What You Can Wear on Casual Fridays

A lot of companies these days allow for dressing down on certain days of the week. In most cases this falls on Fridays, hence the term Casual Fridays. This trend comes mainly from the greater freedom that is being given to people at the office. The freedom, however, has its limitations.

Casual does not mean you can wear anything. Some people get this misconception and they show up at the office wearing their beach outfit. Remember that there are certain types of clothing that's inappropriate clothing for work, no matter what.

So to help you out, here are some ideas on what you can wear during casual Fridays in your office:

1. First of all, read your employee handbook to find out what it is that you can and cannot wear to work. It should be written down there what would be allowed during the days designated for dressing down. You should do this first because you would not want to risk your employment because of clothes, would you?

2. Try to ask around from employees who have been with the company for some time if they could tell you about their experiences when dressing down casually. Ask them about the kind of clothes they normally wear during those times.

3. Less formal is probably a better term for the kind of clothes that you ought to wear on a casual Friday. If you wear a suit normally, then you should go down to wearing polo shirts and slacks. The important thing is that you should still be professional in your clothes.

4. Try not to wear the things that you would sport when doing the things that you are passionate about. This is a common mistake of a lot of people who think that they could finally show that they're some biker dude, by wearing their leather outfit complete with biker boots, or that they're a soon to be beach bum by walking in wearing their favorite Hawaiian shirt. That simply wouldn't inspire confidence in your professional abilities.

5. Whatever it is that you decide to wear; cleanliness should be something that you ought to think about always. It does not matter how expensive your shirts or shoes are, if you show up in the office looking and smelling like you haven't showered, it would be pointless. In fact this is something you should remember whether it's a day for casual dressing or not.

6. Don't risk your reputation at the workplace by experimenting on your casual look. Just play it safe with plain old polo shirts, slacks and loafers. You can never go wrong with that combination of clothes for your casual day. You can complete the ensemble by having a well chosen sports jacket over your attire.

Keep in mind that you are dressing for your work. Even if you are toning down your clothes on that day, it is still supposed to be professional most of all. What you wear to work and what you wear to have fun should be a completely different set of clothes.