I like casual Fridays. Mon-Thu it’s business casual…seeing a guy wearing a tie at work is met with a :dubious: . I do think some people take business casual to the more casual extreme…I’ve seen t-shirts with Spiderman worn over skirts, but these are the younger workers, they’re not in my department, so what do I care?
That said, I do not think our front office receptionists are allowed to go Casual Friday. I never see them in anything but business attire.
One job, I asked about the dress code (there didn’t seem to be one, but I wanted to be sure). The HR person told me they “appreciate it” if we wore shoes in the public areas. Some kind of health code thing. But that was the extent of the rules.
Carol, addressing your second paragraph, what we’re discussing is American businesswear versus business casual ; formalwear, which, for women, usually shows a lot of skin, is irrelevant to this conversation. To help get everyone on the same page, the links in the previous sentence contain definitions of what’s what. Though others have mentioned ugly clothing, I haven’t. As I said before, I’m fashion impaired and can’t really tell if something’s ugly. I’m only discussing wearing either ill-fitting clothing or clothing that specifically shows off distracting stuff that business clothing covers. That’s why business clothing is expected at work: to minimize distractions.
You’re right, I and others should be able to do our work without being distracted by a naked muffin top or shoulder blade dragon tattoo but we can’t. In the office the other 4 days of the week, that’s not a problem. The fifth day people apparently forget that they’re at work, not at a party or a club. The need to minimize coworker distraction doesn’t disappear because it’s Friday. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s an offensive tattoo, unsightly wart, or hairy shoulder; if it’s covered Monday through Thursday, it should be covered on Friday, too. Many people at work realize this but there are a few who just don’t, like this person and these people.
PS-When you become my overlord, you’ll have to fire me because I’m not giving up my suits. They fit like gloves and make me look damn good. And I don’t have to worry about distracting anyone with my unsightly bulges, scars, or tattoos.