As one of the writers for this blog, I wanted to give you some backstory on myself and why I am writing these next few blogs about business attire. As well as writing for this blog, I also write guest blogs for other sites, as well as doing some writing for business plans, annual reports and office manuals. The event that made me decide to write these next series of blogs is when I had one of our blog readers contact me about my blog entry Don’t Overpack or Underdress for Business Travel – but particularly about my suggestions for what to wear while traveling. The person who contacted me was trying to prepare an employee manual and wanted me to write about office attire and what exactly is “business casual.”
I will start off by saying that the definition of what to wear at the office has changed over the years and sometimes it has become a little too casual. On a typical day around Telsec’s office space Toronto, you will see people in various types of business dress. What is worn is usually up to the individual or owner of each business to decide. But in most office environments that are controlled by a single business owner, there is usually some form of dress code.
Some businesses are more formal and require their employees to wear suits and ties to the office, while other businesses are more lax and allow employees to choose what they think is appropriate around the office. The companies who allow employees to choose how they dress for the office are typically office-space environments that typically do not have clients visiting them. Again, back to the example of our Toronto office space for rent. We have some clients who use their offices to meet clients, so they typically will wear suits or a more formal form of business attire. Then there are office space for rent Toronto tenants who do not have clients or customers visit their office space and will dress more casualyl and comfortably.
So, over the next few blogs, I will be writing about what is business casual and what is not – starting with business casual for men and then what is business casual for women, as well as touching on the things people should not wear to the office as business casual.