Previous posts have expressed concern about the decline of proper dress at work.  Most of these posts have dealt with female attire (click here, here and here), though the death of the necktie also received appropriate attention.  Now, in a development that advances the decline of office apparel by decades, men are wearing short pants to work as recently reported by the New York Times.

Here are the alleged reasons.  Hot weather.  Acceptance of radical fashion.  Muscular calves or sculptured ankles perfected in the gym or by cosmetic surgery.  Increased desire to view men’s bodies (at least, part of them).  Gender equality (both sexes embracing immodesty).

A fashion expert is quoted in the Times article as saying, “As men’s wear continues to evolve and becomes a little more casual without becoming grungy, it’s not impossible anymore to be dressed up in shorts.”  It never has been.  In Bermuda, men wear Bermuda shorts (cuffed or uncuffed) with buttoned down shirts, traditional ties, blazers, and long socks that cover their calves.  Only a portion of the knee shows.  It’s a classic and classy look.

The look written about by the Times is classless, one of casual grunge, a freed objectified male body, and more skin for women to see.  “A man in shorts is no more startling than a women in a miniskirt.”  One could also say it’s no more startling to see a naked man than a naked woman in the workplace.

At work, particularly from an employment law standpoint, startling is irrelevant.  The relevant word is sexual.  The more skin a man shows, for the most part, the more comical workplace dress becomes.  The more skin a woman shows, the more activated The Man Gene becomes, leading to unwholesome thoughts, lust and sexual harassment.  No one seems to get this.  Indeed, the Times attempts to provide evidence that, when it comes to dress and skin, men and women are the same.  Now that’s startling.

The shorts worn by United Parcel Service employees may have opened the door for all male employees to bare their legs at work.  Of course, male postal workers have worn shorts for decades, but since the shorts were government-issue, no one seemed to notice or make anything of it.

Perhaps the scanty attire of Hooters employees has provided a similar opening for all female employees.  Of course, strippers have worn little to nothing for centuries.  Only the male patrons paid attention until recently it appears.

Fashions designers with the help of the media are selling employers a bill of goods.  For the sake of their own respectability and institutional decorum, employers should listen to common sense, not spurious fashion mavens.  For the sake of minimizing employment law problems, employers should adopt a dress code embedded in propriety, not one designed to distract employees from the work they’re supposed to be doing.