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Strange Retales: Dress Code Violations

dress-codeLike it or not, if you have a job, at least most of the time they expect you to wear clothes.

And if your employer doesn’t issue you an actual uniform, then they generally set a standard for what constitutes “acceptable” workplace apparel.

In some cases, what not to wear might be subtle. When I first started working at Sony, while suit and tie was mandatory, I was told “don’t wear your expensive suits to work.

The reason of course was that sometimes we had to schlep big heavy TVs in dirty cardboard boxes around in the back room, and if you stained or ripped a $199 suit jacket from Moore’s The Suit People it wouldn’t be as big a tragedy as one that cost much more.

Philosophically speaking, if there is a certain range of dress that is considered “acceptable” then conversely there must also be a range of dress that is considered “unacceptable.”

In order to maintain that distinction, one employer I knew of had a full-length mirror in the office of their outbound sales reps, with a sign that said “Do you look presentable to meet clients today?” But without that self-awareness, what can go wrong?

I can tell you from personal experience that unless an employer remains diligent in reinforcing their standard of dress, it’s inevitable that someone, somewhere will not just cross the line, they’ll leap over it and just keep running.

While I hate to sound like I’m singling out women, the fact that women also have many more options for work wear than men mean there are more opportunities to choose poorly.

In one case, a new sales person I hired started out dressing very business-conservative, and over a period of months she pushed the limits of the company dress code so gradually that I barely noticed; the heels and the hemlines got higher and the neckline got lower, but only gradually.

It wasn’t until she showed up for work in a top that exposed her midriff that I clued in and had to send her home for the day.

Conversely, the most surreal example of what not to wear was a manager I worked for, whose wardrobe was in retrospect a lot like Rachel from Glee. In one case, she showed up for work wearing black tights, and a huge oversized yellow knit sweater with a giant cartoon bumblebee embroidered on it.

That’s not really a look that says “Trust me, I’m a trained professional.”

Not that I’m an angel, you understand. I’ll be completely honest about the fact that I’ve been cautioned for my work apparel more than once.

There were the odd-colored socks hidden under the cuffs of my otherwise-conservative suit.

There was also the ever-growing number of pouches affixed to my belt: Leatherman multi-tool, PDA, keychain, tape measure; what my boss called my “Nerd Utility Belt.”

On the bright side, at least I never showed up for work covered entirely in cat hair, like one of my co-workers.

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