Office dress code question

thedash · May 2014

A new legal assistant is starting at my firm next week. We are a 3 lawyer firm doing criminal and immigration. As law firms go we are pretty informal but still wear suits most days because we are frequently in court. New employee "Mary" will sit at our receptionist desk and do mostly admin work at first but we hope to gradually increase her paralegal responsibilities and eventually hire a receptionist and move Mary to her own workspace. I'm writing our first-ever employee handbook and I'm a little stuck about the dress code. Right now I have: "Employee dress should be conservative and appropriate for a professional work environment. Strapless tops, short skirts, shorts, t-shirts and yoga pants are not acceptable." I can't decide if I should specify no jeans. On one hand, jeans that are not faded or ripped with a blouse and flats would be fine. On the other hand, Mary is very young (just finished her associate's) and I don't know if I can trust her to choose more professional looking denim and dress it up appropriately. Is it safer to just say no jeans?

vterp · May 2014

I believe I've seen dress codes that specify jeans may be worn as long as they are not torn, faded or worn in appearance or something along those lines.

EastCoastBride · May 2014

I would officially say "no jeans" just so that it's official. But once she starts working and you get a sense of how she dresses, and maybe even say "you can wear jeans on Friday", then maybe you can lower the standards verbally - but w/ the understanding that you can always revert back to the official code if need be.

jlaOK · May 2014

I think you should change yoga pants to athletic wear. That would include yoga pants but also include a wide variety of other clothing. Where I used to work people would try to pass black athletic pants as business casual.

WBMom · May 2014

We can wear jeans on Fridays but our office is otherwise a business casual environment so our policy says this: employees may wear clean, tasteful jeans to work. They may not be frayed, torn or excessively faded. The general policy provides examples of items not deemed business casual. And the all encompassing: Management makes the final determination of whether clothing is appropriate for the work environment.

MommyAtty · May 2014

Our policy states that we have occasional jeans Fridays (we sell tickets to raise money for charity), but that jeans need to be neat, clean, and dark-wash, with no holes, tears, or fading. It also says it is highly recommended that jeans be dressed up with a jacket and nice dress shoes or heels in order to maintain our business casual environment.

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