DRESS CODES

bgrimes · July 2002

Hi, out there! Is anyone willing to share their company dress code with me?
I am mainly looking for 'administrative/office' area criteria. Our is pretty general. We're having a problem with 'skirt lengths'. I think some of the ladies are shopping in the children's dept. Thanks!

skippy · July 2002

We recently modified out Dress Code - trying to keep with the times. We are a bank so we preface our standards with language to the effect that we have a fiduciary responsibility to our customers; they expect to see professionally groomed employees. We stress "common sense", "if in doubt, DON'T wear it. We also note that anyone deemed to be out of compliance with the dress code will be sent home to change. We don't get into skirt lengths except to say - NO MINI's. We allow "skorts" but not walking shorts. Hoserie is required. No see through, no backless, no deep V's on shirts. Full shoulder coverage - no spaghetti or tiny straps. Underwear required (yes, it's awful, but we had to address it). This year we added Capri's to the list since they were in style and the employees wanted them. Fact is, they've been able to wear them for about 6 months and no one has. We do police it. We haven't had to send anyone home in years. It's working pretty well. HOpe that helps.

Zanne · July 2002

We are addressing our dress code right now also. We are a bank and tried to impress upon our employees that people want to see well groomed employees handling their money. To that, I have been called "old" and "out of it." (at the age of 38!) I put the problem back to the employees and held a committee meeting of 10 people representing various branches and departments and went over the existing dress code, item by item. They ended up being more strict than the existing dress code! Our biggest problem has been tank tops, capri pants, and flip flops. (Around here - called "Shower shoes") All those are banned and we have changed our casual Friday to "bank logo Friday and Saturday."

Good luck.

HR in PA · July 2002

At my previous company, we had a requirement of fingertip length for skirts. So, if you stand with your hands down at your sides and your skirt isn't as long and your longest finger, then the skirt should not be worn for work. And as always, tell them to use their best judgement. You don't want to turn into the dress code police. You have better things to do with your time. If you do institute a new dress code, allow time for compliance and enforce it across the board.

Rockie · July 2002

You are in a one win situation with a dress code I have never seen one successfully administered to the satisfaction of everyone. I, too, worked at a bank in the past and we were in an ultra conservative environment and the expectations were high. Then...this wonderful concept of "casual Friday" came about. Well... on Fridays you could not recognize your co-workers in some of the get ups you saw. Finally, we had to specify what could be worn on casual day which was a golf shirt with our bank logo and khakis. Nothing else was acceptable. We also had a problem with "Casual Friday" bleeding over into the rest of the week.

In health care, the environment is much more relaxed and again, just about anything goes, especially with the females. Certain things are taboo such as midriff tops and low rise pants, visible tatoos and body piercings, etc. Otherwise, people are asked to use common sense in dress (a rare commodity these days). Supervisors and management can ask any inappropriately dressed employee to go home to change without pay.

I had to laugh about the underwear scenario. We had one of these in the bank also. A young lady walked in front of a sunlit window and suddently everyone knew her "secret". She was appalled that we would "require" someone to wear underwear and wasn't the least big embarassed about what had happened.

You certainly don't want to be the fashion police in your organization. That is a full time job in itself. I would put the bulk of the burden on the supervisor unless you see blatant violations and then I would ask the supervisor to have the employee go home to change.

Rockie · July 2002

Sorry. That should be a "no win situation" in the first sentence. I haven't had but one cup of coffee yet this morning!

bgrimes · July 2002

Hey Rockie....you made me laugh out loud with the 'knew her "secret"' comment...you place some darn good 'posts' on only ONE cup of coffee...you must be a real 'Einstein' after your second or third! Thanks to all for your replys!

Don D · July 2002

Speaking of police.....my crystal ball tells me Christy is just about to blow her Forum Police whistle!

Leslie · July 2002

Dress codes are a nightmare! We recently changed GMs. The last one was very formal, the new one very informal. Now everything - and everyone - has gone crazy! We have about 800 employees, probably 3/4 of whom wear uniforms. They hate their present uniforms so the GM is changing them. In the mean time he gave ONE DEPARTMENT dispensation to not use the old uniforms and wear company logo-ed polos and jeans until the new uniforms come in. Now all the other departments are clamoring for the same! The new uniforms are going to be western type gear - I am in AZ - and will be worn with jeans. Our dress code says no jeans allowed! The HR director - a very formal person who was extremely happy with our previous standards - went bonkers on me yesterday as I was trying to rewrite our dress code to reflect the new standards. You want a dress code??? I wish we didn't have one!

System · July 2002

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-15-02 AT 12:48PM (CST)[/font][p]Sorry, I'm falling down on my job! The Forum Police x:=| was out of town when you all were having too much fun! I'll have to admit the Forum Police's mustache did twitch just an iota (toward a full-blown laugh) when reading Rockie's post.

Christy Reeder
Website Managing Editor
[url]www.HRhero.com[/url]

Lola815 · July 2002

We had a problem with one of the girls who had an office job but sometimes worked out on the production floor (she wore really short skirts) so we told her that for safety reasons we wanted her to only wear pants and shoes that covered the toe. This worked perfect for us. Also, since most companies are getting more causual, we now have all women wear pants everyday unless we have a very important customer coming to visit, then we wear skirts that have to be knee length or longer.

SandiF · July 2002

We are in healthcare and work in an outpatient setting. We've had to be very specific about our dress code - we want our staff to look "professional." A different definition for each person - forcing us to be specific. The Lead in each department is responsible for monitoring their staff. I will e-mail our policy to you if you'd like.

DRESS CODES

Comments