Fed employees: Dress code is next wave of annoyance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My non-public facing partner at IRS has always had to wear business dress. No business casual for them. They don't even have a dress down Friday option.

Literally false. I work there and it’s not required and it’s not in the union contract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we have such a dress code imposed I will be creative with it! In fact, it might be time to dust off my retired husband’s suit jackets, shirts and ties. Maybe I will splurge for a fedora to really make a statement. B

Watch out - they might accuse you of being trans!

Is it really that scary to be “accused” of being trans?

You must not be paying attention

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we have such a dress code imposed I will be creative with it! In fact, it might be time to dust off my retired husband’s suit jackets, shirts and ties. Maybe I will splurge for a fedora to really make a statement. B

Watch out - they might accuse you of being trans!

Is it really that scary to be “accused” of being trans?

You must not be paying attention

Why would you be scared of being called trans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Believe it or not pre wfh people with GS5 and GS 7 first jobs had to put together a business office wardrobe. I doubt it was at immense expense. But they were proud to have those jobs and looking forward to being professionals.

There’s a big difference between a business wardrobe (i.e. suits every day) and a business casual wardrobe. The latter is what most federal jobs required pre-COVID. Very, very few GS-5’s and GS-7’s were wearing suits 5 days a week, even in 2010.

Business dress is a big step up from merely professional. I've never worked anywhere with expectations below business casual - never jeans, for example - but also never worked anywhere that expected business formal on a daily basis. Private firms weren't doing that 20 years ago and neither were agencies. What you typically saw in both places was varying degrees of business casual, plus a blazer that lived at the office in case you needed to dress up for something.

Exactly. I graduated in 1998 and have never worn a suit to work other than for interviews. Business casual has been the norm at most offices for decades. Definitely leaning mire towards casual post Covid, and I don’t think anyone would care for a “no ripped jeans no tshirts” rule. But suits? Nope. Not gonna happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My non-public facing partner at IRS has always had to wear business dress. No business casual for them. They don't even have a dress down Friday option.

I have been at IRS for 35 years and have never heard of this. Everyone used to dress up more in the early years. Now it is business casual with some people pushing the envelope in jeans. We are non public facing and anything else would be ridiculous. Can you imagine managers behind closed doors...is Cindy's top ok? I am not sure if it is professional. Men are easy. Any button up shirt and a tie I can be fine with..but that top has a bow?? Are bows professional?? We need more specific guidance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My non-public facing partner at IRS has always had to wear business dress. No business casual for them. They don't even have a dress down Friday option.

I have been at IRS for 35 years and have never heard of this. Everyone used to dress up more in the early years. Now it is business casual with some people pushing the envelope in jeans. We are non public facing and anything else would be ridiculous. Can you imagine managers behind closed doors...is Cindy's top ok? I am not sure if it is professional. Men are easy. Any button up shirt and a tie I can be fine with..but that top has a bow?? Are bows professional?? We need more specific guidance.

If you all hadn’t been wearing JEANS to work you wouldn’t be in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My non-public facing partner at IRS has always had to wear business dress. No business casual for them. They don't even have a dress down Friday option.

I have been at IRS for 35 years and have never heard of this. Everyone used to dress up more in the early years. Now it is business casual with some people pushing the envelope in jeans. We are non public facing and anything else would be ridiculous. Can you imagine managers behind closed doors...is Cindy's top ok? I am not sure if it is professional. Men are easy. Any button up shirt and a tie I can be fine with..but that top has a bow?? Are bows professional?? We need more specific guidance.

If you all hadn’t been wearing JEANS to work you wouldn’t be in this situation.

That’s fair

[Anonymous]

I would welcome this. People dress like slobs.

[Anonymous]

There literally need to be govt fashion consultants/stylists who are like gs-13 who can help people put together wardrobes, handle tailoring, work with low and high end retailers (Gap to Nordstrom) to get people a nice wardrobe for work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we have such a dress code imposed I will be creative with it! In fact, it might be time to dust off my retired husband’s suit jackets, shirts and ties. Maybe I will splurge for a fedora to really make a statement. B

Watch out - they might accuse you of being trans!

Is it really that scary to be “accused” of being trans?

You must not be paying attention

Why would you be scared of being called trans?

You sweet, innocent and completely naive person. It's never been safe to be trans. Things got moderately better in past 20 years, and backslid mightily during the 2024 election to present day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There literally need to be govt fashion consultants/stylists who are like gs-13 who can help people put together wardrobes, handle tailoring, work with low and high end retailers (Gap to Nordstrom) to get people a nice wardrobe for work.

Now that would be government waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we have such a dress code imposed I will be creative with it! In fact, it might be time to dust off my retired husband’s suit jackets, shirts and ties. Maybe I will splurge for a fedora to really make a statement. B

Watch out - they might accuse you of being trans!

Why do you think?

Is it really that scary to be “accused” of being trans?

You must not be paying attention

Why would you be scared of being called trans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It has its purpose even though most don't understand. Most people have small brains.

An example I worked in a department of 40 where my Boss was very strict on dress code. Suit and Tie, sharply dressed. No ever walking the hallways to a meeting with Jack off. Women had to wear business suits, NO PANTS, pantyhose. High Heels, make up. I used to have a Barneys suit, Seiko Watch, Johnston and Murphy Shoes shined to the max by shoe shine guy before any big meeting, my white shirts starched to max, even my Belt was designer and my suits I had 10 were rotated and professional dry cleaned regulaly. My boss tried to hire no slobs. He used Head Hunters to clean out the slobs. He also has us 50/50 men and women and we were diverse but diverse like a macys catalog.

So why was he doing this. Why it got us on Executive Floor on 50 Floor on Wall Street. We were on same floor as CEO and where Board met. Where the EVPs and SVPs had meetings. We shared bathroom and coffee section with CEO and CFO. Are whole department became the future leaders of company. We got best raises and promotions and bonus.


The say showing up and appearance was 99 percent of success. My boss was Extremely fierce on work house. Show up one minute late get in trouble. At lunch no more than 1.2 could do lunch at a time and had assigned lunch times. He did not ever want CEO, COO, CFO walking by our dept not seeing busy people in suits working.

Sounds crazy. But was hard to last in that department. Everyone in company tried to steal the staff and we promoted a lot.

He retired and next person went casual route, flex hours, hybrid did not care about appearance and looked like a lot of sloppy folks with department 2/3rds empty every day and eventually it became a dead end where careers go to die.

He should have had you spend a little less time shining your shoes and a little more time perfecting your English. Your post is almost unreadable.

But style over substance is what you’re talking about, and that’s exactly what this administration values, inasmuch as they value anything.

I mean, one might say that all this creative writing would be a way for J1, J2 guy to improve his english except it doesn't seem to be helping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There literally need to be govt fashion consultants/stylists who are like gs-13 who can help people put together wardrobes, handle tailoring, work with low and high end retailers (Gap to Nordstrom) to get people a nice wardrobe for work.

Wtf.

If this happens I am pulling out my 2000s suits and wearing them.

Who care about a "nice wardrobe for work" if we're working for this administration. It's a black mark on everyone's resume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has its purpose even though most don't understand. Most people have small brains.

An example I worked in a department of 40 where my Boss was very strict on dress code. Suit and Tie, sharply dressed. No ever walking the hallways to a meeting with Jack off. Women had to wear business suits, NO PANTS, pantyhose. High Heels, make up. I used to have a Barneys suit, Seiko Watch, Johnston and Murphy Shoes shined to the max by shoe shine guy before any big meeting, my white shirts starched to max, even my Belt was designer and my suits I had 10 were rotated and professional dry cleaned regulaly. My boss tried to hire no slobs. He used Head Hunters to clean out the slobs. He also has us 50/50 men and women and we were diverse but diverse like a macys catalog.

So why was he doing this. Why it got us on Executive Floor on 50 Floor on Wall Street. We were on same floor as CEO and where Board met. Where the EVPs and SVPs had meetings. We shared bathroom and coffee section with CEO and CFO. Are whole department became the future leaders of company. We got best raises and promotions and bonus.


The say showing up and appearance was 99 percent of success. My boss was Extremely fierce on work house. Show up one minute late get in trouble. At lunch no more than 1.2 could do lunch at a time and had assigned lunch times. He did not ever want CEO, COO, CFO walking by our dept not seeing busy people in suits working.

Sounds crazy. But was hard to last in that department. Everyone in company tried to steal the staff and we promoted a lot.

He retired and next person went casual route, flex hours, hybrid did not care about appearance and looked like a lot of sloppy folks with department 2/3rds empty every day and eventually it became a dead end where careers go to die.

Why are you randomly capitalizing words that shouldn’t be? Do you not know what a proper noun is? So weird and Trumpy.