At Complete Employee Solutions we offer Payroll Services and Employee Leasing, but we also offer Human Resources services as well. Human Resources is usually the department which sets the rules for how Employees dress at work. Here in Florida, because our weather is usually pretty warm, we tend to dress more casually than people would in other parts of the country.
In the past, work dress was at minimum a pair of dress pants or chinos for men. A collared shirt and close toed shoes were also the standard dress. For women, close toed shoes, dress slacks, skirts or dresses with some sort of sleeve were pretty much the standard.
David Stiefel wrote an interesting post for Accounting Today about the changing and evolving rules for how one dresses for work these days:
“When I started in this profession 40 years ago, the dress policy was simple. Men had to wear suits and ties (sport coats were frowned upon) and women had to wear dresses or pantsuits. Unless you were observing an inventory or working at a messy client location, there were no exceptions.
In the mid-1990s, Bader Martin adopted business casual dress on Fridays. This was radical at the time, but we wanted to take a small step to make life easier for our employees. By 2000, we expanded our dress policy to allow business casual attire every day. We developed guidelines so that the look was still professional, but suits and ties or dresses were no longer required. However, jeans were still not allowed to be worn.
This past June, we further relaxed our dress policy to allow jeans every day in response to employees’ requests and a changing environment. The concept is that each person that works in our firm should dress appropriately for their day — if they have client meetings where the clients will be dressed in coat and tie or sport coat, our team members would dress accordingly. If they have client meetings where those clients dress in jeans, our people would wear jeans, too. As long as the attire is clean and presentable, there are very few restrictions.
The business world has changed, at least in Seattle, and generational perspectives have changed as well. It’s rare to find a banker, attorney or client in a tie and jacket. I no longer have a closet full of suits and I only pull out a tie every few months. We all work hard and we should be able to dress comfortably. It doesn’t make us any less professional.
I’ve fully embraced the “dress for your day” concept. Unless I think it would offend a client or someone I am meeting with, you’ll now find me happily wearing jeans to the office.”
For many of us, common sense dictate even in Florida a person in certain professions, such as attorneys, will probably wear at least dress slacks and a collared shirt. Women, most likely dress shoes, skirt or nice slacks. Beach style attire, even in Florida, would not be appropriate in most office environments. Dark wash jeans and a polo shirt can also be appropriate for days in the office when you’re not meeting clients. Shorts, flip flops and t-shirts are definitely a no no.
If you would like some help putting your Employee Handbook and let your employees know what you expect of them.
Jennifer Comer
If you would like to read the entire post head to http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/firm-profession/generational-viewpoints-dress-for-success-79439-1.html?utm_campaign=daily-oct%204%202016&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&ET=webcpa:e7784043:5052945