The awkwardness of dress code confrontation

A common problem that managers face is employees dressing inappropriately for the workplace. It may mean an awkward and sensitive confrontation with the employee with the concern of easily offending them.

Even though many company cultures have become more relaxed towards dress code, dressing right is still very important. It presents and reflects the visual image of the company.

Adding a dress code policy to your employee handbook is a candid way of addressing this. It gives employees a better understanding of what is and what isn’t acceptable at the workplace. It is worth occasionally sending the policy to staff to remind them about it – my suggestion is to send out the reminder at the beginning of each season.

A dress code policy is not a matter of “copying and pasting” from someone else’s policy – it must be consistent with your corporate culture and what type of image you want to project with your clients.

There will be times that you will have to confront the employee and through a positive tone inform them that s/he is not adhearing to the dress code policy. It is important that you are specific and direct as it is very likely the employee has no idea what the issue is. It is equally important that this is done in an informal setting.

If the employee is of a different gender, you might wish to consider asking another manager of the same gender to speak to him/her. It is important, however, to never involve another employee of the same level, or lower, as him/her.

Uniforms may be an obvious solution but is not applicable to all industries or line of work. If the employee has a lot of customer interaction, then a company uniform may be easily considered. Employees may also feel that they cannot afford buying new clothes for work often.  Some companies have opted to provide clothing discounts from selected /approved clothing suppliers.


At SurgeAdvisory, the drafting and finalising of company employee policies (including dress code policies) is one of the services we provide to our clients.  By sitting and understanding our clients’ culture and focus, we help them draw up tailormade policies to positively fit and enhance their employees’ work environment. 


About the author

Maria Bartolo Zahra is Managing Director of SurgeAdvisory. She has over fifteen years of human resources and business advisory experience.