Let’s face it: most women do not like wearing hosiery. It is constricting, makes it more difficult to use the restroom, increases body temperatures during the summer and adds seconds to the daily dressing routine. For all these reasons in addition to a trend toward the casual in most workplaces, the sale of hosiery has seen a decline in sales over the past decade.
Whether this is something to be truly crying about, remains to be seen. However, there is room to comment on the dress attire (or lack thereof) of some people at their places of work as some people like to interpret their employers’ liberal dress policies as means of punishing co-workers with tasteless ensembles.
Factually speaking, there is always that one (or maybe some) individual that has no taste and comes to work dressing as though they do not know the difference between a place of business and weekends in which one lounges around the house all day. This can be attributed to either, a lack of shame or cluelessness (and sometimes both).
According to a survey conducted by Hanesbrands Inc., women between the ages of 25 and 54 said they wore hosiery about 1.8 times each week which was down from 3.5 times per week 10 years ago. The increase in casual work attire is partially to blame for this trend.
The company’s 2006 sales were down 68 percent from $895 million in 1995 to $290 million in 2006. In the last 2 years alone, the company has seen a 24% drop in hosiery sales and no amount of trends in tights or punk from the 80s will bring in enough revenue to make up for these damages.
Many companies now allow employees to dress casually on Fridays, and this casual dress can include jeans. In addition, some companies go even further by making the dress code casual every day of the week. More employees are able to wear jeans and thus do not have to spend as much on business attire. Instead, they are able to merge their weekend wear with their work wear. High heels are out and sneakers are in.
While this is nice and in some ways can boost employee morale, the casual dress code in some places has also given way to a casual attitude. Work is no longer seen as work anymore and the work ethic has been replaced with a casual laid back attitude that some employees like to take advantage of.
Although no one in a casual workplace setting would like to revert back to the traditional skirts or pants with hose for women look, employers might become more strict if more employees continue to be ridiculous in their choices of work attire. Even if an employer says there is not a dress code at their business, there usually is. In such case, old fashioned common sense comes into play.
For example, it does not make sense for females to wear low cut bands unless they are superglued to your hips and there is a zero percent chance of them sliding down. In addition, bare midriffs are also a no-no.
For all genders, wearing tattered or dirty clothing to work is just plain idiotic – unless one is in construction or something else similar.
Many employers have become much more liberal on their policies with tattoos. However employees should remember that conservative sometimes goes a long way.
Too many employees have come under the mentality that they should have the right to wear whatever they want to work which is simply not the case. In addition, some of these same people also people that they have a right to show off their individual style. This is also not the case. Remember, a workplace is not like the real world. Instead, it is your boss’s world and you should follow the dress code or common sense accordingly.
