That' s no coincidence, a West Palm Beach image consultant says. We have a global economy. Clients are coming from Europe and South America, where they don't have that casualness across the board. But we all come from that dot-com world. You wouldn't see a tie in the house.
Managers wear golf shirts and slacks, but everyone else is free to wear jeans or even shorts.
That helps the work environment as far as production goes. Not all managers agree, though, that casual equals happy, productive workers. Jackson, Lewis, a national employment law firm based in White Plains, N.Y., reported in its latest poll of human-resource managers that 40 percent linked relaxed attire to laxity in the workplace. Reining in casual dress policies might not be an easy task, but surveys show employers are trying. The latest poll shows, for the first time, a significant drop in the number of companies that allow some form of casual dress.