If you can’t tweet your company’s dress code policy, it’s likely time to change your company’s dress code policy.

Have you ever read your company’s dress code policy?

If you asked me that yesterday, I probably would have answered the same way you just did.

Nope! Why on earth would I want to read that?!?

Oh right… because I work in HR (upside down smiley face).

Curiosity got the best of me so I did some research on policies such as dress code in the workplace.

Apparently I violate a lot of dress code policies every day.

I refuse to wear matching socks.

I wear flip-flops and Chuck Taylor’s to work.

I wear jeans every day; often jeans that are torn.

I wear WWE wrasslin’ T’s at least twice a week.

I’m growing my hair and beard out for charity (I haven’t shaved in 2 months) and I regularly wear a toque at the office in an attempt to hide the prolonged, awful, awkward stage…

Yep…

I’m a walking dress code policy violation.

What gives?

Am I special?

Nope.

Am I above the rules?

Nope.

Are complicated dress code policies absolutely ridiculous, and does anyone actually care about them?

Yep!... and NOPE!

I realize that by being an “HR guy” speaking out about ridiculous HR policies could be seen as blasphemy, but to those that are about to scold me in the comments section, all I have to say to you is really?

I mean Really?

Like, REALLY?

Sure, if you work in the healthcare field and you handle needles and stuff, don’t wear flip flops to work; that’s common sense.

But do we really need a 5 page policy to understand that?

No!

All that is really required is a grown up conversation between employee and leader to determine a mutual understanding of what defines “appropriate dress” at work.

I have to assume that if you’re reading this, you’re an adult. Likely an adult that reports to another adult.

Between the two of you, can’t you establish a basic level of trust that leads to both of you knowing what “appropriate dress” means?

I sure as hell hope so.

I would really like to think that we as a society are well beyond the imaginary importance of what people look like, and focused on how we as a collective can work together to deliver awesome outcomes to our customers.

That means educating and empowering leaders so they can spend more time leading and less time managing. As a trickle down, that means even less time policing ridiculously outdated nonsense.

Here’s my thought:

If you’re an HR peep, and you’re in the business of writing policies, get on Twitter immediately and learn how to string together high impact, concise statements that people will actually pay attention to.

No one wants to, is going to, or gives a crap about a 5 page document that basically says “dress appropriately”.

In case you’re counting, “Dress appropriately” is only 19 characters.

That leaves you lots of room for hashtags like #winningwithtalent.

Welcome to 2016 folks. :)

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About the author:

Regarded as one of the top talent acquisition and employer branding professionals in Canada, John Fleischauer has proven himself to be a disruptive thought leader, TEDx speaker, and hiring expert. As the Chief Operating Officer of Pivot + Edge, John helps organizations build sustainable hiring capability so they can consistently hire great people quickly and cost-effectively. 

To book John for your next event, or if you would like to provide ideas for future posts, feel free to message John directly on LinkedIn/Twitter. He accepts all invites to connect and does his best to respond to all messages within 24 hours.