Friday, April 1, 2011

Dress Code in Office

In our office we do not have a dress code as such, for health and safety we ask the team not to wear Flip-flops and thongs, but nothing else –generally we do business casual pretty well. But now as spring and summer is ahead and we have had a few days of unusual warm weather, it gets tricky.
 I must admit that it gets warm here – we have lots of windows, big open office with many people and lots of PC’s, and to top an Airco system that has seen better days. So when the women here starts to wear shorter dresses and bare legs it is understandable, but what about the guys? Some are wearing Bermudas or ¾ lengths trousers – I completely understand – but I do not like it.  
In my opinion when you are working in an office your clothes should not take any attention away from the work you do. So if you would feel perfectly at home by the pool or in a club you are not dressed right for the occasion. I have no problem with jeans and t-shirts- but there are things you should avoid. Ex I once saw a woman not wearing a bra but a T-shirt stating “Eat Me”, that might be fun at a party but in the office certainly not.
What do you do in your company? Where do you draw the line? Or should we just get over ourselves and not pay attention to what other people wear?

2 comments:

Cecilie said...

Hi,

Always a lovely issue to discuss and the question is if men should be treated differently than women? Why should we not wear shorter trousers if it's hot? But the question is "how short" ... but that same question can be asked about the women’s dress? To short a short is not good, a short dress can be good (!), but as the rules are for all employees, then a short dress is not good…

AS I see it, if the employee is relatively sane, then the employee will know what to wear, and what not to wear, in any given situation… hopefully :-)

// Elias

PS. Bermudas (3/4) is fine with me, but not if I know we have visiting CEO’s in the building – or if I’m participating in an external meeting…

PPS. Below you will find Naviair’s dress code (but only in Danish)

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1) Indledning

Naviair ønsker både i forhold til omverdenen og internt i virksomheden at signalere professionalisme, seriøsitet og ansvarlighed. Medarbejdernes påklædning skal understøtte dette signal.

Samtidig ønsker Naviair at være en virksomhed, hvor der er ”højt til loftet”, og hvor påklædningen ikke skal være højtidelig, hvor dette ikke er nødvendigt.

Der er derfor fastsat følgende retningslinier for medarbejdernes påklædning når de er på arbejde i og/eller repræsenterer Naviair:

Som hovedregel gælder, at medarbejderne i arbejdstiden klæder sig pænt – og har en god situationsfornemmelse.

Vejledende kan f.eks. nævnes, at det ikke er acceptabelt med ekstremt korte shorts, hvorimod bermuda shorts er ok på varme dage.

Det er ligeledes ikke acceptabelt med ekstremt korte kjoler og nederdele, små toppe, meget udringede bluser, badetøfler, snavset tøj o.lign.


2) Direkte kundekontakt/uniformsaftale

De ansatte, som får udleveret beklædningsgenstande (f.eks. medarbejdere i receptionen) skal i arbejdstiden bruge disse, og bruge disse korrekt, forstået således at civil beklædning og udleverede beklædningsgenstande ikke synligt må blandes sammen.


3) Møder med eksterne forbindelser, herunder internationale møder

Det forventes, at medarbejderne ved møder med eksterne forbindelser påklæder sig præsentabelt og naturligt i forhold til den konkrete situation.

Ved internationale møder forventes, at mænd og kvinder er forretningsmæssigt præsentabelt påklædt, hvilket i hovedreglen inkluderer jakke og slips for mænd.

Ved møder med eksterne forbindelser (leverandører, kunder, ministerier m.v.) klæder medarbejderne sig efter forholdene.

Medarbejderne kender for det meste deres kunder, leverandører m.v. - og det forventes, at medarbejderne klæder sig naturligt efter forholdene hos den enkelte kunde, leverandør m.v. – Der vil således ofte være forskel på påklædningen ved et møde med et IT-firma, et møde med Trafikministeriet og kontraktforhandlinger med en leverandør.

Blondie said...

Hi Elias

You are right - men and women should not be treated differently. Very interesting to see your derss code policy - I am impressed with the level of details.

Thanks for your comment
Helle