Q: Now that it’s getting warm (or should I say “hot”), some employees are wearing less and less to work every day. It doesn’t really bother me, but I believe some employees may be a little uncomfortable with the skimpy attire of their coworkers.
A: As with most things that fall under the heading “best practices,” the key here is remembering general employment laws, consistency, and common sense:
- First, even if an employee’s attire doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable, it may bother others. An employer should approach employees’ attire with the same degree of objective scrutiny with which it approachs other visual and verbal incidents in the workplace (such as workers wearing t-shirts with inappropriate sayings or displaying pictures on their desks and bulletin boards).
- Second, although you may think that some people look better in skimpy clothes than others, your opinion is irrelevant to what you should do about improper workplace attire. If you address inappropriate clothing with one person, make sure you address it with everyone else who is wearing something similar.
- Third (and perhaps most important), use common sense. If you have to rationalize whether an employee’s attire is appropriate for work, chances are good that it isn’t, and you need to address it.
Q: What’s the best thing an employer can do to prevent employees’ summer attire from becoming a problem?
A: Adopt and publish a dress code policy. If your employees know what’s acceptable, they have an opportunity to comport themselves accordingly. A dress code policy will also help you objectively discern what’s acceptable. For the most part, employers are free to adopt and enforce rules governing how employees must dress. However, there are some important factors to consider when setting workplace dress codes.
Rules regulating appearance, whether they’re based on safety factors or simply traditional values, are fine as long as they don’t discriminate unfairly against a particular group. Among other things, you can require employees to keep tattoos covered, prohibit body piercings, and regulate fingernail length, skirt length, personal hygiene, body hair, and perfume. Employers may even have different requirements for men and women. For instance, several courts have held that employers can require men to wear ties while requiring women to wear skirts instead of pants. The key is to apply the dress code evenly (i.e., if one rule addresses women, a similar rule should address men).
So where do employers run into trouble? One example occurs when the rules seem fair but apply disproportionately to either men or women, resulting in a sex discrimination lawsuit. For instance, some employers require professional attire for employees who have frequent customer contact, like receptionists and salespeople, while allowing casual attire for employees who have little customer contact, like mechanics or mailroom employees. That rule can lead to a lawsuit if all the receptionists and salespeople are women and all the other workers are men.
The bottom line for employers? Enforce your dress codes and other appearance-related rules with the awareness that they should be evenly weighted toward all employees and applied consistently when violations occur.
Audit of your company’s practices and policies with the Employment Practices Self-Audit Workbook
We are a manufacturing company.
We’ve had employees (female) who don’t wear bras. Some feel it is not our business to tell them they need to wear them. We’ve also had men who don’t like to wear underware. It makes for a difficult conversation, but some just don’t get it. What happened to acting like an adult. You don’t need a policy that says you must wear underware to work – that’s a given if you ask me. One female employee told us it was discriminiation to make her wear a bra. There are a lot of fat men at work who should wear one too. Why aren’t we making them wear a bra!
It’s nuts. Just wondering if anyone else has had issues such as these?
Rhonda,
I don’t see that you can require a man to wear a bra since this is not part of a man’s wardrobe, but it is certainly a part of a woman’s wardrobe. Wearing a bra to work is not up for debate–it is required to make most females appropriately dressed for the workplace.
How on earth do you know that men aren’t wearing underwear (note the spelling of underwear)? If something is showing that underwear would prevent if worn (i.e. no underwear and the employee’s fly is down), then it is called ‘indecent exposure’ and the employee can be arrested, much less fingered for a pointed discussion with HR. Otherwise, I have no idea how anyone would know if employees are coming to work sans underwear.
Commom sense tells anyone with it that some things are just inappropriate, others down-right nasty. All companies have some type of dress code and it should be sufficient to satisfy most co-workers. I don’t believe that anyone should be allowed to work without proper dress, or in some cases with their pants coming off when they walk, and showing their underwear. This becomes a safety issue when it becomes distraction.
Maybe it should be spelled ‘underWHERE?’
Well played, Barbara. 😉
Women cannot be compelled to wear bras as a condition of employment, promotion, pay. What can be compelled is for women to keep breast movement and nipple protrusion to some socially accepted minimum. Whether this is accomplished by outer clothing, bras, camisoles, whatever, is not the employer’s business.
This is much as men can be required to prevent genitals from bulging and erections from poking the fronts of their trousers out. Most will find that underpants are the only practical way to accomplish this. Codpieces are out!
If the policy states to controll breast movement and nipple protrusion, this should be required of men and women alike.
Controlling breast movement and nipple protrusion applies to both sexes. It is not gender specific.
The way this should be handled is by measurement. If your breast extends X amount from your chest, you should be required to wear a bra or take active measures to prevent breast movement or nipple protrusion.
They do make male ‘trainers’ for this very reason and there are ample amount of man-bras on the market.