Does Your Office Have a Dress Code? Do You Follow It?
Summer temperatures are here, and with them come workers’ motivation to push the limits of their office dress codes. This is actually part of the inspiration for next week’s ABA-CLE teleconference and webcast: Flip Flops Are Not Business Casual! Drafting Dress Codes for Your Firm and Clients. It focuses on “finding a middle ground that allows for employee self-expression and avoids discrimination claims.”
But mixing summer clothing with doing business seems to come up every year: Last year, Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle specifically warned its male attorneys and paralegals in a memo that chest hair must never be visible; and a recruiter, lawyer and stylist all weighed in on what a woman lawyer should wear to an office pool party and agreed that swimsuits should definitely be left at home.
In 2008, some men were wearing shorts to their white-collar jobs, including one 80-something Manhattan lawyer.
So this week, we’d like to ask you: Does your office have a dress code? Do you agree with it and follow it? We also welcome any answers recounting any workplace fashion fouls you’ve seen that either prompted or should have prompted your office to start enforcing a dress code.
Answer in the comments below.
Read the answers to last week’s question: What Poetic, Alliterative & Not-So-Nasty Words Would You Use to Describe Your Position at Your Firm?
Featured answer:
Posted by BL1Y.com: “I used to list myself as a ‘billable hour factory line worker,’ because that pretty accurately describes life as a junior associate at a big law firm. You’re not there to produce great research or polished memos; you’re there to produce billable hours. But, since the economy happened, I’ve changed my job title to ‘welfare queen.’ “
