Watching the English

by Kate Fox

Our need for rules has been highlighted in recent years by the ‘Dress-down Friday’ or ‘Casual Friday’ custom imported from America, whereby companies allow their employees to wear their own choice of casual clothes to the office on Fridays, rather than the usual formal business suits. A number of English companies adopted this custom, but quite a few have been obliged to abandon it, as many of their more junior staff started turning up in ludicrously inappropriate clothes – tasteless outfits more suited to the beach or a night-club than to any normal office. Others just looked unacceptably scruffy. Clients were put off, colleagues were embarrassed, and in any case most of the senior management simply ignored the Casual Friday rule, choosing, perhaps wisely, to maintain their dignity by sticking to the normal business-suit uniform. This served only to emphasise hierarchical divisions within the business – quite the opposite of the chummy, democratising effect intended by the Casual Friday policy. In short, the experiment was not a great success.

Ah but Dress Down Friday had its own rules and structures! It remains to this day in large organizations and, indeed, the wearing of ties for men with business dress has become less prevalent than it was. Customer-facing staff remain suited and booted, smart and the face of the business. Back office staff tend to be more relaxed.