Why can't men wear shorts at work in the UK?

Andy,

A colleague (now retired) told me that he was in Sydney once in (their) summer and he saw a business man wearing a "shorts suit", that is shorts and a short sleeved jacket made out of lightweight suit material. Apparently it would have looked quite smart if it hadn't been spoiled by the fact that the business man was wearing a long sleeved shirt.....

In the office where I am at the moment (within a larger building) there are half a dozen men in, and all wearing either short sleeved shirts or shirts with rolled up sleeves and no ties. It is also noticeable that those that cycle in wearing shorts/sports tops are generally spending longer in them than in winter, but that may be due to the showers being busier.

Alasdair

We adopted a casual dress policy a couple of years back - although, other then customer meetings, I haven't worn a tie at work in at least 10 years!


I don't think anyone has gone for shorts.  Might be a bit chilly as our air-conditioning is fairly effective.  But a number of us are in t-shirts.  There are still a few who insist on wearing shirt and tie though.  There are a few limitations on what can be worn, but sensible casual is generally ok.


To be honest, I feel more sorry for workers in certain shops that have to wear a uniform but their employers don't provide decent air conditioning.  That's strange to me in any case, I'm hardly going to stay and shop a bit if it's a bit of an inferno.

The 'compartmentalisation' of British culture.


In the mid 20th century it was the norm for boys to wear shorts, even on cold winter days, until they were secondary school age when they would undergo a right of passage and wear long trousers. Shorts were deemed to be clothes for young children and unsuitable for adult men except in informal settings like visiting the beach on hot days. The British have quite a strong stigma against people who won't 'grow up' and adhere to things that are too young for them.

I don't see the problem with men wearing shorts as long as they're smart!  No football or surfer style shorts in the office though please... 


This does put me in mind of a news story from 2016 of a receptionist that was sacked because she refused to wear high heels for work. At the time I was astounded that there was any job that actually required you to wear high heels! In fact I have a problem with high heels anyway as I really don't understand what value they bring to the women who choose to wear them (apart from heel pain, back pain, metatarsalgia, problems with a shortened Achilles tendon etc etc...).


There is no physical need for anyone to wear high heels (unlike hard hats and steel toecaps for safety reasons) so for anyone to be sacked because they preferred to wear flats leaves me gobsmacked! 

I just had a quick look at the IET's policy and shorts don't appear on the "allowed" or the "not allowed" list. The policy looks pretty reasonable to be honest, simply stating that you should dress appropriately and use your common sense, and I've seen shorts appear once or twice in this office.


I saw a chap last week wearing smart shorts, a nice shirt and really nice shoes that he'd clearly paid a lot of money for and I thought he was better dressed than most people I see in cheap "business dress". I'd rather have a member of my team look like that than turn up to a meeting looking like a 12 year old that has borrowed a suit from their dad.


If anyone turns up to work looking like this then I'll definitely send them home ;)

Hi Julie,


Exactly! Funnily enough, what made me actually post this was seeing a music video a couple of days back with, as ever, hip young things in the sunshine - the girls dressed as you described and the guys in shirts and trousers. If it's not acceptable for 20-something "dudes" to wear shorts in a music video, what hope for us "greybeard engineers" in the office! 


I do remember, many years ago, when I was working somewhere with a broken aircon doing as suggested - I wore shorts in and kept a pair of trousers in the desk drawer in case clients came unexpectedly. Several of us did it - it wasn't popular with our then management but it did in the end get some temporary aircon brought in. 


Re Lisa's post, I got very cross about that at the time, and was staggered that PwC were acting legally. (I looked into it in some depth, as at the time I was responsible for disciplinary issues and was always keen to keep up with the case law on it. Anyway I'm always interested to see if apparently bonkers legal decisions are what they seem, usually they aren't but as far as I can tell this one was.) There is no requirement for companies to justify their dress code, they just need to be able to defend the fact that it is not discriminatory and that they have given employees "reasonable time" to comply with it. I can see it is difficult to decide where to draw the line, but I would have thought there should be an element of "reasonable justification" for any dress code.


Just needed a break from a rather challenging safety argument - better get back to it...


Cheers,


Andy

I invoke a little materials science.

Cotton chinos, paired with a short sleeved shirt, dispose of at least as much heat as shorts and a T-shirt. 

A tie and blazer can be added temporarily to meet anyone pompous.

Leave the blazer on the back of your chair overnight if your commute is long and hot.

Footwear is flexible. 

I agree, ladies have the advantage of a much more flexible dress code than men, although I occasionally wonder whether their dress conventions result in chilly ankles in the winter.