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Addressing an Employee Who Won’t Dress the Part

Some companies have attempted to give employees more wardrobe freedom with “Casual Fridays,” but some employees became so lax that their companies canceled that exercise in relative sartorial freedom.

Nationwide Insurance recently revised its dress code to ban midriff-baring tops, T-shirts, and flip-flops, according to the Wall Street Journal. Another large national insurance company has tightened up its dress code so much that even customer-service employees who never come face to face with the public aren’t allowed to wear sneakers on the job.

You have a right to demand that employees dress to reflect a professional environment, and your expectations should be written in a code of conduct and distributed to employees. Violations and responses should be spelled out. You should avoid extreme demands that would violate the civil rights of employees who dress in accordance with their religion or culture. Even so, you’ll still have a lot of leeway to get your employees to look like the professionals they are supposed to be.