When is Casual Too Casual?

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Casual days are more than just confusing for Dilbert and office workers in today’s society. "Studies have shown that Fridays are the only safe day to dress casually," Dogbert declares in Casual Day Has Gone Too Far. "Any other day would cause a stock plunge."

Courtney Blowers from the Beacon Journal writes that, “summer fever and business casual can be a dangerous combination in the office. It is hard to know where to draw the line, being comfortable and casual at work without compromising your professional appearance. But being on the right side of that line can save you and your co-workers a great deal of embarrassment.”

But casual dress is not only for Fridays in many organizations.  Casual dress has become the new standard. And with it comes the problems associated with casual dress.

“Ever since the bubble burst on the dot-com kids a few years ago, style experts have been predicting the end of business casual,” says John Intini in Maclean’s. “But take a quick scan of your workplace and it's pretty obvious that the trend of dressing down is far from dead. The only way of escaping from this Gap ad is to banish T-shirts and jeans from the boardroom--relegating them to your weekend wardrobe. To be clear, I'm certainly not siding with stuffy old men who tuck their shirts into their underwear and argue that everyone should be wearing starched button-downs and navy suits. But the problem with dress-down days is that they've put the working world on a slippery style slope--spreading an overly relaxed attitude toward fashion to every day of the week.”

CareerBuilder.com suggests to “dress for the season but don't get carried away.” And if you are going to dress down, you should “always keep a cardigan or blazer at your desk. It can provide a quick cover-up if you get called in for an important meeting, and can also come in handy in an overly air conditioned office.”

“Casual dress can be a great employee recruitment and retention tool,” says Jennifer Loftus, National Director for Astron Solutions. “When people feel comfortable, they should be free to perform at their best.  However, organizations must be careful to ensure that the benefit of casual dress doesn't send the wrong message—that our organization has such a relaxed environment that performance, professionalism, and manners no longer matter.”

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) warns that as companies jump on the full-time dress-down bandwagon, more and more are saddled with personnel problems. “Viewing casual business-wear policies as a perk, human resources professionals often assume employees will instantly embrace them, underestimating the impact dress code changes have on the workforce. While you may think of business-casual as work perk, not everyone will agree, at least not initially.”

“Remember in Jurassic Park when Jeff Goldblum's character said that the T-Rex would always test the electronic fence, looking for weaknesses?” asks Loftus. “Some employees may be the same way when it comes to casual dress. While certain exceptions may be acceptable—shorts during a 100 degree heatwave, for instance—both HR and Line Management must be vigilant in maintaining compliance with the relaxed dress code. Someone coming to work in pajama bottoms and flip flops needs to be addressed right away, before others sense a weakness in policy maintenance.”

The other internal problems come from lawsuits due to sexual harassment from casual wear. Outfits which show more skin can cause uncomfortable situations in the office. A recent federal court action serves as a reminder of what can happen when employees stop being professional. In Caballo v. Log Cabin Smokehouse, a waitress in a small restaurant complained to her night manager that another supervisor and co-owner of the restaurant was sexually harassing her, according to the Louisiana Employment Law Letter. 

“The waitress wasn’t completely innocent, either, however,” reads the article. “She admitted that she told jokes of a sexual nature, discussed sex with her coworkers, made inappropriate comments about her own body, and wore provocative jewelry such as Mardi Gras beads with a naked woman on them. She even admitted that when her supervisor made a comment about her chest, she said thank you.” Regardless of this, the case was allowed to go to trial — a cautionary tale for a company going to a casual environment.

But is a dress code really the way to curb this behavior? The dress-up ultimatum imposed on the National Basketball Association (NBA) players has been widely criticized as racist by those who feel it is aimed at Black players who embody hip-hop fashion. According to the NBA’s ruling, when on team business, NBA players now are required to wear business-casual attire.  When they are on the bench, they are required to be dressed even nicer. While it’s seen as a business decision to clean up the sport, it has been viewed as a racist backlash against the African American players.

According to USA Today, the NBA is not the only organization tightening up their policy. A study by SHRM found that about 55% of employers allow casual dress once a week, down from 60% in 2001. The majority of people who work full time in an office setting have a dress code, according to a BizRate Research study, with just 26% allowed to don casual work attire. Most — 64% — work under a business casual requirement.

Here is what some organizations are doing in the area of dress codes:

·         At Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, a dress code passed last year that bans any form-fitting pants, sheer clothing, backless dresses, short miniskirts, low-cut blouses, tank or halter tops and any ripped or faded clothes. No areas of the body with body piercing jewelry, other than the ear, can be visible at work.  Tattoos are banned. Employees who don't follow the dress code will be sent home and not paid for the time away from work.

·         Employees at the Women Presidents' Organization, a New York-based peer advisory for female business owners, are required to dress up when they meet clients. That generally means suits or skirts with a jacket.

·         Communities in Schools, a non-profit based in Alexandria, Virginia that works on dropout prevention, recently tightened its dress code. The organization decided to focus on refining its public image, and that included the dress policy.

What you do depends on the size of the organization you are with and the industry.

“If you are a small or start-up company or have little if any interface with customers or external clients, casual dress, including jeans on Fridays, may be appropriate,” says Judy Feuerherm on the BostonWorks Hiring Hub. “Conversely, if you are a professional company and/or have interface with customers or external clients, you may want to consider a more strictly enforced ‘Casual Friday’ requirement or you may want to disregard making Fridays an exception to your normal dress code.”

“So much depends on the culture of the company and the type of industry. We see companies relaxing their dress code until employees become too informal in their dress, especially on the renowned Casual Friday. At that point, the dress code policy is reissued and occasionally edited to more formal attire requirements.”

At Astron Solutions, a dress-down policy is in place, “because,” says Loftus, “we pay our employees for the high quality of the work they perform, not necessarily how dressed up they are when they perform it.  Casual dress can be an effective recruitment and retention tool.  Many people like to be comfortable!  However, organizations must periodically review their dress codes to ensure that professionalism and adherence to legal guidelines are maintained.  One discrimination lawsuit on the basis of gender, religion, or other protected class can outweigh the benefits of the casual dress code." 

An annual review of your organization's dress code, in light of changing business realities and legal guidelines, is key to reaping the maximum return from this element of the work environment.