Is anyone else utterly confused by modern office casual?

[BuggersMuddle]

I've worked 'office casual' for years. In practice, years ago that meant smart trousers / skirt and a reasonably smart top. Smart-ish jumpers allowed in the winter and a lot of people dressed up casual with suit jackets.

Current employer is office casual, but not 'no jeans'. We have everything from 14" skirts, jeans and a Thomas Pink shirt (the jean wearers tend to be label wearers) to 3 piece suits. I find myself utterly confused by the best way forward in this environment.

I have occasionally taken advantage by wearing jeans, top and a wool blazer when I need to go somewhere casual after work, but otherwise jeans is always a 'dress down Friday' thing in my head (and even then, in some organisations, 'dress down at your peril' Friday).

So, does your office casual allow jeans? If my boss and her peers occasionally rock up in jeans, should I? WTF is office casual anyway if a pair of bootcut (I know, but I am small and curvy) jeans and a cashmere sweater don't raise an eyebrow?

Not just you. I struggle with Fridays too. If I have an external meeting I will still wear a suit, if not its a smart top and trousers.

Set your own dress code. I don't (under any circumstances) wear jeans to work. I also don't wear anything too revealing.

Dh and I both work for IT multinationals. A lot of the staff look like more expensively dressed students. Its mostly jeans.

I work in an Engineering office, and, although it's smart dress during the week (ties for men; smart separates for women), pretty much anything goes on a Friday - jeans, shorts, strappy tops...

However DH works at the HQ of a multinational company, and they dress business casual (no suits or ties). But Casual Friday rules are much tighter, to the point where he doesn't really wear different clothes versus the rest of the week.

I think you can only judge each workplace once you've worked there. And if a variety of "levels smartness" is acceptable, then you can dress however makes you most comfortable. Personally I like to dress up a little bit more smartly than I would at the weekend.

Small company, business to business therefore not dealing with the public. We pretty well all wear jeans, all the time. Casual tops too. A couple of the men wear trousers and shirts, but no one wears a jacket. If a client is visiting (which is only about twice a year) the hosts will ditch the jeans for the day, but still no suits or jackets, probably trousers/skirt and a jumper. We would draw the line at ripped jeans, strappy tops, shorts, flip flops.

It took me a couple of years to get used to it, my last job was smart casual meaning no denim, men had to have a collar eg polo shirt not tee shirt, no logos, no open toes.

Cointreau I think it's the variety that's getting me here.

It's financial services and not customer facing, but previous offices have had more of a narrow range of styles iyswim.

Here, I regularly go into meetings (including with very senior management) where someone will be in jeans and an expensive but rumpled shirt and someone else will be in a 3 piece suit. It's...odd.

(Although I must admit it's quite nice to be able to take advantage of the fact jeans are okay on occasion). I tend to tread a middle ground to be honest, smart skirt and a cashmere sweater or knee length dress and a jacket are my winter basics.

I normally wear cigarette trousers (almost always from Zara) with pointy flats and a 'nice' top e.g. a silky blouse, fitted shirts with the cuffs turned up etc. I always keep a neutral colour blazer on the back of my chair in case I feel I need to smarten up for a meeting.

I occasionally wear jeans at the end of the week but always black/very dark blue, fitted, pressed (so no rips, fade marks, raw hems etc) keep everything else the same as the rest of the week.

We actually have "jeans friday" which obviously helps bail the dress code .

We're a head office of a MNC and I'm Exco level. On jeans Friday I wear skinny jeans, heals, silk blouse and blazer - it's practically a uniform. The rest of the week I wear a fitted dress or occasionally a suit.

Lots of the junior staff wear trainers and t shirts - which I think looks a bit crap. Tbh I think the men in the office drag the jeans look down - it's much harder for men to look smart in jeans whilst avoiding the provincial nightclub look circa c. 1995

I really struggle- we have a dress policy but it is worse than useless if you don't have to wear uniform - basically just at our managers discretion, and ours just comes up with a list of clothes she doesn't like every now & then, at which point we all have to buy a new wardrobe!

I work for a global entertainment / media business.

My MD wears jeans with shirt and blazer.

Account team wear suits or dresses to client meetings. We all dress smarter for head office visits.

Aside from that anything pretty much anything goes. Some people dress very chicly. At the other end t-shirts, jeans, woolly jumpers, mini skirts and vest tops, visible tattoos and piercings and pink or blue hair.

Ties are rare.

The only banned clothing is shorts. The girl whose outfit led to the ban is very proud of the fact!

I wear cigarette pants or jeggings with tops, blouses or fitted sweaters. I wear fewer dresses than I used to but they are all on the short side. I do not suit mid length and I am not going to change my hem length because of some arbitrary notion of age or respectability.