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‘No long pants’ rule beats heat at work

July 17, 2008 on 9:50 am | In job interview, random or weird | No Comments

An advertising-public relations firm in Salt Lake City is enforcing a novel workplace policy as a way to beat the heat: a “no long pants” rule.

From July 15 to Aug. 15, all employees in the firm Richter7 must wear shorts, capris, skorts, kilts — anything but long pants — to work until the city’s record-breaking heat lets up. The dress code even applies to meeting with clients. Those who violate the rule will be fined a quarter.

July 2007 was Utah’s hottest month on record, and August 2007 was 0.1 degree away from matching the hottest August on record, according to the firm.

When I first got the firm’s press release, I wondered what would happen if someone showed up at Richter7 for a job interview in the next month wearing a suit. Tim Brown, Richter7’s partner in charge of morale boosting, told me that he would consider such a long-pants-wearing candidate “normal.”

But if the person showed up in shorts because he or she did research and knew of the no-long-pants policy, that would be a “major score,” he said.

“There’s someone who has set himself or herself above the rest,” Brown told me via email. “We’d think, ‘Way to be connected to your audience,’ which in this case is Richter7, the job interviewer.”

His response underscores the point that you should always research company culture and dress code before an interview, and then dress accordingly. Expert recruiters recently offered more good fashion and grooming tips on Yahoo! HotJobs.

I still wouldn’t recommend capri pants for men — especially in an interview.