What Does "Business Casual" Mean to You?
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Anonymous
| I'm going to a working meeting tomorrow in NY put on by a pharmaceutical company. Since most of my "business" clothes are a little old and tired I went out and bought a really nice, polished-looking skirt suit to wear. But now I just read one of the organizing emails that says the dress is business casual. I'm wondering if I should just wear a nice dress and tall boots or a pair of trousers and maybe the suit jacket instead of the full-on power suit. What do you wear when the dress is business casual? For more context, I'm going to be the one patient advocate in a room full of docs and other clinical folks, so I was thinking of the suit as kind of my armor, so I feel at home with these folks. |
Anonymous
| I always prefer overdress in business meetings. You can add scarf or jewelry to make the suit more lively. |
Anonymous
| No, if it is business casual I would not wear the suit. Skirt and sweater set or dress and boots even better. |
Anonymous
| I would go with the dress and boots. No suit for business casual. |
Anonymous
| Dress and boots or nice pants. Agree that the full power suit is too much for the occasion. |
Anonymous
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Personally I don't think you can ever be over dressed for a meeting. Wear what makes you feel comfortable -- if the suit makes you feel better, than wear it.
No one is ever going to count it against you if you look professional. |
Anonymous
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Personally...although its business casual, I do not think tall boots and a dress is appropriate for a meeting.
I would do a dress with stocking and pumps or whatever, or nice pants with a nice top. |
Anonymous
This. |
Anonymous
| I'd go with pants and a twinset or your suit jacket. |
Anonymous
|
I would not wear the skirt suit if it says business casual AND you are going to be in a distinct role from the others. I find that if you overdress (and if you look young, which you don't say), you can look a little too eager and green.
If it's a conservative environment, pants and a twinset works. |
Anonymous
| I would wear the suit, but then take off the jacket once you get there, so that you are just wearing a skirt and blouse. As the patient advocate, you want to make sure that you look professional, and that you don't give any of the doctors or other clinicians an opportunity to talk about you behind your back (because if I'm reading things correctly, they might view you as "the enemy", right?). |
Anonymous
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13:05 again. Do NOT wear tall boots to a meeting where you don't know the other people. It's fine if you're in your own office, but I work in a business casual environment and would never wear tall boots to a meeting with clients, peers from other companies, or senior people.
I think people need to make a distinction between business casual in their office (which errs on the more casual side of things) and business casual in a business meeting setting (which errs on the more business side of things). You will definitely not be the only person there wearing a suit, trust me. |
Anonymous
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Listen to 13:05/13:07 she/he is smart.
I do a lot of facilitation and meetings for a large gov't agency - this is good advice. |
Anonymous
| I've only been given grief once for overdressing for a meeting and that was at a big law firm when they first started doing casual fridays. Wear the suit. It is always better to err on the side of more professional. |
Anonymous
| Business casual to me just always meant a suit with the jacket removed. That's it. People get way too casual, especially of you are presenting to physicians, just wear the suit and take off the jacket at most |