Am I crazy? (or "how far has casual day gone?)

The office I work at is great, very laid back and so far a "get-your-work-done-and-there-will-be-no-nonsense" kind of place. Part of the atmosphere is "casual dress." For me that means Dockers or nice jeans, some sort of shirt with a collar, and dress or brown-athletic shoes. I hate wearing white athletic shoes anywhere and keep the jeans to fridays (mostly.) Most people wear jeans more than me and collarless shirts. Each his own, but part of my reasoning is that I am at the courthouse near-daily and while I do not need to look like a power-attorney neither do I care to look like someone awaiting trial.

But today it blew my mind. TWO people wearing flip-flops to the office! One male and one female. Let me add that today was a rainy, crappy day so it was not a matter of "summer-wear." It felt closer to march than may in the northeast. And two people in flip-flops!

Am I crazy in thinking even for a "casual" office that this is crazy? I'd give a pass if it was saturday OT (I've worn shorts on saturdays) but it isn't even friday! What do some folks think?

Casual at my workplace goes the gamut, from yours and my interpretation, to people wearing jeans, to I kid you not, stained t-shirts, cut-offs, and flip-flops (at a predominately male workplace). The issue I have is that the employees I manage have a union and they negotiated that we cannot enforce a dress code, so we're stuck with the few strange occurrences here and then.

-B

I'd ask how much time you spent noticing their style of dress and thinking about their style of dress and how much work did you actually get done while you were looking at some coworker's flip flops.
If the guy wearing flip flops came in, sat down and got to work without obsessing about your sartorial elegance he probably got more work done that you did.

I don't know what sort of an office this is that you are talking about but there is darn little in an office that depends on what you wear on your feet. I've worked in an office where girls would stroll around barefoot or have a bare midriff and one guy kept a bottle of bourbon hidden in a drawer in a remote bathroom until the owner of the company found it, put it in the employee's desk and told him "this will save you some time and some steps". Everyone worked together well and the work got done. What more matters?

Quote: FleaStiff

I'd ask how much time you spent noticing their style of dress and thinking about their style of dress and how much work did you actually get done while you were looking at some coworker's flip flops.
If the guy wearing flip flops came in, sat down and got to work without obsessing about your sartorial elegance he probably got more work done that you did.

I don't know what sort of an office this is that you are talking about but there is darn little in an office that depends on what you wear on your feet. I've worked in an office where girls would stroll around barefoot or have a bare midriff and one guy kept a bottle of bourbon hidden in a drawer in a remote bathroom until the owner of the company found it, put it in the employee's desk and told him "this will save you some time and some steps". Everyone worked together well and the work got done. What more matters?

I spend very little time noticing dress, but today while walking to where I need to be I noticed. What matters is just a matter of appropriateness for an office setting. Put another way, when you dress too casual you tend to act too casual, and work does not get done. Though some believe this and some do not. I do.

You don't say much about the office, only that you go to the courthouse occasionally. If I went to the courthouse, I would also try to wear business attire. But if this is a closed office where no clients even visit, who cares what they wear? If it bothers you, maybe you're just envious of their casual wear, but can't bring yourself to join them. If you happen to be one of the snappy dressers in your office, that's a good thing.

Kinda reminds me of some players at the table complaining about others not tipping enough. Just do what you think is right and don't concern yourself with the others.

If that person's boss doesn't care, then you shouldn't give it a second thought. But yeah, that person's boss should probably care.

Bill Gates seems to have done pretty well for himself with employees in shorts and flip-flops.

I think it really depends on each office's and worker's situation. I work in a department of about 20 people, all women except myself & one other guy. I wear khaki's or dress slacks, a collared shirt, and dress shoes or loafers 4 days a week. Friday's I wear decent jeans, decent tennis shoes or boat shoes, and a collared shirt. Of the rest of the department, maybe 4-5 people dress as well as I do, and the rest are more casual. The other guy wears nothing but flannel shirts, older jeans, and boots.

But here's the thing: 80% of them are simply in the office to do their job, and never have any face to face contact with clients, vendors, or anyone else. All of their contact is via phone, email or web meetings (no cameras). So as long as their clothing is clean and doesn't distract them (or anyone else), why does it matter?

I don't get out of the office much, but once every couple months I've have to go to a client or broker meeting with an account rep. That automatically gets the suit & tie routine. The first time I showed up at work dressed like that, I got asked by several co-workers if I had either a funeral or another job interview to go to.

I suppose I could just wear jeans every day like the rest of them do, but I like to look a little more presentable in general, since my boss sometimes asks me to come to meetings with the higher ups for analysis purposes. When it comes time for one of them to approve a raise or promotion for me, I don't want them remembering ratty jeans and a flannel shirt.

Quote: Toes14

since my boss sometimes asks me to come to meetings with the higher ups for analysis purposes.

Aha! And perhaps your boss does this BECAUSE you look more presentable. Perhaps not, as I don't know the situation. Will that open additional doors for you in the future? Maybe, maybe not. But I can tell you that I had a similar situation at my job, and you do get noticed more by people if you dress more respectably.

Sounds like a typical day at a software company to me....

About the flip-flop part, there's information missing.

Men should not wear them in public, except at the beach, the park or if they are politicians. As to the woman, did the flip-flops match the rest of her outfit?