Daily Journal stick-in-the-muds should lighten up a little

Kevin's post last week about the Daily Journal's neanderthal dress code was another reminder of how diverse L.A. workplaces can be. Earlier this week I stopped by the Santa Monica offices of Surf Air, the start-up private air service that allows you to fly as often as you want for a steep monthly membership fee. The vibe was strictly beach casual; most everybody was in jeans, and the CFO was walking around in socks. Visit a downtown law firm, the kind of place that Daily Journal reporters would frequent, and it's still traditional business attire. So maybe you can understand where the paper's managers are coming from. And yet, you'd also think they could allow a little flexibility for their workers, who I'm guessing are young and like the freedom to go casual (as with the Nasty Gal outfit to the left) when they're not interviewing some big cheese. From this week's Business Update on KPCC:

Mark Austin Thomas: Business analyst, Mark Lacter, dare I ask what you're wearing?

Mark Lacter: C'mon Mark, this is radio for a reason. And certainly, don't ask that question at the L.A. Daily Journal newspaper, which recently issued a memo that laid down the law on what's not considered appropriate attire. As in, no jeans, no sneakers (except for messengers), no sandals or flip-flops, no halter tops, no spaghetti straps, no tee-shirts. Also, no shorts, leggings, or exercise pants. And, if you don't measure up, you may be sent home to change clothes. Now, to be fair, the Daily Journal is a legal newspaper, and law firms - along with the courts - remain kind of a bastion for traditional business attire.

Thomas: And that means jackets and ties for men...?

Lacter: ...and skirt suits and business dresses for women. It's the same deal for many offices in New York and Chicago. Matter of fact, dressing down is still not especially popular in many parts of the country, according to a new survey. More than half of the respondents say it suggests an employee doesn't have respect for the workplace. In other words, not a team player.

Thomas: But L.A. has this huge creative community where jeans and tee-shirts are almost part of the uniform.

Lacter: Yeah, the only people wearing suits at these places are the high-level executives who are actually called "suits." This has been true in Hollywood for years, but now you're seeing it with the growth of tech companies. Now imagine how confusing it must be for an attorney who wears the standard business uniform, and who has one of these companies as his client. And, maybe that's the point - there is no single workplace culture, even within the companies themselves.

Thomas: Is being comfortable just not on the radar at these places?

Lacter: Well, not to pick on the Daily Journal, but so what if someone who is stuck in front of a computer all day wants to be a little more comfortable in jeans? The world is not going to come to an end. You know, the workplace is far different than it was even 10 years ago. People are doing their jobs in all sorts of ways, and so this is really all about common sense. Maybe it's time the stick-in the-muds realized as much.