July 16, 2015 at 8:09 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Would You Pay To Wear Jeans?
July 16, 2015 at 9:55 pm
I guess I am lucky as the last 2 companies I have worked for were/are casual wear everyday. It's nice to be able to wear clothing appropriate to the weather rather than a suit and swelter or freeze on those days where a suit is not going to cut it.
Nicole Bowman
Nothing is forever.
July 16, 2015 at 11:15 pm
Having worked in various levels of Business, business casual, casual business, casual smart and casual....
There is definitely an increase in flexibility and innovation the closer to the casual end of the scale you get.
July 17, 2015 at 1:02 am
The company I work for only has charity dress down days, normally on the first Friday of the month, with a minimum donation of one pound. If the annual fundraising target is met ( this year it's 30,000 pounds ) then there's a week of dress down, and it's dress down between Christmas and New Year only.
As to what is more productive, I don't know. Normal attire is business casual, so no ties - not that much difference between a shirt and a T shirt imo, and 'work' trousers are generally lighter weight than jeans which actually makes them more comfortable in summer anyway.
July 17, 2015 at 1:44 am
The company I work for has a dress down day for charity on the last Friday of each month. If you choose to dress down it's usually for a donation of £2.00 (Or £1.00 if they are running a fancy dress day and you come in wearing a costume - not many people tend to go for this option though!).
Usual dress code is business suits for men and smart clothing for women, on a non dress down Friday the men don't have to wear a tie (It's business as usual though if you're going out to clients or are hosting them in the office, or we have VIP's in). During the summer months, men don't have to wear a tie on any day.
It works well for us the majority of the time (Not so much when we get a freak day where the temperature skyrockets - then the suit can be rather warm :().
If they were to implement a policy whereby you could pay every day to wear jeans, I'd probably decide on a daily basis depending on the weather.
July 17, 2015 at 1:47 am
I can see the benefit for charities, but in its raw form the whole thing looks like cynical manipulation by the company. They get to reinforce their dress code, but if they can relax it, why do they have a dress code? And they get good PR by 'donating' to charity, when the donations actually come from their staff.
Far better would be match-funded charitable giving: the employee decides to give a regular amount to a charity, the company matches it. Then recognise those who give most as a proportion of their salary.
July 17, 2015 at 1:50 am
This is madness!
If it's appropriate to dress down, I'm going to dress down, and I'm not going to pay for the "privilege". If my company implemented this, I'd wear what was appropriate, not pay, and tell my boss to focus on something important if he mentioned it. This is not pre-school. My boss owns and controls my work output, not what I wear. Madness.
As the poster above, this is a very cynical way for the company to appear to be supporting charity, when really it is just manipulating its employees to do so.
July 17, 2015 at 2:01 am
My employer allows business casual on Monday to Thursday, and then full dress-down on Friday. Each Friday we contribute £1 each which is collected up and donated to the company's designated charity. The exceptions are the first Friday after each monthly payday, when the £1 fee is waived.
July 17, 2015 at 2:05 am
Heals (7/17/2015)
The company I work for has a dress down day for charity on the last Friday of each month. If you choose to dress down it's usually for a donation of £2.00 (Or £1.00 if they are running a fancy dress day and you come in wearing a costume - not many people tend to go for this option though!).Usual dress code is business suits for men and smart clothing for women, on a non dress down Friday the men don't have to wear a tie (It's business as usual though if you're going out to clients or are hosting them in the office, or we have VIP's in). During the summer months, men don't have to wear a tie on any day.
It works well for us the majority of the time (Not so much when we get a freak day where the temperature skyrockets - then the suit can be rather warm :().
If they were to implement a policy whereby you could pay every day to wear jeans, I'd probably decide on a daily basis depending on the weather.
I go along with most of this.
I see what happens where I work as pretty cynical, so never dress down and contribute occasionally.
July 17, 2015 at 2:33 am
Astonishment at now having to pay for the "privilege" of wearing clothes to work.
Given that, effectively, both styles of dress are "dress codes", why not pay for all of them?
GIVE THE CHARITY ALL OF YOUR MONIES!
July 17, 2015 at 2:34 am
I consider that I do have a duty to my colleagues to wear clean ironed clothes.
I could see in some industries I would have to generally be very smart for valid reasons.
My general guide is...
I will dress up if meeting clients and occasionally wear suits but only then if I am trying to sell them something 🙂
If they are trying to sell me something its business as usual.
Came across an interesting phrase last night in Russian.
?? ?????? ????????? ?? ??? ?????????
Clothes only count for first impresssions
(of course there is some debate whether I should be taking moral guidance from Russia)
cloudydatablog.net
July 17, 2015 at 3:07 am
An informal Dress-Down Friday had operated in some parts of my company for a little while, and recently, the company was moved to point out that there was no agreed dress-down policy, and normal business attire was expected at all times.
It is not a thing that has ever bothered me. I come to work to do my employer's bidding in return for wages and wearing clothing that meets their needs is part of that.
The question of whether to allow dress-down in return for a donation is not simple. The company involved is compromising its standards, and the employee is surrendering part of his reward.
The underlying message is that you can buy your way out of your obligations, and I do not think that is a healthy message. And the secondary question is, if we can compromise the standard for charity, do we need it at all?
There are so many other things about working for an organisation that are much more inmportant than this. Like having a strong policy of ethical behaviour. Like a strong commitment to client satisfaction.
Like a strong commitment to trade honestly and legally. Like a commitment to treat all staff fairly. These are qualities that I value highly in my employer (CGI) because I will never have to be ashamed of anything they do, and I know they will never ask me to do anything dishonest or immoral.
July 17, 2015 at 4:55 am
If a company wants to attract and retain the best software engineers, then they will allow them to dress as software engineers. Remember, the good engineers are in demand and can work where ever they want. Enforcing a marketing/sales dress code on engineering is a huge mistake.
July 17, 2015 at 5:07 am
That's a perfectly fine attitude if your company is solely involved in software engineering. For the last 20 years I have worked in the callcentre industry, and it's been generally understood that we are subject at any time to the appearance (scheduled or otherwise) of clients.
In my last job (also for a call-centre) the company adopted a policy whereby all members of the development team were entitled to dress casually at all times. This decision was taken because the development team at head office were largely unseen by the wider business, being in an office entirely dedicated to them. I however chose to adhere to this new policy, which caused problems because I was based at a remote site and therefore more highly visible. In the end, we agreed a compromise whereby I could follow the departmental dress code and wear whatever I chose, on the understanding that if the management of my site were aware of a pending client visit, I would adhere to the site's dress policy.
Personally I prefer to dress business-casual for the most part. I don't need to wear a uniform as Emergency Services personnel do, and I don't work in McDonalds. I'm not slating those who do work in McDonalds incidentally, I'm just glad not to be one of them.
July 17, 2015 at 5:12 am
I worked in the video game industry for 7 years. Asking us to dress business/business casual is like death. They even frown on it during the interview process even though I wore a suit to my interview because that's how I roll. 😎
Now I work in digital marketing. Due to potential client visits, we had strict business casual with casual Fridays. I personally struggled with this being both the only IT related guy and a gamer nerd.
However, we got acquired a few months back by a bigger agency and they are very casual. So, that was a huge relief for someone like me!
Regardless, most people give me a pass because well, I work in IT/Dev. 😛
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