DRESS AND APPEARANCE - 09.10.2015

Working in fancy dress requests

Dressing up

Employee requests to wear fancy dress to work on certain days have become increasingly popular in recent years. Sometimes this is due to staff wanting to immerse themselves in the spirit of a festive occasion, other times it’s linked to charity fundraising activities. Often, the two events are combined.

At your discretion

The first thing we would say about this sort of request is that you are under no obligation to agree to a fancy dress day, even if it’s for a worthwhile cause. Neither do you have to give any reason if you refuse, although this might be appreciated. That’s because you’re the employer and you make the rules on dress and appearance in your workplace. So if you believe that a fancy dress day would be inappropriate or appear unprofessional you are well within your rights to say “no”.

Some non-fancy rules

However, if you do agree to a fancy dress day in principle, some ground rules must be laid down. Firstly, it’s important to remember that most people either love or hate this kind of activity there’s rarely a middle ground. So for this reason alone you should make the wearing of fancy dress to work optional not obligatory. In addition, you should make it clear to staff that they must not make negative comments to any employee who doesn’t participate, e.g. “Why are you being a killjoy?”

Is that safe?

Secondly, you can’t shirk your health and safety obligations - if an employee wears a long flowing costume, silly shoes or a face mask that restricts their vision, you will certainly be in the firing line if they, or someone else, is injured as a result.

Tip. It’s for this reason that staff should be told to be sensible but, as there is always one person who pushes the boundaries, reserve the right to ask an employee to change out of or remove an unacceptable item of fancy dress clothing.

Remaining professional

Finally, thought should be given to the actual day that fancy dress activities will take place; it won’t look too good if you have an important client coming in to see you. Even if this isn’t a risk, there should always be at least one senior person who doesn’t participate in the fancy dress activities. That’s because it’s difficult, if not impossible, to deal with serious issues effectively when you’re dressed up in a silly costume and you never know what might happen on any given day.

Tip 1. If fancy dress is being worn to raise money for charity, don’t be responsible for the collection - this should be down to the employee who has sought permission to organise the day.

Tip 2. We’ve created some fancy dress day guidelines that can be issued if you agree requests of this nature (see The next step ).

For free fancy dress day guidelines, visit http://tipsandadvice-personnel.co.uk/download (PS 17.18.04).