Casual Dress Code Vs. Business Casual Dress Code

Casual Dress Code vs. Business Casual Dress Code

Will Libolt

Introduction to Human Resource Management

4/15/11

As far as the recent trend at my job in regards to the new dress code policy that went into effect 4/1/11 at DIRECTV, If possible a representative being either a Team Leader (TL) or Team Support Specialist (TSS), you need to dress business casual Monday thru Friday. This would consist of slacks or a nice pair of kakis or nice pair of dark colored (preferably black) and a button down shirt or sweater with the possibility of tie if one's shirt has the appropriate collar. Dress shoes and dark colored socks, not white ankle length or tube socks are allowed during the business week. Saturday and Sunday you are allowed to wear the casual attire. Jeans or shorts, no shorter than 3 inches above the knee and if a skirt is going to be worn, no shorter than 4 inches above the knee will be allowed. Granted me being in Technical support, the code is casual. Granted no tank tops, sleeveless shirts or any type of shirt with gang related messages, derogatory messages towards another's race or religious background and the whole short short thing are not allowed. Flip-flops are ok. And if you have to think whether or not the shirt is appropriate, you're not going to wear it. Now as far as the TSS'S and the TL's are concerned, this is a new policy. Mike White, CEO of DIRECTV recently toured our facility in Denver again after being on Undercover Boss and found that a lot of the higher ups that he had seen were just doing their jobs in a casual attire setting. He didn't like what he saw, to put it nicely. The next week he implemented the policy for the TSS's and the TL's. In the 2 weeks that the new Dress Code has been in effect, productivity has risen and the TL's and TSS's attitude towards their jobs and the people under them has increased for the positive. Productivity amongst us on the individual teams has also increased as we are now "looking up" towards our respective team leaders as actual leaders, instead of "just one of the guys that we go to when we are having a trouble call". Looking back over prior dress code policies that are NOT allowed out of the building, because one of our competitors could use it against us, I took notes and was allowed to use that as the outline of my report, with permission from William Backman. Who is basically, my boss' boss, and also my boss.