How to Dress to Impress on Casual Friday
Casual Fridays can be fun and are popular with employees. However, they can also be tricky to navigate, especially for new employees. Women may have an especially hard time determining the line between business casual and unprofessional. Casual Fridays are a chance for you to show you're fun and a team player but that you still take your job seriously. Here, you'll learn a few tips for dressing to impress on Casual Friday.
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Instructions
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Learn the corporate culture at your workplace. This means not only reading the dress code as printed in the employee handbook but also observing the way your co-workers and superiors dress. For instance, your handbook may not specifically forbid sandals or tank tops, but if you know that your boss finds them unprofessional, don't wear them, even on Casual Friday.
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Leave your holey or frayed clothing at home. While your workplace may allow you to wear jeans on Casual Friday, jeans with frayed hems or t-shirts with holes in them are not appropriate.
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Keep it neat. This means your shirts--and perhaps even your jeans--should be ironed. Make sure your hair is neat, and your sneakers or loafers are clean and free of scuffs. You can wear almost exactly the same outfit as your co-worker and yet look subtly neater and more professional by the way you prepare your clothing and groom yourself.
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Avoid slogans and logos. Your company handbook may not specifically forbid T-shirts with logos or sayings, but you should wear them with care. What you think is a harmless and funny saying may be offensive to a co-worker or supervisor. Even logos advertising products or sports teams could be controversial, so if in doubt, go for a plain T-shirt.
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Dress for the position you'd like to have, not the one you currently have. You may notice that the upper-level managers at your workplace wear khakis and loafers on Casual Fridays while the entry-level workers wear jeans and sneakers. If you've been gunning for a promotion, it's better to dress as if you're already in the position to which you'd like to be promoted.
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Don't overdress. You can send the wrong message by dressing too casually at work, but you can also come across as uptight if you consistently dress much more formally than your co-workers. If even the owner of the company wears jeans on Fridays, you'll look silly wearing a suit to work on Casual Day.
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Tips & Warnings
If you know you may be meeting with important clients on a particular Friday, dress a little more formally than you usually do on Casual Day.
Avoid clothing that is tight and revealing.
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