Office environment - Do you follow the company's dress code?

Last updated by Tiago Araújo [SSW] 4 months ago.See history

The way you and all members of your team present themselves is a crucial part of creating a good impression for your clients, particularly in their first encounters with you.

Dressing Up

One aspect of this is the dress code. Dress code is important for two reasons:

  • Looking professional and keen for business
  • Reinforce the company's branding

Public Events and Meetings

Of course, when in a public event such as a User Group, conference or seeing clients you should "Dress Up".

It should go without saying, but of course, things such as shaving off your weekend facial growth, using deodorant and having clean teeth and nice breath is assumed.

sean connery dressed up
Figure: "There is nothing wrong with being the best-dressed man in the room." - Sean Connery

On a business flight

It's a good idea to "Dress Up" in flights as you never know who you will be seated next to.

Figure: Why dress up in a flight

Dressing Down (aka Casual Fridays)

Many companies find it a good idea to have Casual Fridays. It is free and easy to do and gives the team something to look forward to.

At SSW employees can optionally work from home Monday/Tuesday, then "dress up" on Wednesdays by wearing company colors, with a nice shirt (business or polo), trousers (not blue jeans), belt, nice shoes (no sneakers, joggers or thongs). So most employees wear their SSW shirts or SSW T-shirts on Wednesdays.

Then they "dress down" later in the week... so they have "Casual Thursday" and "Fun Friday". Thursdays are for casual clothes. On Fridays, employees are encouraged to wear sporty clothes such as shorts. It allows the end of the week to be fun.

SSW Dresscode Poster v2
Figure: SSW Dress Code poster

Shorts Days - the cool exception

On very hot days, shorts are allowed as soon as you've got an email like this:

Figure: Good example - Nice "Shorts Day" email template by SSW.Shorts

We open source. Powered by GitHub