An antidote to casual fridays?

[Sefton]

In today's San Francisco Examiner there is an article about a local high-tech company that started "Absolutely overdressed wednesdays". The accompanying photograph showed a group nine male employees wearing what they consider to be overdressed. Perhaps the women employees always dress well and were thusly disqualified? .
I would say that by FL standards seven of the men were not overdressed for work at all. They were dressed in dark,conservative looking suits and ties. The final two were the ones who were overdressed. The runner up was wearing a tux and the champ was in full-on Fred Astaire white tie and tails (top hat too!). I imagine that since the majority thought that simply wearing a suit and tie qualifies as overdressed that what they normally wear is perhaps shorts and flip-flops? [huh]

I'm sorry that I don't have a picture. The Examiner's online version doesn't carry this article otherwise I'd include a link.

 

[magneto]

I do think "Formal Fridays" sounds so much better, and is alliterative

 

[Sefton]

How about: No men with ponytail tuesdays? Shave and tuck in your !@&*%$! shirt thursdays?

 

[CWetherby]

How about: No men with ponytail tuesdays? Shave and tuck in your !@&*%$! shirt thursdays?

Ah, Utopia!

Iron your clothes Mondays...

 

[InspectorMorse]

It is amazing how people at work seem to have no pride in their dress...it always bothered me....I would much rather be overdressed than be one of the sheep...

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I have no problem with the concept of casual Fridays. It's the casual Mondays through Thursdays that irk me ...

 

[Matt Deckard]

Casual Fridays beget casual everydays.

 

[Barry]

It is amazing how people at work seem to have no pride in their dress...it always bothered me....I would much rather be overdressed than be one of the sheep...

I remember a day about 7 years ago at work. I was on the IT staff at a very large defense contractor. Someone complained about the way the IT staff dressed in general. I usually wore dress trousers and a blazer and on occassion a suit and/or a tie with the blazer. Everyone else wore a t-shirt and jeans. This was the type of place where if you were dressed in a polo shirt and kahki's people would ask "Why are you so dressed up?" We were called into a meeting about this situtation. It was embarrasing.

Barry

 

[Steve]

I remember a day about 7 years ago at work. I was on the IT staff at a very large defense contractor. Someone complained about the way the IT staff dressed in general. I usually wore dress trousers and a blazer and on occassion a suit and/or a tie with the blazer. Everyone else wore a t-shirt and jeans. This was the type of place where if you were dressed in a polo shirt and kahki's people would ask "Why are you so dressed up?" We were called into a meeting about this situtation. It was embarrasing.

Barry

Sounds like my area; everywhere.

 

[Sefton]

I work outdoors with boats and still try to keep my appearance in line with my interest in "the golden era". It's a dirty job, so for me it's matching Dickies brand trousers,shirt,and a military style cloth belt with brass buckle. I wear a ball cap now but would prefer a newsboy cap in a light weight fabric. I get the "why are you dressed up?" comments even though I'm only wearing traditional work clothes. Once in a while at my job I will have couples dressed in early 1900s style rent a row boat...a very nice change from the usual team jerseys and backwards ball caps!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

There's a solution for this: uniforms. In Chile, secretaries everywhere wear uniforms. They're tasteful, well-tailored business suits (with slacks and vests for winter, and skirts for summer) that the employers themselves pay for. Each business has a voluntary committee -- composed of its own secretaries -- that chooses the suits (and blouses) from a variety offered in uniform catalogs. Every two or three years, the old uniforms are "retired" and new uniforms are chosen.



You can imagine the advantages:

1) Uniforms insure that the secretaries will be appropriately and tastefully dressed.

2) Secretaries save money, because they don't pay for their own uniforms.

3) Uniform dress creates a team spirit, a sense that "we're all in it together." It also fosters pride.



I'm sure the United States will never go in this direction, but it works quite well in smaller, poorer nations.

 

[MK]

.

I am having to address this in my staff meeting this morning. They are having trouble knowing what business casual is. I was discussing this Friday with a couple of my staff. They think Doc Martins is a dress shoe. Another one thought his shoes which look like hiking boots were dress shoes because they are leather. Basically anthing other than a sneaker is a dress shoe. I was amazed that they really don't know what business casual is. I will get pictures for them.

 

[geo]

I have seen people here wearing winter boots with a suit in the middle of the summer, because those winter boots were the only form of dark leather footwear they had.

 

[matei]

I remember a day about 7 years ago at work. I was on the IT staff at a very large defense contractor. Someone complained about the way the IT staff dressed in general.

I'm work in IT, and what you describe is very common to this field. The majority of us dress the part, but in my experience I have seen that there are also many IT folks that feel they are rebels and refuse to conform to The Man's standards. Others are just plain lazy, while others are... lets say eccentric.

There was one fella I worked with at Dell who threatened to leave when they told him to wear "dress shoes and trousers" M-F. His standard outfit was pink stretch jeans, oversized "eighties" jumpers, the odd bandana or two and wild, Mozart-esque hair.

When I worked in Noo Yawk almost anything went. There was one woman who I swear wore her pyjamas and slippers. I couldn't tell - they were either pyjamas or some kind of naff running outfit.

I am lucky that my current employer has a fairly strict dress code. You are expected to wear a tie during the week (there are very few women, so I don't know what the rules are for the gals), and people don't give you funny looks if you wear a suit. There really isn't a casual day unless it is announced officially - and these occasions usually coincide with collections for charity (basically pay to wear your jeans).

Good on you MK that you are addressing this issue! I think that one should take pride in their appearance. Dressing well exudes professionalism and confidence. Dressing like a slob... well, that speaks for itself.

 

[Tin Pan Sally]

Ah, Utopia! Iron your clothes Mondays...

Use a lint brush Wednesdays!
The offices here in the desert seem to use the "but it's so hot" excuse. It's really just the IT section who look a little too ... um ... at ease.

 

[jake_fink]

I work at a community college most of the time, so you can imagine...

I'd like to institute No Birkenstock Mondays, No Tie-Dye Tuesdays, Trim Your Beard Wednesdays, Change Your Shirt Thursdays and Slick Hair Fridays.

Chipping away at the sorry sartorial state of college profs one week at a time.

(Actually, I couldn't care less what the other profs wear, as long as they don't go all buggy eyed when I walk in with a tie)

 

[mysterygal]

But you know, even if you're working in the desert, for the most part, you're going from an air conditioned car to a air conditioned building....ugh..excuses excuses!
It seems it would be plain common sense if you worked at a high tech company that you would be dressing nice. I guess what needs to start happening is right when an employer is going to hire somebody, hand them a paper titled 'Ideas For Appropriate Work Dress' all with pictures of what is expected...so then there will be no more excuses, well, there probably will ,but hopefully less of them
Good luck MK with your employees :cheers1:

 

[Sefton]

Marc Chevalier wrote that uniforms work well in smaller countries but that the U.S. wouldn't go that way...
Even where uniforms are present here in the U.S. the employees usually find ways to defeat the pupose. Two examples that come to mind are postal workers and the local train and bus drivers. I seldom see postal workers who care to tuck in their shirts and rarely have a tie on (or it's on but loose and with collar undone). I take the trains to work almost everyday. The drivers have uniforms,but like the postal workers they don't tuck in their shirts, they wear sport team ball caps, long dangly gold chains, and some have facial piercings!

I travel to Japan each year and I just love the neat look that the train drivers and other employees have. The train conductors uniforms are similar to airline pilots except for the addition of white gloves. Gotta love those white gloves!

I guess that adults now exist in a perpetual state of adolescence.

 

[Pilgrim]

I'm a middle manager at a research university, and dress among students and faculty is pretty casual. Summer wear here is mostly golf shirts. The general rule is that ties disappear when the students leave campus in May, and they don't go back on until the fall term begins.

And student wear is no worse than when I was in college:

I remember back in about 1971, walking to class and seeing a student bounding up the stairs toward a large lecture hall, wearing shoulder length hair and a pair of cut-off sweat pants. I THINK he had shoes on, but I couldn't swear to it.

I actually enjoy the university's casual wear atmosphere, and find that wearing a hat with anything from golf shirts on up feels perfectly comfortable. I can always wear a tie when I have meetings or other reasons to.

 

[Paisley]

Use a lint brush Wednesdays!
The offices here in the desert seem to use the "but it's so hot" excuse.

That doesn't seem to keep anyone from wearing skin-tight jeans and shirts, or the all-black, all-the-time look.