<p>I just started a new job four months ago, at an office where the dress code is business casual, and most people wear clothes that are more "business" than "casual."</p>
<p>Two weeks from now, our group is being moved to another building. We have to pack up our offices on Friday and unpack on Monday.</p>
<p>I'm not thrilled about the prospect of having to pack boxes and move furniture in my office clothing and dress shoes. I have been thinking about asking my supervisor whether it's possible to get an exception made to the dress code for those two days only. It would be wonderful to be able to wear jeans, sneakers, and an old shirt that I don't care about.</p>
<p>If you are a supervisor at work, would you be offended by a request of this sort? Regardless of whether your company's policies would allow you to say yes to the request, would your opinion of the employee be lowered because she asked?</p>
<p>The company I work for provides move management services for just this situation. In fact, I’m coordinating a corporate move on Friday night, but I digress. I have never known a company to not allow their personnel to dress down for a move. But instead of asking a supervisor, if I were a new employee I’d talk among my fellow staffers about clothing plans first. It may be that everyone is just expecting to show in appropriate clothing on move day.</p>
<p>Are you really expected to move furniture? Cause that’s what we hire movers for.</p>
<p>Ask your supervisor - you will probably get a green light for different clothes and you may also get more direction on just what you will be expected to do (as in actually move heavy furniture or just pack and unpack boxes) It’s wonderful when a company can hire movers but not all can.</p>
<p>It would be nearly impossible for people to have dressed down at my former job, unless they just showed up nude. I can’t imagine a boss not allowing for comfortable clothing for a move. I wouldn’t “ask for an exception”; I’d act like that it is expected – “We’ll be able to wear jeans Friday and Monday because of the move, right?”</p>
<p>A typical office move involves employees putting small items, etc. in boxes and labeling them with numbers corresponding to new offices so that movers can easily move them without getting them mixed up or lost. Furniture to be moved is also labeled. Of course, this may involve unplugging computers and putting the cables and stuff in boxes.</p>
<p>Ideally no one would need to ask - the supervsor would have already stated what’s permitted/expected. But if that hasn’t happened then certainly it’s appropriate to ask the question but then, the management should be open enough and accessible enough that the employees would feel comfortable asking them anything. It’s part of the function of being a manager. </p>
<p>In the office moves I’ve experienced it’s pretty much expected that most people will dress in ‘moving clothes’ (jeans, tennies, etc.) especially if they end up having to get down on the floor to unplug cables, maybe pick up dirty items, etc. It doesn’t make any sense to wear less comfortable clothing or clothing one wouldn’t want to get dirty, get stains on, etc.</p>
<p>We don’t actually have to move furniture, except to the extent necessary to get behind it to label every computer component, wire, and cable in our offices. We also have to dismantle our bookcases, which apparently come apart easily and are best transported in pieces. And of course, we have to pack and unpack boxes, including moving large numbers of hard copy files into crates. And then, after the stuff has been transported to the other building, we have to reverse the process. </p>
<p>The official meeting where we were given all of the details pertaining to the move was held yesterday, and no mention was made of clothing. I had expected there to be an announcement, just as there was at my previous job when there was a similar situation, but nobody said anything. </p>
<p>We also have professional movers to do all the work, sometimes we don’t even have to pack, they would literally just move our desks and filing cabinets to our new location.</p>
<p>If someone were to ask, I would let the employee know what’s allowed, but I wouldn’t be offended, especially if an employee is new. That being said, even if a manager were to say dressing is permitted, I wouldn’t necessary wear an old shirt.</p>
<p>We have dress down day on Fri. People really enjoy coming in with dressy jeans and casual shoes (no sneakers).</p>
<p>My dh works in a formal office environment. Picture dark suits & conservative ties on men, and very nice pants outfits or dresses w/ heels on women. Casual Fridays are done, but jeans are never worn then. However, when his group moved, he wore old jeans, a polo shirt, and sneakers (he was the SVP/division head) and that was typical. He tends to forget to mention stuff like that to his staff ahead of time, thinking that “of course” people know it’s okay. </p>
<p>I think it would be fine for you to ask. The idea may not have occurred to your mgt., especially if their admin. assistants handle their moves. The other SVPs seem to arrange to be out of the office when their groups move and leave it all to their admins.</p>
<p>I think it’s a very reasonable question. H has had FREQUENT moves for himself & those he serves. When he is moving or helping others in their move, it’s fine for him to wear jeans & polo shirts, which he has been more & more. On “regular days,” he wears khakis & polo shirts.</p>
<p>Neither I nor H wants to have him ruin clothes in a move and he often has to get quite dusty getting things labeled & tracing cables to figure out if they are still in use & needed or not.</p>
<p>I would expect a supervisor to agree–unless, perhaps, you are also meeting with clients or something. You could always just bring a change of clothing to hedge your bets.</p>
<p>Teacher here…we packed to move out of a building and then moved into the building all right after school. SO…we were not allowed to “dress down”. Most of us wore older khaki slacks and loafer type shoes. We didn’t have to move anything but we had to pack and unpack it all…in school clothes. We are not permitted to wear jeans.</p>
<p>When we move around at work, we put all of our belongings into moving boxes and tag them. We then tag our monitors, keyboards, mouse, computer tower, and phone. I personally tag my chair because I like it and I tag my trash can also (don’t laugh - I’ve seen some broken trash cans and I like that mine is solid!). We put a number on each tag - like location 6. Then where we are moving to, our new desk will have a number - like location 6. Then the next morning the movers come and move all of our stuff that we numbered as say location 6 over to desk location 6 and we unpack when we get there. I guess it’s a little different if you are moving from one building to another but its usually not very strenuous. </p>
<p>That being said, I wouldn’t feel offended if you asked. You don’t know if you don’t ask… I actually like the idea of saying “with the move coming up on friday and monday it might be nice if we could wear casual clothes that make it easier for us to move around in.” or something like that… Rather then “can i dress down on friday and monday?”</p>
<p>We use movers for full-office moves (last one was in 1995). For individual moves, we do it ourselves. The most common approach is to do it at night or over the weekend.</p>