If you’re a small business owner with staff, at some point you’re going to have to deal with a sticky, employee-related situation. Whether it’s an employee who’s always out sick, staff who look for sneaky ways to abuse benefit privileges or team members being careless on social media, your people may make choices that don’t suit your business—including what they wear to work.
It’s a situation no business owner wants to face, but you and your employees may not be on the same page when it comes to appropriate work attire. As workplace dress codes continue to get more casual across the country, business owners and their staff may struggle to determine what’s acceptable to wear at work and why.
Use these tips to determine how to communicate with staff when an employee wears unprofessional attire.
1. Have an answer for ‘Why Can’t I Wear This?’
It’s important that all members of your staff understand why certain clothing items or styles aren’t acceptable in your workplace, and that sometimes it’s about more than just making a good impression. For instance, if you work in an environment with machinery, tools, heavy equipment or other potential dangers, inappropriate work attire may not adequately protect your workers. Even worse, some clothing, such as inappropriate work shirts with wide, loose sleeves, may interfere with equipment and pose a safety hazard.
2. Send out reminders when necessary.
Sometimes, the best way to deal with a minor “wardrobe infraction” is to post a reminder list on the wall in the break room or send out a simple company-wide email reminding your staff of the expected dress code. This subtle reminder may be all that’s required to get the attention of the specific offender, plus any others who may be tempted to stray toward inappropriate dress. If this doesn’t work, though, prepare to talk to the staff member in question.
3. Be really specific about acceptable work clothing.
When communicating to your employee about what is and isn’t acceptable attire, be as specific as possible. Explain that what they’re wearing isn’t safe while working at a lathe, for example.
Also prepare to clearly explain what’s included in any terminology you use. Instead of saying that your employee should avoid “casual wear,” specify that they should avoid “weekend casual wear” and list the clothing items that are included in this category.
For example, your non-acceptable “weekend” casual wear list could include:
- Athletic shoes
- Flip-flops
- Sweatpants or yoga pants
- Hats
- Hoodies and sweatshirts
- Halter tops
- Crop-tops (belly-baring shirts)
- Jeans
And your acceptable “business casual” list could include:
- Khakis
- Cotton trousers
- Skirts
- Blouses
- Polo shirts
- Pullover sweaters
- Cardigans
The key is to clearly communicate to all your staff what is and isn’t acceptable work attire.
4. Understand the do’s and don’ts for talking about inappropriate clothing.
Before you talk to your employee about his or her clothing choices, review this list of what to do and what to avoid.
Do
- Make the conversation easier by preparing. Make sure you are well-versed on your company dress code, and more importantly, that your dress code is legally compliant.
- Choose a private setting to talk to the staff member, so you can address the issue without embarrassing them in front of others.
- Choose your words carefully. For example, “I’ve noticed your clothing choices, which, though they may be appropriate outside of our office/shop/business, are not in keeping with our dress code. I’d appreciate your cooperation in making some minor changes.”
- Introduce your meeting as a time to clarify your dress code and make sure your employee understands it.
- Be specific about the problem. For example, “The shoes you’re wearing expose your toes, so they don’t meet the safety requirement of closed-toe shoes in our dress code.”
Don’t
- Attend alone, especially when speaking with an opposite-sex employee. Bring in another staff member.
- Make it a personal attack on the person’s character. This is about the clothing they wear at work, not an attack on their lifestyle, religion or political choices.
- Use the word “improve.” If you do, it may sound like you’re dealing with a performance issue.
5. Have “The Talk” with your employee.
If an employee wears inappropriate workwear after you’ve sent out a group email, it’s time to talk specifically to them. Keep in mind the information from tips three and four, and act quickly.
“Don’t delay taking action—even if just verbally and even if you learn of the infraction long after it occurs,” says human resources attorney and counselor Charles Krugel. Clearly point out any dress code violations plus how to remedy them.
Discussions about acceptable workplace clothing can be uncomfortable. They require a sensitive and delicate approach. To keep inappropriate clothing at work from becoming an extended issue, the best strategies are to head it off before it even starts and address any wardrobe infractions immediately.
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View Comments (54)
My son and I work for a National agency and he recently attended the company's annual meeting out of town. He is 26 years old. Suggested dress code was business/business casual. He wore a soft pink/salmon, not bright at all, suit for the daytime conference. It was a suit he purchased and had professionally tailored. I was with him when he purchased it and thought it was a refreshing yet professional look, given he is a young man. One doesn't have to look like they're dressed for a funeral to work in a business setting. He wore a solid white dress shirt underneath, no tie, dress shoes and a matching belt and upon his return home was admonished by another executive he really admires whom proceeded to tell him that his boss(executives boss) told him that my son looked disgustingly unprofessional and he advised him he is to never wear that suit again. To say I'm disappointed is putting it lightly. This was by far, one of the most unprofessional conversations I can imagine anyone having with a productive employee. In addition, during the convention my son had called me to let me know he'd gotten so many compliments on his suit and how sharp he looked. Kudos to my son because I'd have gotten up and walked out after politely letting the boss know just how unprofessionally he had just behaved.
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Hey I just wanted to chip in here. I run an IT consultancy here in the UK. We went down the route of mandating what people wear to work from the outset. However after several years of this rigid approach, we ripped up the rule book and told people to wear whatever the heck they wanted. From the moment we ditched it productivity went through the roof.
Staff feel more comfortable, you can't tell the MD from any of the other staff. People communicate far better. They are also far more willing to stay late.
Would you like to know what our customers have said? Nothing, not a single thing. In fact many of them have followed our lead. Concentrate on getting the job done to the customers satisfaction, that's what really matters to customers. FYI Customers are free to walk into our office whenever they like, no announcement or appointment required. Many of them do just that when they are passing. They stop in for a coffee and a chat, you'd be surprised at just how much extra business revenue that generates.
Concentrate on how they interact with others and how they do the job. Just my two cents, but it's really worked out for us.
thanks for sharing
Barring a company with frequent client visits, or safety issues, this seems like a great deal of energy being put forth about something that objectively doesn't really make a difference. Is generational griping really worth the time spent?
Is the work product high quality? Is actual behavior professional and appropriate? Those are the questions that really should be at hand. I work at a successful small (10-person) company that pulls down just over 2 million a year and has clients in the office roughly once every 1-2 months. When clients come in, we will dress business casual, and when we travel for business we will dress to the standard of the location where we are guests, but for the purposes of an average workday its a non-issue. The work gets done, we are highly recommended in our industry, and we all take home a nice profit share. No one's yoga pants or full tattoo sleeves get in the way of that. Just my two cents.
Policies regarding dress and appearance should always be written, illustrated, and posted/distributed regularly so that everyone has them as a point of reference. Videos and other media, including mobile apps, help drive the policies home in fun and non-threatening ways. Company policies, however, should accommodate regional, seasonal, industry- and job-specific requirements, and be applied consistently. Communications in team and individual discussions should focus, as other posters have articulated so well, on how a person's appearance is a reflection of the pride they have in their own accomplishments, their team's success, and their role within the company. It is an unfortunate fact of workplace life, but important to convey, that excellent work performed by a talented individual with an appearance that is "workplace non-conforming" will eventually stumble up against members of management who will equate that person's free-spirited approach to wardrobe and personal appearance with an equally casual approach to their work, and judge them accordingly when the salary and advancement goodies are being handed out. At the same time, as members of management ourselves, we should be able to look beyond the book's cover, knowing that at some point in our own youthful century we have been guilty of similar infractions, and raged against the management machine would could not see our contributions.
Now: what do we do about the person in our organization who is charged with creating and disseminating all the dress and appearance policy material, but is themselves a prime offender :) ???
I very much appreciate your addressing this. This has become a huge issue in the United States. Professionals have taken the casual dress way too far and created an atmosphere of sloppy and this sends a signal to customers that the company will also treat the customers casually not taking their concerns seriously. How we dress in the workplace also represents what we hope to achieve. We have a family multi-media production company. I have hired temporary employees in the past and because of this attitude, I have stopped hiring outside of our own family. We have had to be vetted by the federal government because our work requires us to go into elementary schools and we must present ourselves in a manner that is trustworthy. We had a temp. at one time who was a teen and she had experimented with dying her hair blue right before the event. At the time, we were nervous about addressing the problem but as it turned out, she became convicted to cover her hair when she frightened the elementary school students. She realized that the fun she was having experimenting with her hair as a teen was inappropriate for the leadership position she was in during that situation. She had to make a quick decision about what she wanted to achieve and because she cared about children, she chose to cover her head. As a production company, we have a strict dress code. I can't begin to tell you the times that we've been given greater opportunity just because we "looked" professional. It was often a foot in the door to dress in a manner that was not extreme in any direction. Ultimately, it comes down to the individual having their own priorities - their sense of fashion and expression or the success they hope to find in a particular field of work.