I work in an office with no dress code - some people dress up, some don’t (myself included). I like being able to come into the office in jeans and trainers but am perfectly happy to wear a shirt and tie if I have a function or meeting that requires them (it’s not often). I agree it makes it easier to go out straight after work too (and I do most nights).
You ever use Windows ME?
Anyway, we don’t have casual Fridays, as every day here is casual. Since we’re supposed to be a creative company, in a way it’s our uniform. If I showed up in a suit and tie, I’d probably get asked to take them off before going to a meeting.
Working for an American company we have a “business casual” dress code.
Being in England, however, this just means the blokes take their ties off now and again. :rolleyes:
I work for a company that is “business casual” Monday through Thursday, but allows jeans on Friday (but no sweats or shorts or anything else that’s not on the approved list). What this means is that everyone wears jeans on Fridays. People look at you weird if you’re not wearing jeans on Friday. It seems like there’s more of a uniform requirement on Friday than any other day of the week.
I have always thought that the casual day should be on Monday. When I drag myself out of bed on Monday morning I really don’t feel like finding something decent to wear; I’d much rather throw on some jeans. By Friday I’m used to wearing “business casual” so it’s not that big a deal. Also, Friday is when I’d like to go out to eat, and I’d rather be wearing something a little dressier than jeans to most restaurants.
Have you noticed the trend in the UK, though, for more and more people to go to work not wearing ties? On my commute in I see loads of guys wearing suits and shirts but frequently no ties. It’s not a bad thing, what with ties being the corporate equivalent to a noose.
My office used to have no dress code at all. Even at that time, I frequently wore dresses and pantyhose, mostly because it was the first decent job I’d ever had, but also because I felt weird talking to the very educated and well-dressed doctors when I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans.
Eventually, the higher-ups got tired of looking at people in flip-flops, sweatpants with cigarette burns, and bleach-stained shirts, and decided to have us go to uniforms. We all threw a fit, of course. Because I occasionally worked with the public and had shown that I could dress appropriately, I was one of the few people allowed to go on wearing my own clothes. Yay!
I definitely feel more in work mode when I dress professionally, so even if they let us do casual Fridays, I wouldn’t be taking advantage of it unless I had a laundry problem.
I think the “no ties” policy in my current office is fantastic - I’ve never enjoyed wearing them - but I have to admit that a business suit / shirt without a tie can look sloppy.
Much better to have a smart polo shirt or a jumper with t-shirt undernearth than a formal shirt with a floppy collar… I think over the summer hols I might experiment with a more US-preppy, rather than my current David Brent at the end of a long week attire.
However, even “Call Me Dave” Cameron has started wearing open collars… and anything which raises the hackles of Col. Blimp in the Telegraph letters page is good by me!
I’m with these ladies. I work at a college, and there’s no dress code. I’ve found that when I come to work wearing jeans and a t-shirt, it’s harder for me to establish authority with students and faculty. (I already look young, so that’s part of it.) Once in a while, I hear younger female professors complain that their students don’t take them seriously. I wonder if it would be easier for them if they didn’t dress just like the students. In an ideal world, that kind of thing shouldn’t make a difference, but we’re visual creatures. I can’t help thinking that dressing like a peer rather than an authority is part–although maybe only a small part-- of their problem.
I have worked at a call center with and without a dress code. The reason given for the one with the dress code was the desire to maintain a professional looking office- as clients and business types were in and out during the week. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays were all casual. They didn’t indicate there was any sort of work benefit to it beyond appearing more professional; which I don’t know that I can disagree with.
Especially given the one without the dress code- people wore some whacky ass stuff there.
Currently, our dress code is casual with various rules (no profane clothing, etc.)
I do not care for casual Fridays. I far prefer our work having gone to full-time casual! Sure seems a no-brainer that I can sit in my office and type/talk on the phone in casual clothes as well as in a suit and tie. And I don’t see why mgmt would hesitate to extend such no-cost benefits if they might raise morale even minimally.
That’s the way it is in the Colorado Mountains just about any where you work. Thank god. I just can’t imagine getting dressed up for work. It’s silly.
I don’t quite understand casual Fridays. If it matters that you dress up at work (for whatever reason that may be), does that suddenly stop being important just because it’s Friday? I don’t see why office drones need to dress up for work to begin with, but I figure some consistency would make sense.
Where I work it’s supposed to be business casual, but nobody seems to care as long as you aren’t wearing jeans or sweatpants. Wrinkled khaki capris, t-shirts and flip-flops? Totally fine. Jeans? Oh no, that will never do!
I just… I don’t get it. Why do offices that NEVER physically interact with customers need to have a dress code at all? Are we going to offend our cubicle walls or something?
One company I worked for had “Hawaiian shirt Fridays”, which was just, well, stupid. I don’t own a Hawaiian shirt, and refused to go buy one. The daily garb there was on the level of chinos and a polo shirt, which is pretty casual as it is. Also, I’ve never been a subscriber to herd mentality. Casual Fridays are common, of course, and if that’s all it takes to light up your dreary worklife, then have at it.
I’m with burundi.
I’m self-employed, so I can wear whatever I want. I like to wear clothing which is business-like without being too fussy - something which portrays a professional air, yet is approachable. If I looked too casual, I don’t think people would have as much confidence in my work.
I’ve got a lab coat over my clothes, so it really doesn’t matter what I have on underneath, except for the “no jeans allowed” policy. Most people I work with just wear standard scrubs to work, but most of the time I wear stuff I guess you’d label “business casual”. Usually it’s dress pants and a pretty top or blouse. Mostly because scrubs make my ass look saggy.
My boyfriend can wear whatever he wants to work, from what I gather, but he feels like he should be dressed better for work, so he always goes in wearing slacks and a shirt or a nice polo. He says it’s because his dad always “dressed up” for work, so it’s what he feels he should be doing, even though half his coworkers are in jeans most days. The day I see him leave for work wearing a full suit and tie, though, is the day I have to start ducking flying pigs.
Me, too, dammit! (Of course, **CairoCarol ** is not unattractive, and frankly, I don’t think I am either.)
You can take my Casual Fridays when you pry them from my cold dead closet. Right now I’m wearing jeans, a white linen safari-jacket type top, and white sandals, and I’m comfortable as all get-out. Casual Friday does not have to mean Sloppy Friday. 
They once proposed changing our allowed Casual Fridays to pay-a-buck-to-wear-jeans and you should have HEARD the protest. It didn’t happen, of course. But we do have one week a month when you can pay a buck a day to wear jeans during the rest of the week.
I really cannot stand this attitude. The Super Preppy Young Republican types at work always bring this old line out when dress code comes up. “HEH HEH HEH - I WORKED AT A PLACE WITH NO DRESS CODE, AND TRUST ME, *YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE SOME OF THESE LADIES IN SHORTS - * HEH HEH HEH.”
What, are your eyes gonna fall out? Never been swimming before? Never had gym class in school?
Right on. It just emphasizes that there really was no valid reason to dress up the rest of the week. If there is, then what is so magic about Friday that it doesn’t apply anymore?
And I do think people goof off more when dressed casually, but only in those places where casual dress isn’t the norm.
I think my “business casual” clothes are more comfortable than my casual Friday jeans and polo garb. I just never minded dressing up a little. I ‘feel’ more professional; plus as they say… “you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.”
Back when I was an employee of a ‘major airline’ we were allowed to wear ‘fun’ neckties on Fridays. Wee! Let’s all wear that bugs bunny tie, or the one with animals on it! We’ve come a long way baby!
I think it’s plain ridiculous for departments that have nothing to do with direct customer service to have any sort of dress code at all. Let us be comfortable, for pity’s sake!
The only dress code should be to not show too much skin, and to be neat and clean. Simple.