Would You Pay to Wear Jeans at Work turned out to be popular piece when posted a couple weeks back. The premise is that some companies allow a relaxed dress code in return for a donation to a specified charity.  I’ve opted in at times and not at others to this kind of offer based on either the price or the target charity. It costs me nothing to opt-out and I’ve never felt any pressure/whatever about doing so.

Reading the comments (and you should!) I’m reminded – again – about how we can all see something so differently, and just how hard it is to do anything that won’t be see by someone as negative or worse.

The most interesting question though is about the dress code philosophy.  If you require business casual because you have a “professional environment” (or whatever reason), how do you resolve the dissonance when you say it’s ok if you donate to the charity? I don’t think you can. Is that reason enough to not do it? Probably not!