I have a permanent job now, but during my six years of temp exile, at numerous office locations, the dress code tended to be the same. Blue jeans were not allowed except on Casual Fridays. This is also true of where I work now.
I like wearing blue jeans because they are comfortable to me, and also they save on dry cleaning bills. Dry cleaning for a week’s wardrobe of blouses and slacks runs about thirty dollars.
But no, jeans are not allowed. Fine. No jeans.
But now, I see women running around these offices in leggings or yoga pants with flip flops, and no one says a word. To me, old fogey that I am, it looks like these women put on leotards, then forgot to put their pants on. And flip flops? Those are beachwear for god’s sake!
How are these quasi-underwear outfits more appropriate office attire than blue jeans?
For the record, I’ve tried wearing leggings a couple of times, to save on dry cleaning. I look okay in them, I guess. But goddamn, I’d rather be wearing jeans.
The law is simple: Your employer can tell you what to wear in the place of employment, as long as it is within the law. It doesn’t have to make sense.
My store says no shorts, sandals or hats. I can come in wearing shorts, sandals and a hat, but I have to put on pants and regular shoes and take off the hat before clocking in.
I’m not questioning that. I know my employer can tell me what to wear. What I want to know is why no one apparently thinks skin tight leggings are inappropriate for the workplace when they are far more objectionable than blue jeans?
I’m not a prude. Let the girls wear leggings if they want. I just want to know what is so inappropriate about blue jeans?
I had to talk my boss into letting us wear jeans on Fridays. He was afraid that casual Fridays meant exactly what the OP describes: yoga pants and flip-flops.
You can actually look quite polished in jeans when you pair them with a nice blazer or blouse and the right shoes. Once my boss saw that we could wear jeans and not look like college students, he was on board.
Yeah, I don’t understand wacky workplace dress codes either. It’s like they say nix on jeans by default but there’s so many other things on an equivalent level that they overlook and call business casual. I love workplaces that let me wear jeans.
But why do you need to dry clean your workwear? If you’re in an office that allows leggings and sandals it doesn’t sound like you need that high of a level of business clothing. Just get some cotton slacks and some nice, but regular washable blouses. I have a silk blouse I love, but I wouldn’t have bought it if it needed dry cleaning because eff that. Even that blouse I can wash at home.
Because washable blouses and especially slacks need ironing to look nice. I’m taking care of an invalid mother at home, and I don’t need an extra little chore. I’m overwhelmed as it is.
I work in a fairly conservative environment (finance) on one the of the very few secured floors-no one can get in without a badge so the public never sees any of us. We’re also the only floor that I know of that never gets to wear jeans. Once a year they try to extort money for their pet charity by setting a quota for donations and if we meet it we get to wear jeans for one day. Yeah, I’m going to pay to wear jeans to work :rolleyes: Apparently this policy was instituted a few years ago by what was at the time “the new regime”. The people that worked here that somehow grandfathered themselves the right to wear whatever Sunday at the Flea Market getup they want. Once woman wears yogo type pants with flip flops and a nasty hoodie most days. Even if it weren’t against the rules, who would want to appear that way in a professional setting?
Because blue jeans are what cowboys and hippies wear.
My reaction to the OP: Huh? Women don’t have any clothes available to them between jeans and dry-clean-only? I’m just a guy, and pretty ignorant about women’s fashion, but for men, there’s plenty to choose from that is a step or two up from jeans (e.g. khakis, dress slacks) but is still machine washable and easy to care for.
If middle to upper class women decide it’s acceptable for them then it’s OK for everyone. Leggings and yoga pants come out of the middle to upper class exercise aesthetic. Flip flops are kind of the same and are practically required footwear for middle to upper class sorority girls and so are making their move into office wear acceptability in some locations.
Why can’t you use machine washable slacks and a dry cleaned shirt like a lot of men do? Shirts are usually $1.50 - 2.00 each for pressing and cleaning so 10 a week, pants are a lot more. Unless your work demands knife life creases permanent press slacks look fine.
My solution was to buy black jeans, brown jeans, gray jeans, burgundy jeans, and khaki jeans. All the comfort and ease of maintenance without the unprofessionalism of the dreaded blue denim. And the vast majority of my tops are variants on t-shirts, knit and without slogans or graphics - no iron, no fuss, no muss. I even got away with wearing black athletic shoes that looked almost like black oxfords.
We’ve lived here for over 12 years, and the only time I went to a dry cleaner was to have an old uniform cleaned before donating it to the local Navy museum. Before that, I honestly can’t remember the last time I used one.
Have you considered approaching someone and inquiring if, perhaps in light of yoga pants and flip flops being acceptable office attire, clean, no rips, no patches, blue jeans could be given a trial run?
I’d politely ask a higher up what their thoughts are. Plant the seed, give it plenty of time to take root. Then ask again.
If nothing changes, oh well. At least you gave it a shot without rocking boats or pissing anyone off!
My old employer went to casual Fridays (for professional staff) back in the mid-90s. A few scant years later it just became casual any days, and in that sector (high tech) that’s the way it remains.
Where I work now, the only limitation on what’s acceptable or not depends solely upon safety: no shorts or open toes on the radioactive side of the fence, for example. Otherwise it’s a free-for-all.
Business dress codes generally make no sense once they slip away from a rigid standard. There’s this weird almost obsessive hatred of jeans by a lot of dress coders, I’ve been places where ratty khaki cargo pants and flip-flops are OK but nice jeans will get you ‘talked to’ by HR. Same thing with leggings and yoga pants, for some reason they tend to be considered more ‘business’ than jeans.
Women are much harder to make rules for then men. For men it is just no jeans and no shorts and your done. For women it is no jeans, no shorts, and then maybe no leggings without a skirt, or no skirts of a certain length, or no tops that show too much cleavage or shoulder. Womens fashions are just so much more complicated so they would be more complicated to make rules for and since women care more the rules would generate more complaints. So it is just easier to have a blanket rule that targets men. Its not fair but at least men get to have all the money and the power.
Blue jeans are a cultural marker from the 1950s/60s of “dirty hippies” and greasers. Even long past that era they have a “special aura” of casualness that’s just drilled into some peoples’ consciousnesses.
Maybe I’m really just a slob and I never realized it or something but permanent press pants folded along the lines and blouses hung on hangers are sharp enough for my office wear. Sure, they’d be slightly more crisp if I ironed them but I’m not making 150k in the financial district or anything.
Now I always took it that “no jeans” meant no jeans of any type, blue, black, white, brown, whatever. If they really just mean no blue colored jeans and I’m allowed all the rest of the colors well hot dog!
When I started at my job in April it was a business casual-with-jeans-on-Fridays kind of place. Then we broke some company records and it was a casual all month thing as a reward. Then it happened again and we got it again…eventually people just stopped caring and now it’s a free for all.
I’m of the belief that as long as you aren’t customer facing (and, frankly, even if you are) jeans are perfectly fine to wear. There are some exceptions like lawyers and doctors and what not, but no business transaction was ever altered or abandoned because someone was comfortable.
Then again, I’m also an evil millenial so take my opinions with a grain of salt
