Editorial: Loosen your tie and relax at work but don't let it all hang out

Bosses can set dress codes, so long as they communicate them clearly. Photo / Getty Images

Editorial

EDITORIAL:

Jackie O'Fee's experience with an Ugg-booted office worker on page 22 in today's newspaper is one we can all appreciate. At the end of the day however, rules around dress at work have relaxed, and that's a good thing.

There are a few issues around being appropriately dressed for work. First is safety. No one should be in any doubt about what is needed to keep themselves healthy and safe in their job. That's a given.

The second is casual dress. It should be recognised that dress codes have changed over the years. What once were strictly jacket-and-tie professions have largely eased the squeeze on necks to open collars and short sleeves. For the most part, this is an improvement. There's something disturbingly Orwellian about a row of desks with men all dressed in starched white shirts and black neckties.

Writing dress codes for each workplace is, for the most part, constructive. It sets out clear expectations from management. Employees can grumble all they like about what's banned or discouraged but ultimately they can vote with their socks (or bare ankles, if they don't wear socks) and go work somewhere else.

One pitfall of these prescriptive codes is they can quickly get out of date. There's little point in being left with a policy prohibiting kung fu shoes, bubble-gum jeans and hair scrunchies.

The rise of activewear has also pushed the casual cause, but it remains the decision of the employer whether they like the Lululemon look or just consider it a lemon. But, with the exception of dress-up days at the office (does anyone still do that?), there should be no onesies or any form of sleepwear.

Thirdly, there's the type of apparel which is too revealing. Builders' crack is best left on construction sites, short denim shorts for the music festivals and bikini tops for the beach.

Just as dress protocols have lost a lot of starch, workplaces have diversified. New Zealand job sites are more likely than ever to have people from conservative cultures - and there's really no call for confronting them with what you had for breakfast.