My article last week about Megan Kelly’s spaghetti strap dress kind of went viral. And when something goes viral, the comments keep coming. Some were highly amusing, but others brought up some good points about the debate over dress codes in general. Are they sexist? If so, against men or women? Do we care what people wear? Should we?
To read more about it click here: What Megyn Kelly’s strappy dress teaches us about dress codes.
Dress codes have become a difficult topic. I think it’s important to think about why you want that dress code. Do your employees see clients or the public or do they sit in cubicles? Are there safety issues? Is the dress code just because you’re afraind to talk to one employee about dressing professionally? Etc. Lots of things to think about. Do not make a dress code because you think men will be distracted by women’s clothing. It’s childish. (“You’re jealous” is also childish.) Give your employees room to act like adults. Talk specifically to those who need advice.
Sexist or not, if you’re a woman and you show up to work in spaghetti straps, you don’t look professional. We can debate ’til the end of time if it’s fair or not, but office norms are office norms. In some cases things like this truly are unfair. I am a top-heavy type and many years ago I was told a dress I wore to work wasn’t appropriate. It had elbow-length sleeves, the neckline showed nothing (believe me, I always check from all possible angles), it was knee-length and it certainly wasn’t painted on. Would I have been spoken to if I was a few cup sizes smaller? Nope, I highly doubt it. As long as everyone is held to the same standard regardless of body type, I don’t see anything wrong with a reasonable dress code.
Agree there is nothing wrong with office dress codes, but that’s not what is under discussion here. What we are talking about is whether a TV personality should be held to somebody else’s office dress code. Clearly Fox doesn’t care so why should we care that we could not to our office dressed like that? Nothing was hanging out or showing inappropriately. Frankly, she looks just as provocative with sleeves so who cares about the straps?
Wow. I wouldn’t say she looks “provocative” in sleeves (or no sleeves). The point here is her being picked on for going against professional norms has highlighted some of the issues women face in the workplace and whether it’s fair or not that those norms are in place. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to get to and I need to iron my most provocative long-sleeve shirt.
We don’t have a written dress code at our office and we’re pretty relaxed overall, but clean, neat and not likely to get caught on fire pretty much sums it up. Have I told a subordinate that they need to dress a bit more conservatively? Yes, once or twice, and I pointed out why – If you want to be considered for promotion, you need to dress like it – at least often enough that the boss knows you can and trusts that you will do so when needed to greet visitors, customers, vendors, etc. This applies to men and women both. A scruffy engineer gets away with a lot. A scruffy accountant, not so much.