5 Things You Probably Shouldn't Wear To The Office This Summer

Every summer, it seems that the question of whether or not shorts are appropriate for the office comes up in the style pages, like today, in The Telegraph, for example. Shouldn’t we maybe concentrate on other summer fashion issues?

As Sadie noted last May, shorts are stressful enough, in terms of finding ones that fit properly and determining where and when it is appropriate to wear them. The yearly fight that goes on in the style pages regarding the appropriateness of shorts for the office only adds to this stress. For some reason, some companies find even the classiest dress shorts (which do exist, I believe) to be inappropriate, and certainly it’s Next Stop, Bummertown if you work somewhere that’s that concerned with knee-modesty and full-length pants, but aren’t there more pressing issues when it comes to inappropriate summer fashions in the workplace? I think so. Here are a few examples:

Your Statement T-Shirt: Would you rather be fishing? Hiking? Going All The Way In Montego Bay? That’s something your boss probably knows and understands, but probably doesn’t need to see in t-shirt form. Is it 5 o’clock somewhere? Sure. But it’s 8:30 here and you have a staff meeting in 15 minutes, during which you’re expected to share the company’s financial outlook for 2011. Probably won’t make people feel too good if you do so wearing a shirt that says “I’m Broke, Let’s Smoke,” you know?

Anything From The Lady Gaga Collection: Corinne from accounting already did this last Halloween, so you’re going to look as 2000 and late as someone who seriously uses the phrase “2000 and late.”