The rules of what to wear to work have changed — here's what they are now

Sgt Joe LaBranche ,
Every chance that I get when I am not in uniform.

The rules in this article are good. Most important is to understand the nature of your company's or government agency's business and how to dress appropriately. Your organization may only require "casual attire" for daily work, but you need to know when to dress up to "coat and tie." Most places I worked, managers often dressed up because they had client meetings or briefings to senior officers. I worked for one Director (GS-15) who always wore a suit with a white shirt with tie and matching pocket flash. It was immediately evident that he meant to set the example. At my first staff meeting I showed up in business casual (long sleeve dress shirt and Dockers). My four fellow division chiefs all had on suit and tie. Big hint. I put the Dockers in the closet and bought a couple of new suits.

The article provides important insights into appropriate female dress. All military and civilian managers should take a look at the article to improve their understanding and judgment. As a male supervisor, my conundrum was figuring out if female employees were complying with organizational dress code when challenged. We would occasionally get a complaint from a female employee that another female was inappropriately dressed. In a politically correct, risk averse, environment this was a real issue of courage for the male supervisors. For a male supervisor to comment on any female's dress and appearance (positive or negative) was to invite an EEO complaint. In some cases, the "offending" female simply dressed stylishly and was height-weight appropriately proportioned; however, some female employees did literally stretch the casual dress policy as far as possible. We normally called in a female supervisor to provide advice before counseling and to participate in the counseling sessions with female employees. Male employees tended to stick fairly close to the business casual dress code and many dressed up every day to coat and tie following the Director's example.