[Closed] office dress codes...AKA we're all going to be sacked

Pics ?

Our place has a strict dress policy. Business wear including buttoned up shirt and tie for men and all sorts of dos and donts for the women. The only place it seems to be enforced though is head office. No one would dare try and enforce it anywhere else.

(we're not quite in the basement, but if they could!)

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suspect there's one person* who's taking the piss and you're all suffering.
*Is it you?

shoestring tops

Cheap, or made out of string?

I can see how wearing a string vest might be slightly off-putting for your co-workers.

binners...I think you're joking, but, replace Moss with a skinny white girl (failure to thrive 😆 ) and the computers with looms in the background and that's pretty much us...

What's an office dress code?

shoestring tops

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I guess string vests are OK?
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ha i got pulled up last hitch for my jeans having worn through.

was like very good but ive been here 45 days - there was no hole when i arrived what would you like me to do about it ? i have some shorts would that be more acceptable ?

Say it's for health reasons and get a note from your doc.

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with looms in the background

All look pretty well dressed to me

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haha martinhutch, under my jumper I've got my finest damarts thermals on.

😆

I *love* those sorts of e-mails, someone, usually middle management has decided one day to impose their will on everyone else for 'reasons'.

You could be a dick about it, are these rules in your employment contract or HR handbook? No? then sling your hook. Or ignore it.

We only have one rule here, no shorts when visiting clients, you can wear them to work, but if need to go out, you better have a pair of jeans / trousers in your car / under your desk.

Moustache bloke in IHN's pic looks about a cheery as me at work

There should only ever be one dress code rule.....

What would Alan do?

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P-Jay, yeah I know, as well as the dress code there was a note about not eating at your desk as well, but the staff kitchen is 2 floors above us, and there's never enough space at the teeny table, and HR and finance look at us funny when we go up there. [sigh] it's just easier to stay put...

Bins, that is a "strong" look... 😆

Where I work now is pragmatic and the rules are mostly balanced. You can wear jeans etc, but not when meeting clients, you can eat at your desk but snacks only, not hot food etc.

I like it. I've worked in places where one of the guys was sent home by his boss for wearing navy blue jeans (black jeans were ok by HR), and another where beach wear was common in the summer, and erm, somewhat distracting 😳

No-one in management seems to care here, but everyone's too culturally repressed to actually try and push the unspoken boundaries.

My fashion statement is chinos instead of suit trousers. TBH the guys in suits do look better, well, some of them do.. but then I always wear through the crotch of suit trousers which makes an ever growing collection of widowed jackets an expensive folly.

replace Moss with a skinny white girl

Every office has one of those

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Any good stories of being picked up on dress code?

As a developer in an old job I rarely ventured outside the IT department, which even had a coded lock to prevent the masses getting to us and asking us to fix their problems.

One day a manager told me my trousers (craghoppers type things) were not suitable for the office. I'd been wearing those type of trousers for 3 years at this point.. eejit, but it did let me know for certain that they wanted rid of me!

I could talk about dress codes in the army but that is just depressing. Yes, you must wear that Jersey Heavy Wool, with a shirt under it, and a t-shirt under that, in the middle of summer - why? because Queen's regulations!

but then I always wear through the crotch of suit trousers

We are forbidden from wearing spandex ha ha

"Dress Down Friday" includes no denim but as hundreds turn up in denim they cant really send us all home!

Any good stories of being picked up on dress code?

No really good, but when I joined one of the banks in 2001 I was told that:

Suits should be Navy or Black, Pin Striped ideally.
Shirts should be white.
Ties sombre
Shoes, Black, polish, with laces.
You should shave every day "if you need to" facial hair should be neat and grown in your own time (when you're on hols, you didn't have to push out a beard overnight).

And I was asked, in a sit down meeting in the bosses office that undoing my tie and top button wasn't acceptable.

They're a bit more relaxed now, you don't have to wear a tie I'm told - incredible scenes on day 1 I imagine.

Last place I worked suddenly introduced a new dress policy & decided all men should wear shirts & ties, because of 'reasons'.

Our comments about ties being potentially dangerous due to frequently having to work on development projects on the shop floor with moving equipment were batted away with 'well, just take your tie off every time you go down the shop floor'.

The womenz were allowed to wear whatever they wanted as far as we could tell.

One bloke refused to wear a tie, gave many reasons why it was unnecessary & a poorly thought out set of dress code rules. This was ignored.
He handed his notice in over it & left.

I went on a shopping trip & started wearing 'comedy' ties to work.

It says 'please don't', not 'you must not'.

So it's unenforceable, also 'unusual hair colour.'

Define unusual, could be a discrimination case right there.

Can you legally enforce different rules for ladies and gents?

Can you legally enforce different rules for ladies and gents?

You can if i ever win the lottery.

"Freedom Dress" here.

Apparently that doesn't mean:

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Which was awkward.

No offensive smells.
No offensive stains.
No offensive holes.

Today i meet all our dress code requirements. Hopefully i will tomorrow.

I work from home. As a minimum I try to ensure I'm wearing at least a t-shirt and pants.

No offensive smells.
No offensive stains.
No offensive holes.

Hmm not sure I'm compliant with all of these.

Any good stories of being picked up on dress code?

Worked for a large corporate soon after leaving Uni. Got to work an hour or so before 9am. Hadn't put my tie on before i left the house. I'd got it out my bag and put it on my desk intending to put it on before 9am. Pretty much everyone who walked past my desk on the way to theirs commented on my casual look! At ten to nine I was invited into a senior managers office and advised that I might want to put my tie on 🙄

Any good stories of being picked up on dress code?

I used to work at a place where there were over 1,000 staff employed, all but about 15 of whom were in what one would traditionally call "white collar" jobs - i.e. office / desk based activities. The dress code for men included collared shirts and ties.

I was one of the 15 (working in the basement, well away from the suited-and-booted) and had to work with various machinery for which the risk assessment / safety regulations very much stipulated that ties must not be worn, due to the real risk of strangley death. So we didn't, but we would respect the general spirit of officeyness and wear reasonably smart trousers, shirts and shoes

So, the edict came down - we must wear collared shirts and have ties with us, to be worn when not engaged with the machinery. Without exception, we all purchased the most foully obnoxious ties and teamed them with the clashiest of shirts. For good measure, we would try to wear the combo as badly as possible as often as possible - shirts with at least two top buttons open, ties with a knot hanging somewhere near the solar plexus, ideally skewed to one side.

After not a very long time, da management suggested that, if we would stop taking the p*ss and start coming to work looking reasonable, they would make an exception to the tie rule.

Incidentally, literally no customers of the business would visit this site.

Dress code? Having worked from home for a while that just means wearing trousers

Any good stories of being picked up on dress code?

One of my instructors arrived one morning not wearing a fleece, outdoory trousers and Salomon trainers.
Instead he though he would make an effort in nice shirt and chino's.
He was lobbed in the river at lunchtime.

😆

Before I finally managed to escape the world of work by being old enough, I worked in an office. One day, the Ubermanager decided it would be a good idea to have a competitive "fun" day between the different sections of the department, one aspect of which was a prize for the "silliest hat".

I managed to convince a female colleague in another department to lend me a pair of her pink knickers to wear on my head.

I didn't win the prize.

Then somebody found out who she was and it was all over the building.

She never talked to me again...

Instead he though he would make an effort in nice shirt and chino's.

Can you legally enforce different rules for ladies and gents?

With a few exceptions, no. Hence cases of men attending workplaces in skirts to make a point. There have been a number of tribunal cases on this subject, so there is precedence.

I've been pulled up for wearing safety boots and jeans/shirt in the office instead of a suit, tie and shitty shiny shoes.
I did ask if he thought it would be sensible to wear such a get up whilst i was paid to spend most of my working time crawling around assorted CNC machines. Some of them while running.

He did.

Glad i was a contractor.

What are nice chinos? Sounds like just cause really.

We thought so.

I also had the opposite at university - a (weekly) Mountain Leader training field trip to Snowdonia had a good proportion of the 10 of us forget waterproofs, hats, boots, headtorch etc. Tutor was (rightly) livid and left us with the phrase "...and next week, make sure you are properly bl**dy dressed!" 😈

He hopped in front seat of minibus next week to find driver in Tuxedo, lass behind in little black dress and me suited and booted next to her...the others were in similar attire...

"Well, you told us to be properly dressed..." 😆

You should [b]see[/b] the people in my office, dress code - dress what? But then I do work in fashion (tech) dahrling.

Pretty much anything goes. For anyone who requests pictures, I don't want to end up on any sort of offenders list so it's not going to happen!

At my interview for this place I asked my (soon to be new) boss whether it was acceptable to dress down like him in the office. He looked down at his Craghopper toursers, company polo shirt and trainers and responded with "Dress down? I dressed up for this interview!".

I love working in IT sometimes.

mikewsmith - Member 
Dress code? Having worked from home for a while that just means wearing trousers

pah! Amateur..... 8)

I am generally the most scruffily dressed person at work, shorts and T shirt most days. I generally dress up for customers unless they get introduced to me first, in which case I just to my presentations in shorts and T shirts.....

Dress code applies just to what can be seen via Hangouts, right??? 😆

(Having said that, simply because all my jeans need washing, I’m actually in a skirt for a change today)

Rachel

Oh no - now I have a “proper job” again, does this mean I’m expected to wear something other than t-shirt & jeans when presenting at conferences???

I’m off to look for dresses and stuff that can survive being packed in my motorbike for days on end before being worn to present.

Well I'm properly old and grumpy so the powers that be know how terse my response would be to any demands to wear inappropriate clothing for my role.

You should see the people in my office, dress code - dress what? But then I do work in fashion (tech) dahrling.

Pretty much anything goes. For anyone who requests pictures, I don't want to end up on any sort of offenders list so it's not going to happen!

I recall you work in GLH, and as such I can attest to the batshit crazy outfits many of your colleagues wear! I miss some of the lift chat since we moved office, real stuff of the intelligencia; "Ohmygodbabe, are you on hats today sweetie?" "no, I'm on swimwear, doing hats on Thursday hun". *facepalm*

We have no dress code, people look presentable in the main, devs less so, chairman and CEO more so, although they still wears jeans every day. Don't get customers visiting, but we do have external visitors.

I worked for an insurance company where they decided we should dress the same (ie suits) as the trading offices, where brokers visited. A broker had never been to our regional office, and this was one third of one of five floors, so it looked a bit daft. I just moved desks as I wasn't part of that team anyway!

First school I worked at, one of the English department (always English) came to work dressed in cowboy boots, a tiny skirt and...some top, I cannot remember the top part to be honest, all I remember is the legs.

Anyway, suffice to say all the boys paid attention in class that day. She looked pretty scandalous. Email from the principal came round shortly after the morning meeting and staff slightly stunned at her attire for the day.

My next school the head had worked for a few years in Jamaica, and said he always wore full suit even on the hottest days, so all the men at school had to wear suits all year round, despite classrooms being scorching. Women again could get away with sandals etc. in the summer.

Luckily my new job, the dress code is fairly relaxed. Although I did have a moment where I was chatting to a near retirement age archaeologist last week and realised we were dressed the same, I am 33.

Rachel you need a little mini steamer. They work a treat.

We had the following message from the ceo in the middle of the summer:

Businesses like ours are completely dependent on the talent of the people who work here. Yes, many companies say that, but in our case it’s true: our customers value, and pay for, our unique products and services created, marketed and sold through your skills and commitment.

I believe we perform at our best when we can be ourselves at work. One example is how we dress. For some people, it’s no big deal. But for others, it’s an important issue of comfort or identity. Therefore, with immediate effect please feel free to dress as you want to. I trust you to be mindful of your colleagues and any reasonable sensitivities they may have and, of course, of the need in some cases to be smart in front of clients. I’m not going to prescribe what that means – as I say, I trust you.

So what’s our dress code? From now on, we don’t have one.

🙂

We had the following message from the ceo in the middle of the summer:

Very enlightened thinking!

One of my school friends did his medical degree at Charing Cross in the Eighties, and anatomy in the pre-clinical part included cadaveric dissection, with ties to be worn by men as a mark of respect. Having burnt his olnly school tie on leaving, he borrowed from the back of his father’s cupboard - wonderful Sixties and Seventies offerings for which the passage of time had only made more gaudy and striking, especially with their 7 or 8” blades offering a broad canvas in contrast to the thin monochrome contemporary styles on display round the other students’ necks.

Within a fortnight, the supervisor dropped the tie requirement, as there was clearly no respect being offered by the ties that taste forgot.

Job interview next week.

While I'll obviously be wearing a suit, if it's a suits place I'll be instituting a mlre relaxed dresss code - I;ve spent too long in jeans/shirt/jacket to return to worn out suit trousers and a jacket ruined from being rung on the back of a chair.

I upset security at the posh building my "not for profit government transport organisation" rents some flooors on by turning up in full orange PPE and boots for a meeting (it was clean!). I was made to leave the foyer and enter via the delivery entrance. I also upset the safety briefer by wearing orange as apparently it wasn't the done thing to turn up in the PPE you would be wearing trackside whilst enacting the new rules we were being briefed about!

Never wore a tie to work and only wore trousers for a few weeks as they where part of the new proffesional uniform, sadly they shrunk so much and i was cycling 32 miles a day to work and back my legs filled them to almost bursting, since then always wore jeans and never a tie or a suit and never will.

Thank goodness we abandoned dress down. Back to proper attire but some odd folk have started to forget their ties. Sloppy as their work...

My first experience of dress down Friday in an office 25 years ago didn't go so well, I turned up in Bermuda shorts and a bright blue vest - it was hot. Lost my job the next week - only a summer job fortunately.

I used to work in a university and had a meeting with two academics. One turned up in fleece, shorts and hiking boots and the other was in a full three-piece suit, pocket watch and cravat.

They got on like a house on fire and were close colleagues for years.

My last place expected all male employees to wear suit and tie in the office, I worked from home so was doing well if I managed pants and dressing gown.

I have been known to wear pants in the office (whilst drying my shorts after getting rained on cycling in)....

Finally told my work - boss via text after he was pushing me to book a flight on my day off of all things - I’m not flying anywhere.

No reply, and I’m sure a series of difficult conversations will happen but as I’m on a UK contract and not required to fly about contractually everything will be fine. I hope.

Sorry to be OT and not an attempt to hijack the thread but I had to get it out. Please feel free to ignore and carry on...

Back OT then:

managed pants and dressing gown.

One of our chaps got caught out when he was summoned immediately onto a conference call, and stupidly did so whilst sitting next to a pool in Spain.

I work in a Uni - huge variety of dress standards, from sharp suits to Professors in scruffy shell suits !

A couple of jobs ago we had a dress down Friday dress code of "no bums or tums", which totally ruined my crop top and assless chaps look

We had a similar email a few years ago from the chairman where I worked.

He finished off by saying 'xxxx is a professional organisation and new age travelers are not welcome'.

Didn't go down particularly well but he owned the company and he didn't give a shit what people thought.

Jeans and tshirts for me. Sometimes I push the scruffy look a bit too far with downtrodden jeans and muddy boots, but me and my clothes are always clean!

4. Jeans and denim

phew, i think we're ok there

was this guy already fired?

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I work in a law firm. Every month the day before dress down day an email comes round with "advice" on what to wear. A vacation placement student once turned up in a rugby top (on dress down day) and as far as I can tell he blew his chances of a job at that point (no sportswear). Day to day I push the limits slightly with dresses and cardigans rather than a suit but have got away with it so far.

Other than the odd day of wedding photography (suit, no tie), mine's the same as matt-outandabout's. I do spend most days lying in puddles taking photos of dogs. Gets to the point - at this time of year - where I just keep one pair of manging, soggy Craghoppers trousers, walk the dog in them and go to work in them...

Ah, halcyon days of laboratory boiler suits/scrubs - when all I had to remember to do when I rode in was bring some underpants with me 🙂

I think this has to be the future for the male of the species:

I feel sorry for all you drones that have to wear suits to work. That must be totally rubbish. I've never really got the "we must dress up to impress clients" .. personally I view people wearing suits as trying too hard and I tend to distrust them. Smart casual generally comes across much better in my line of work.

For a number of years I was a manager at a fintech firm and I wore jeans and t-shirt every day (apart from the very occasional once a quarter "dress up" day where corporate overlords would turn up and lecture us all about strategies, silos and synergies). Wearing a suit was pretty amusing on those days, but screw doing that daily.

I now work as a developer and wear ... jeans and t-shirt (or maybe long sleeve depending on how I'm feeling). It drives my wife nuts as my home and work "wardrobe" are the same wardrobe.

We had the following message from the ceo in the middle of the summer:
Very enlightened thinking!

Likes....

I also read an article about a US company where the company instituted similar policies for hours and holidays; basically do your jobs, don't let the company or your colleagues down, and if that means you can take the odd half day here and there, then do so. No-one was counting how many you took, just measuring you on what you did.

The small (software engineering) company I work for was started by people who'd gotten fed up of things like dress codes and HR departments. When discussing getting a potential hire in for a second interview, one of the directors said that they'd ask them to turn up in the sort of clothes they're comfortable in and if they showed up in a suit then that may indicate they weren't a good match for the company.

I occasionally meet clients and when I do usually a polo shirt instead of a t shirt is the only change necessary. I've probably occasionally changed jeans for trousers but not very often at all.

If i want to dress up instead of a t shirt and shorts I've got a park tools apron to wear

Im considering aquiring a set of office slippers for when its too cold for flipflops.

Many years ago we were sent a memo (it was that long ago) from the CEO complaining that some people had been seen with rolled up sleeves. This was unacceptable and must stop.
Short sleeve shirts were also banned.
This was a high tech engineering company, not a city bank, so the memo was ignored!

I’m so glad I’ve never worked anywhere that has a dress code. Sounds like being back at school.

I feel sorry for all you drones that have to wear suits to work

Says the man who then goes into say that he wears the ultimate in male western drone wear: the tee shirt and jeans. 😆

Quite proud that in leaving interview from MoD. My line manager's boss said when I arrived everyone was in suits and ties and now 2 years later it's pool shirts an moleskins. (lots of ex senior army officers as well as civilians)

Im considering aquiring a set of office slippers for when its too cold for flipflops.