Are polo shirts business casual attire?

follow this pic:

https://www.realmenrealstyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Dress-Code-Guide.jpg

I don't know what the fashionistas call "business casual", but khackies and polos are the unofficial work uniform in my workplace. It's what all the men in office wear.

Reminds me of being in high school. On occasions where kids needed to dress up, half the kids would wear a suit or slacks, button shirts, and dress shoes, and the other half would throw on cargo pants with a golf shirt and figure they were good to go because their shirt had a collar and their pants were generally the same color as dress pants. I always figured it was a matter of resources and the underdressed kids were just doing the best they could with what they had (nothing wrong with that), but maybe that's actually just what some people think it means to dress professionally.

Yes, that’s business casual for most offices during the summer.

Do you face customers/clients or just just fellow employees every day?

If you're wearing a suit, that's business. Business casual is a sports jacket, buttoned shirt but no tie. A polo shirt is casual. Anything less than that and you're on the ground maintenance crew.

As a bank executive, if you showed up to my office in a polo shirt and didn't belong to the air conditioning repair company, I would call security to escort you out.

Isn't everyone who works at a bank an "executive" lol? I know "VPs" who make less than 150k.

I think business casual is something that depends on the area and industry. Here in SV if you were to wear anything other than jeans, you would be ostracized. I don't think I've ever seen anyone wear a polo, it's either a T-Shirt or button up. People go crazy over expensive jeans, hoodies, and sneakers though, so the veblen-good conspicuous consumerism culture is still in effect.

My take is that it depends on the profession and the standards for it. A guy I knew said at his office business casual was no tie.

Tech low level employee wrote:

Isn't everyone who works at a bank an "executive" lol? I know "VPs" who make less than 150k.

I think business casual is something that depends on the area and industry. Here in SV if you were to wear anything other than jeans, you would be ostracized. I don't think I've ever seen anyone wear a polo, it's either a T-Shirt or button up. People go crazy over expensive jeans, hoodies, and sneakers though, so the veblen-good conspicuous consumerism culture is still in effect.

Yep - banks throw out VP titles with reckless abandon. I know lots of bank VPs that make well under $100k. Watered down, meaningless title.

In my office, if you come in wearing a suit, everyone assumes you'll be sneaking out for an interview. It's slacks and golf/polo shirts all around. Don't like it? Tough. Unless you're signing my paycheck, you get no say in what I wear.

It’s not business casual, but if the boss doesn’t complain, then why not. That being said, I work in a law firm where some guys’ business attire - a wrinkled, ill-fitting, off color, and/or cheap fabric suit with an ugly tie and scuffed shoes - look way worse than a guy who dresses more casually but wears tailored, high quality stuff.

Star wrote:

Yes, that’s business casual for most offices during the summer.

Do you face customers/clients or just just fellow employees every day?

I think that's the key question. If you have regular customer contact, you dress to the expectations of your customers.

If you're a back office grunt who rarely sees customers, who cares how you dress? What's the point in wearing a suit to sit in a cubicle all day?

Probably depends heavily on industry and locale.

Here in the northeast, in the finance sector, yes -- polo shirt and slacks is definitely acceptable for summer business casual. Winter business casual, change the polo shirt out for a long sleeve button down or nice sweater. No jacket required or even remotely expected in either case. Jackets are only seen during client meetings, and generally shed immediately after.

I've also worked in the northwest, in the software industry, where summer business casual was essentially jeans and an untucked polo.

I can only assume that there are more conservative places and/or industries in which things are very different.

It all depends. I work in IT in Colorado. I wear shorts and polo or casual button up as soon as it is warm enough to wear shorts, even if it is marginal. Sometimes I wear a zip up vest over the shirt (part of the Colorado uniform) ;-) During the winter ... jeans, "casual" hiking boots/trail shoes and whatever length of shirt is appropriate given the conditions ... usually with a zip up vest. Our "business casual" is different than others, even within the same company. Our site director wears khakis and a polo. If we have customers, usually they are usually engineers, so their attire is usually in line with ours. When I travel to another company site outside of Colorado, I usually wear khakis and a polo or casual button up shirt. I worked at a non-tech company, and there were no "casual" days (ugh) loafers, khakis, button-up shirt, and tie ... every day of the week. Anyone who was a manager had the sports coat "business casual" look above, but with tie. The two owners wore suits every day. Outside of Colorado, it generally seems like business casual implies dress pants, dress shirt but no tie.

A true gentleman dresses like one, and doesn't look down his nose on those who don't.

Depends on region of USA

Midwest/St Louis (conservative as F) - Button down AND tie without the jacket or sport coat is business casual. The dress shirt must be ironed and can only be white or light blue. Anything less/differs and you look underdressed

Boulder/Denver/West Coast - yes collared shirt and khakis fine for business casual but you may be too dressed up, depends on the company culture

Northeast USA - in my experience somewhat in between Boulder/Denver/West and conservative AF St Louis Missouri

Hdbdbenjd wrote:

Depends on region of USA

Midwest/St Louis (conservative as F) - Button down AND tie without the jacket or sport coat is business casual. The dress shirt must be ironed and can only be white or light blue. Anything less/differs and you look underdressed

Boulder/Denver/West Coast - yes collared shirt and khakis fine for business casual but you may be too dressed up, depends on the company culture

Northeast USA - in my experience somewhat in between Boulder/Denver/West and conservative AF St Louis Missouri

There you go - illustrated for you

I meannnn IDK it depends rly on where ur wearing it.