Wednesday, July 19, 2006

"Mad dogs and Englishmen out in the noon day sun"

Heatwave prompts clothing discrimination fears: "As Britain bakes in near-record temperatures, employers are being warned that allowing female workers to wear spaghetti-straps and flip-flops around the office, while keeping men buttoned up in suits, could potentially leave them open to sex discrimination claims.

A study by consultancy Croner has found that employers are failing to enforce 'gender neutral' dress code policies.

What it calls 'sartorial discrimination' is a widespread problem this summer, with more than half of employees polled for Croner believing women 'get away' with more casual clothing than men to keep cool.

This compared with a mere three per cent who thought men were given more leeway to dress down when the weather heated up."
Pete's Points
I suspect that the summer sunshine in Europe is finally getting to people!

I suppose you can classify this as a Management Issue - but really, are people serious about making a fuss about dress codes again?

I have a friend who has for as long as I have known him (and that is over 30 years) always considered sartorial splendour as wearing a short sleeved white shirt with a tie, shorts, long walk socks and either black or brown shoes depending on his mood.

This person has been employed in various senior positions in a number of organisations and has not varied his dress code for decades regardless of the season.

To the best of my knowledge, while he may have received certain looks from people over time - especially when the weather was so cold that the rest of us shivered in multiple layers of clothing, he has never been the subject of any official discussion about discrimination.

It's obvious to me that people simply do not have enough to do at work if they have the time to bother with this sort of trivia!

No comments: