| Improve Your Week with Casual Monday and Formal Friday; |
[Jul. 11th, 2008|12:35 am] |
This one's for businesses that have a normal dress code of business casual or something similar.
To liven things up a bit and normalize the feel of the work week, try instituting an unofficial Casual Mondays / Formal Fridays policy. That is, let a Metallica t-shirt and jeans be standard on Mondays and suits, ties, and high fashion be standard on Fridays.
 This is the reverse of Casual Fridays with a different, though similar, intent. Mondays are evil for most of us, we have to leave the weekend slump and get back to the grind. To alleviate one of the pains of the transition, go very casual. This also allows people to show off the out-of-office personality (keep it tasteful), which helps strike up more conversations and form new/stronger bonds. Everyone is worn out by Friday and ready to go out and have fun. Dressing very formal on these days helps bring focus back to the job, plus the Western sense of responsibility inherent in dressing up. It will also help those who have no sense of formal build up a formal wardrobe, which everyone needs.
So on Mondays, your workers get to have one less formality to worry about on the home-work transition, letting them focus more on the job and co-workers. It also allows personality to show, causing more bonding. Plus most everyone likes going more casual, means they don't have to throw out the band and comedy t-shirts (Utilikilt day anyone?).
And on Fridays, your workers get to go formal, a rare treat for some (pain for those with bad formal attire), and a reason to wear that killer suit or dress (or kilt) that's gathering moths. It also helps to helps block the work-home slip by formalizing the setting a little more on a generally distracted day. Some might work later because they can go straight out afterward -- no need to change ;).
The clothes may not make the man, but they sure tweak him.
You could obviously do this at a more- or less-formal company as well. The point is to go one or two steps down on Monday, and one or two steps up on Friday. Some shops may not want formal to include a tux or tails, some may not want casual to include sandals -- feel free to tailor to suit.
If you want to have more specific definitions for dress codes, try these.
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