A woman decked out in a grey wool business suit, hose and heels is helping herself to scrambled eggs from the breakfast buffet at a recent seminar on employee appearance and the law. "I've been getting complaints about bare toes," she says. "Bare toes?" asks another HR manager. "It's all the other parts hanging out that bother me."

With summer's heat on the way, companies are taking a close look at their dress and appearance policies, hoping to ensure that employees don't interpret "business casual" way too broadly and arrive at the office dressed for a day at the beach.

"Employees will push the limits, almost like small children," says attorney John Stevason, chair of the labor and employment practice at Lane Powell, which presented the Portland seminar earlier this spring.

"You need a good business reason for every stipulation in your policy," says Stevason. These might include complying with health and safety standards (no neckties or loose clothing for machine workers), fostering a productive work environment or requiring that employees present a professional image to customers.

If a dress code is based on business needs and applied consistently it will be unlikely to violate employees' civil rights.

Take sex discrimination: Employers don't have to apply identical dress or grooming standards to men and women if the differences are justified by social norms. But if you are going to have gender-specific appearance policies, Stevason says, make sure you don't impose unequal burdens — in terms of time or money — on either sex. "You're also not on safe ground if your dress requirements emphasize sexual differences or force employees to conform to gender stereotypes," he adds. "Be specific. It helps managers and supervisors to understand the code and to apply it consistently."

A dress code can apply different standards to employees based on whether their work requires client contact. So mailroom workers or computer programmers in back offices might be permitted to wear jeans, sneakers or short-sleeved shirts that expose their forearm tattoos. Receptionists, financial consultants or attorneys at the same firm can be expected to conform to traditional business standards, wearing suits, covering tattoos with long sleeves or dark hose and wearing highly polished shoes.

Pendleton Woolen Mills sets very particular appearance guidelines. The company's "corporate business casual" policy divides garments into tops, bottoms, dresses and footwear and lists acceptable items for men and women. Women don't need socks or hosiery with their shoes. Men must wear socks. No one gets to wear sneakers or toe rings. Employees are encouraged to wear the Pendleton brand but it's not a requirement.

"The problem with business casual," says Sandra Moore, founder of Image Talks, a Portland consulting firm, "is that it's not one thing." It can include anything from structured sports coats and sharply creased pants to jeans and T-shirts. Moore says a better description of the style at many Northwest companies is "relaxed business casual." The region's fashion habits are less traditional than those of the East Coast and Midwest, a fact she attributes to the influence of Nike and other creative firms where blue jeans, sportswear and sneakers are the norm.

In contrast, Umpqua Bank, like most financial institutions, insists on traditional business attire: structured suits in sober colors for men and women. But formality can be expensive, so Umpqua offers employees interest-free loans to beef up their wardrobes.

Then there are more unusual wardrobe choices. Carol Bronstein at Edge Design in Corvallis wears Indian saris to work most days. "They're fabulous and made of beautiful fabrics," says Bronstein's boss, Joanne McLennan, adding that Corvallis is a more relaxed town than Portland. But she says that come summer, shorts and sandals are just fine in both places — as long as an employee isn't meeting with a client.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters is another business with no formal dress code. Owner Duane Sorenson says he's got more tattoos than any of his employees. He says Stumptown baristas "can listen to the music they want and wear the clothes they want. I'm not going to tell people what to wear."

WARDROBE NO-NO'S

PIERCINGS: Discreet singly pierced ears are always fine for women unless there's a safety danger based on the work they do (moving parts on machinery can catch on dangling jewelry). How about pierced ears for men?

Discreet earrings (in one ear) are pretty common for men these days and companies would be hard-pressed to come up with a good business reason for prohibiting them. Beth Allen, a lawyer at Lane Powell, says the firm's dress code doesn't deal specifically with piercings or tattoos but states more generally that employees should aim for "the conservative side of current business standards." When not in court, they may "take advantage of more casual and relaxed fashions." Allen says nose piercings or multiple ostentatious piercings of other body parts would probably not conform with current business standards, and that employers generally have a lot of leeway enforcing limits on visible non-ear piercings.

TATTOOS: These generally have to be covered, especially in a formal setting such as a client meeting or court. They're more widely accepted among creative types in art and design.

SHORTS: Always a no-no at banks and law firms. Pendleton Woolen Mills gives the thumbs up to "skorts and city shorts" (a skort is like a skirt but with divided legs) for women, with the proviso that such career outfits "must not be more than 3 inches above the knee." Men at Pendleton don't have as much leeway: They can choose from wool, cotton or corduroy slacks. In general, standards are looser for tech geeks and creative types, who often get to wear shorts on non-client days. Where shorts are acceptable, hemmed shorts usually get the nod while cutoffs do not.

T-SHIRTS: Dressy tees are usually a go for companies that follow "relaxed business casual" rules. Logoed tees are nearly always verboten.

FACIAL HAIR: Blanket prohibitions on facial hair may give rise to claims based on religious, disability or racial discrimination. Some black men suffer from a skin condition that is exacerbated by shaving, and growing a beard alleviates the condition. In other matters of facial and body hair, the general rule is to practice moderation.

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Copyright 2005 Oregon Business magazine