🔒Office workers navigate post-pandemic dress policies

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How casual is business casual?

As more workers return to the office on a regular basis, business leaders and employees are grappling with that exact question.

“Companies want you to go to work and are okay with you being casual, but casual cannot be what you sit around your house in on a Saturday or Sunday,” said Jody Morneault, owner of Morneault’s Stackpole Moore Tryon in downtown Hartford. “It has to be casual but presentable so that you look respectable in the workplace.”

Morneault’s upscale clothing boutique, which has been a Trumbull Street staple for more than 100 years, serves a clientele of lawyers, accountants, business executives and everyone in between. Morneault said she’s seen firsthand the shift to a more casual, but still professional, office attire trend.

“A lot of people have a hard time figuring out what they should be wearing,” Morneault said.

Morneault isn’t alone in seeing a change in trends. In a recent poll, 46% of Hartford Business Journal readers said their workplaces have instituted more lax dress code policies since the pandemic, while 51% said their dress codes have stayed the same.

“I think that when COVID-19 came, people realized, ‘why not be comfortable if we’re going to spend time at work and in the office,’” said Andrew Lattimer, managing office principal of accounting and consulting firm CLA West Hartford. “It really comes down to people just wanting to be comfortable, and who can blame them?”

Murtha Cullina Partner Patricia Reilly, also chair of the law firm’s labor and employment practice, said many of the companies she works with aren’t ditching their formal dress code, but expectations are changing.

“Still, the trend towards more casual workplace attire has been going on for quite a few years,” Reilly said. “You can still dress casually but have a more appropriate public appearance than you might have in your own home.”

She said her firm has a business casual dress code that is similar to other professional office work environments. When drafting dress codes for clients, Murtha Cullina looks to avoid allowing “extreme” casual clothing while also offering flexibility to companies.

Jeans are no longer just for casual Friday. Morneault said her No. 1 selling pants for men right now are jeans, which can look and feel a lot different than an average department store pair of blue jeans.

“I think jeans are the new khakis,” Lattimer said. “I’ve seen more casual attire — five years ago you probably never saw a pair of jeans except maybe on a Friday.”

Reilly said that’s been a noticeable shift.

“A lot of workplaces explicitly forbid jeans in the workplace (prior to the pandemic), but now that there’s a move to return to work at least hybrid, I’m noticing people are wearing jeans more,” Reilly said.

For men, Morneault said sports coats paired with jeans or a soft pair of pants have become increasingly popular.

“Whatever is happening in the men’s department is kind of parallel to the women’s department,” Morneault said.

Women are also wearing jeans more often, pairing them with soft jackets and cardigans or sweaters, Morneault added.

Lattimer said he’s also seen a shift from dress shoes to dress sneakers, with some brands like Peter Millar and Cole Haan adding more casual options. Whether in an office setting or formal celebration or party, people are dressing more casual.

“I was at a bat mitzvah a couple weekends ago in New Jersey and all of the grown-up men were wearing Jordans,” Lattimer said. “Everyone had Jordan sneakers on with jackets and ties, it was something I’ve never seen before.”

'Dress for the day'

There is a limit, though. Morneault said she’s heard from some companies that employees don’t always come to work in appropriate attire.

“A lot of people think when they hear casual wear to work, they think that they can wear something that maybe they would wear at home on the weekend. … It can’t be like you’d be hanging out at your house in sweatpants,” Morneault said.

Reilly agreed, and said dress code policies should make it clear what is and isn’t acceptable. Just because someone wore sweatpants during Zoom meetings while working remotely doesn’t mean that should be replicated in an office setting.

“A lot of dress codes we see would rule out extremely informal casual wear like something you’d wear to the beach,” Reilly said.

And a shift to more casual isn’t across the board. Johnson Brunetti Partner and financial advisor Heath Grossman said that because his Wethersfield-based firm deals primarily with retirement and investment services, it’s important to look the part when meeting clients.

“We generally try to wear a suit and tie, and I don’t really think that’s changed pandemic-wise,” Grossman said. “We work in an industry where you’re dealing with people’s money and it’s pretty serious — we try to dress accordingly.”

A “dress-down” day at Johnson Brunetti could include skipping a tie, but jeans are still a no-no. Even non-client facing employees dress professionally.

However, Grossman said sneakers have been increasingly popular in his office, but he considers that more of a stylistic change over the past few years rather than a formal dress code shift.

“We recognize that someone’s attire is going to depend on the nature of their business and their role and what they’re doing,” Grossman said.

Lattimer said CLA has a “dress-for-the-day” policy where an employee’s attire is based on what they have to do during the workday. Ties are no longer a daily requirement, and Lattimer estimates that about half of men have stopped wearing them regularly.

“If you know you’re not going out to see a client and you want to dress in nice jeans and a shirt, that’s perfectly fine,” Lattimer said. “But if we are going out to a client, we have to dress for how that client is — if that client wears a suit and tie, you’re probably wearing a suit and tie.” 