tricky. There isn’t anything so standard that you can just go out and say, “I need 5 suits.” :)
(Okay, I went on a little longer than I was planning to….)
All my workplaces have been varying degrees of casual. Where I am now is probably the least casual, but it’s not formal enough to call it “business casual”, at least in the IT groups.
Since I’m fairly young (and this is a much larger company than my last job), I asked the hiring manager about the dress code on my first day. He didn’t really know how to answer except to tell me what he normally wore (button-down shirt and slacks, jeans on Fridays). There seems to be a lot of room for variation.
OK, so I cheated. I’m a student. Grad students don’t do dress codes!
However, the major problem I have absolutely everywhere is OH&S requirements to wear shoes. Yes, I know that the floors really are teeming with millions of staples, but I have weak wimpy feet that bleed every time I wear new shoes if I’m not really really careful, and I need to have regular shoe breaks and so on. I’ve got better about monitoring this, but really. Sometimes they need to come off, or I’ll be crippled for days.
Our university doesn’t let people change lightbulbs anymore either. They’ve hired this one dude for the whole campus, and now there’s an eight week waiting list for lightbulb changes. Ah OH&S.
Interestingly, I’m in a weird place between what I’ve seen defined here as “business casual” and “casual”. In particular, people tend to dress on the trendier side of “casual”; it doesn’t appear to be an official diktat from management, but rather, an oddly self-governing move toward fashionability amongst the coding masses.
Now, you certainly *can* wear nasty old jeans and a crappy T-shirt, but the people who are “going somewhere” wear nicer jeans (clean, fresh, not ripped, etc.) and tight-fitting, well-kept T-shirts, or button-down shirts. It’s a very interesting culture; everyone seems to watch a few key senior tech people and project managers, and then copies them with their own twist on the style. Those lead developers shop at places like Old Navy and H&M, rather than their piles of old conference swag. The result is a surprisingly trendy and well-kept workforce, for the most part. I’m certainly dressing more nicely than I did at my previous job, where tech people were just as likely to roll in in beach shorts and flip-flops (in summer) or sweats (in winter) as anything else.
No dress code here, except for “dress up a bit if clients of yours will be coming in”, which is not very often for all but a handful of us developers.
My workplace, as of last Friday ( I just resigned! ), uniform was suit and tie. During business hours only. After hours, it was free for all, unlike all the front-of-house staff who had to wear uniforms.
That’s why I opted for permanent night shift after 6 months.
It’s the only job I’ve had where I can get away with tattoos on show, wear un-ironed jeans and t-shirts, go unshaven for weeks at a time, and still get “Excellent” on the “appearance” part of my 6-monthly review.
My office is business casual and thanks to me, there is now a new rule in place. Everyone has to wear shoes. This is due to me getting to the office and ditching my shoes everyday.
I work for a government agency. I’m not sure there’s an actual dress code where I work, other than “you can dress down on Fridays” and “no flip-flops on any day, even so-called dressy ones”!
Generally, this is what I actually see on Monday-Thursday:
Men - dress pants, dress shirts, appropriate socks and shoes, about 2/3 of men wear ties. In my experience the men who don’t wear ties are either so close to retirement that they just don’t care anymore or the younger and more tech-minded. Young not-techs and older guys who expect to still be there for a while wear ties. Sportcoats or full suits are rare but make occasional appearances.
Women - This is odd. The colder the weather, the more formally women dress. In effect, the default is professional in the winter, business casual in the summer. Most women in the winter wear blazers, blouses and pants or mid-length skirts; the most common alternative to this is a twin sweater set and pants. In the summer, the jackets go away and dresses become more common. The hippie and sometimes goth forms of “subcultural casual” are common in the summer, less so in the winter.
At a former workplace - a financial - the dress code was strictly business Monday-Thursday, and business casual on Fridays. I’m still curious what particular incident resulted in “No PVC” being added to the list of rules about what constitutes business casual.
I work in a very formal office where all the men have to wear a suit and tie everyday no exceptions. I was brought up in a very strict British home where I was always expected to be formally dressed all the time. We moved to Canada when I was a teen and even though the
students at the public school I attended wore jeans etc I wore jacket and ties. So I have been considered uptight my whole life. Even now in my office
I dress more formally that anyone else blue, gray or black suits(often 3 piece), white or blue shirts only with cufflinks and wing tips.
I often wear pin collars (collar bar) under my 1/2 windsor knot or sometimes
a full windsor with a spread collar. Recently a new senior executive was put in
charge of my department. He called me in and told me that my work was great but
appearance needed improvement. He noticed that I had worn a blue shirt with
a white collar and cuffs the previous day and right at that moment I was wearing a
pink tie with my gray suit(both items were presents from my wife). He explained that
shirts should be white and ties red, gray, or dark blue. And also black suits were
not acceptaple for the office. Dark blue or gray only. I was a bit stunned but said
I would adhere to his dress code in future. He said that as I was seeing a client
that afternoon he wanted me to change my tie. I apologized and said I did not have
another with me. I was shocked when he produced a dark gray tie and made me put it on
before I returned to my office. He also removed my pink display hanky. The final
instruction came as he watched me tie the gray tie only to admonish my full windsor and
tell me half windsor was the only permissible knot. I turned a bit red but retied it to
his satisfaction. I left the office a bit stunned. This same meeting happened with the
other men in the office so we are now very uniform in our dress. I guess I am not as
anal about my appearance/dress as I thought.
Interesting comments from the above. I think his boss had a point. Wearing a suit in itself is not always enough. I have a few basic set rules for the men in my office -
1. No fashion suits/shirts/ties please. Suits should be conservative in style - preferably dark grey. Shirts should be plain and preferably white and no striped or fashion styles allowed. I advise colars and cuffs to be starched though I know some of the men do not always follw this and I don’t chase them about it.
2. Collars must be fastened at the top button at all times with no exception. Ties must be knotted in full windsor style and should be plain and conservative in style - no fashion ties. My only concession with ties is that for the office party or occasional ‘celebration’ days, novelty, fun ties are acceptable.
3. Hair - hair should be neat and short but I don’t want men with shaved heads in our company and the ’skin head’ look is definitley a no no! Sideburns are also not allowed and I ask the guys to shave them completely so the hair line is level with the top of the ear.
You’d be surprised at how few people rebel from these rules. I general, the men seem to like the guidelines and are always quick to rsepond to their colleagues if one of them is slacking!