This is precisely how management in every large company I have worked does not work. (I mean, not trying addressing the cause, just issuing blanket orders. To clarify.)
It’s not even a complex problem. Just talk to your employees.
But then their manager might have to be held accountable, and that can’t be right.
We had a guy in HR a few years back who was obsessed with the dress code. (And frankly, I always thought it seemed kind of dumb to have a dress code when 95% of your employees are CSRs who just take phone calls all day.) Any time he saw someone in violation of the dress code, he wouldn’t bring it up with the employee or their manager, he would send an email to the entire facility distro with a copy of the dress code policy attached. I mean seriously dude, if you’re sending these emails out once or twice a week, you’re not doing your job very well.
Pre-COVID, our dress code was business casual meaning meaning button down shirts and slacks/khakis for men and the equivalent for women (skirts/dresses permitted but not required). What made the dress code challenging was some managers were pretty meticulous about enforcement, others were extremely lax, with most falling somewhere in the middle ground. One of our biggest problem was senior leadership, vice presidents, who would flout the dress code. The dress code forbade flip flops, but some of our VPs wore something that sure looked like flip flops to me but called them something else.
We went to a relaxed dress code after COVID and didn’t look back. I wear business casual only when addressing employees when giving a presentation. I haven’t worn a suit for work since 2020 when I had to meet with someone from DHS doing an immigration check. Wait, I take that back, I wore a suit to be interviewed for an internal position.
Dress code shit is stupid. It’s stupid because a lot of times it’s overly restrictive and it’s stupid because a lot of times employees chaff at even the most reasonable standards.
The last company I worked for had a dress code: wear shoes. The end.
I mean tempted as I was to turn up nude except for some shoes, I was not sufficiently brave.
On the other hand, at another company where all of our clients were remote, I often turmed up barefoot. Shorts, t-shirt
This did lead to some company gossip, when I turned up on October 13th, in a full three piece suit and formal shoes.
I know nothing of the details of your local culture there in your city / town, but in many parts of the world that might seem pretty draconian. As in “Crotch coverings are pretty normal, but shoes? Who the hell wears shoes around here?”
What do your co-workers think of it?
I worked for the Canadian federal government for over 40 years. When I started as a lowly clerk, I wore a jacket and tie to work. By the time I left, as a mid-level finance officer, I wore jeans and a somewhat better than casual shirt, even for meetings with senior management or central agencies. In the last 10-15 years, I remember wearing a tie only once - when the ADM was presenting a major award to me.
They thought I was a bit weird, to be honest. But we had a fairly open accepting culture at that office, so it was just eccentricity. Nerds can be weird.
My last workplace had the most amazing dress code. Most of it was just dumb. Non-blue jeans were fine. Tennis shoes couldn’t be white. But the section on shoes was unhinged. Probably 12 photos of flip flops explaining which ones were allowed and which weren’t.
Worked there for 4 painful years. By the time I left the dress code was a least mostly normal. Covid helped.
Dress code: If we call the cops on you, and they arrest you, it was out of bounds. Otherwise, go for it!
The last company I worked for had a dress code: wear shoes. The end.
That’s discrimination against hobbits! Do you want Samwise Gamgee to file a lawsuit? 
Corporate sent out an announcement Friday that we’re now allowed to wear jeans! As long as they’re not frayed/ripped/dirty, of course. I’ve been wearing jeans in various shades of khaki to the office for years with no issues, but I do remember the policy being relaxed briefly years ago during the company’s experiment with a second shift. Then one of the VPs saw a second shift employee who had arrived early walking around the office in jeans, and absolutely hit the ceiling.
Perhaps a “slide” or a “sandal”? This happens a lot where I work too…I’m of the opinion that if I can hear your sweaty foot peeling off the insole followed by your foot being slapped by the shoe, it counts as a flip flop. (Also, not to be catty, but would it kill these people to take care of their feet if they’re going to flaunt them bare all over the office? Maybe a little lotion? Pumice stone? Soap, water, and a slightly rough cloth?)
To my eyes, her “shoes” literally looked like someone bedazzled a flip flop.
Self directed one here: Down year in terms of work feedback for me. 
I did more than my usual amount of leaping before I look in 2024, like basic style errors and asking questions I could’ve looked up myself. I tend to go fast and be a bit impulsive at times.
I’m not scared for my job yet; I’ve been there seven years now, so I do have some goodwill, and this is a place it’s not easy to be fired from. We’ll see if I have the self discipline to improve!
Well…I kind of hate my new client at work. We’re basically a team of high-priced temps for some back office group at a giant bank. It’s really the first time in a long time I’ve been stuck being a useless cog in some giant useless corporate machine that does nothing but push paper.
I’m on my second day without VPN access at work. Which I kinda need to be able to do my job. Opened a ticket and sent an email yesterday to a bunch of folks on the network team. Got a couple of responses but nothing since about 10:30 yesterday morning.
What really chaps my fanny is that for the last week or so I’ve been getting an error message when trying to connect because there is an expired certificate that apparently nobody has bothered to renew. Normally I can just click through the warning and it will connect, but not anymore. And there is this one asshat on the network team who always fires back a half dozen questions, like he’s not even going to think about looking into it until I prove the problem isn’t on my end. Look, asshat - why don’t you fix that expired cert first before asking me a bunch of questions. I’ve been in IT for 30 years, I know how how to fucking troubleshoot an issue before reaching out for network support! Argh.
At least you are able to submit a ticket without VPN access. So there’s that to be thankful for. 
And it turns out I may be the asshat after all. Looks like my account got locked somehow. Although in my defense, the error message says the server is not available. That sounds to me like a network issue, not a credentials issue. Also, shouldn’t that be one of the first things the support guys would check? “Oh, your account was locked, try it now.”
Yet another dozen emails of “should we do A or B?”, “whatever you want is fine”, “yeah, either one”, and on and on.
It’s fine to defer to the group to see if there is a strong preference or conflict. If there is not, then it is the boss’s place to make the decision, not mine. But when the boss is in the “I don’t care” camp, then I’ll use my amazing powers of decisiveness to just pick one.
If it ends up being, A, that I somewhat prefer, then so be it. If after making a decision, all of the people who didn’t care turn out to actually want B, then it won’t hurt my feelings, but why couldn’t they make a declaration in the first place?
They have a preference for B over A. But they have a larger preference for not being held responsible for the outcome over being held responsible.