Casual Fridays
Definition Work days identified by businesses
when employees are allowed to dress casually
Prior to the 1990’s, most companies had dress codes for em-
ployees that did not include casual clothing items. Em-
ployers saw that allowing their employees to dress casually
and more comfortably was a way to give workers a “perk”
without using any resources.
The idea behind casual Fridays was that dressing ca-
sually would be more comfortable for employees
and would thereby improve productivity, morale,
and communication. The computer industry is of-
ten credited with starting this trend in the 1990’s by
giving their programmers this perquisite to encour-
age creativity.
Clothing for casual Fridays often included khaki
pants or skirts, polo shirts, and cardigan sweaters.
Men’s crisp suits and starched white shirts were re-
placed with chino pants and a sport coat worn with-
out a necktie. Women wore trouser socks and loafers
instead of high heels and pantyhose. While these ca-
sual dress codes were less formal than traditional
business dress codes, some garments remained inap-
propriate in a professional environment, as employ-
ers reminded their workers that clients and custom-
ers are often influenced by dress and appearance.
Tattered jeans and most denim garments, athletic
shoes, sweatshirts, tank tops or halter tops, and
beach wear were not acceptable clothing items for
the workplace and were seen as detracting from
credibility and professionalism. Also, any clothing
that was too tight, too short, or too revealing was in-
appropriate, as were T-shirts with alcohol, tobacco,
or drug slogans. Sandals and open-toed shoes also
remained too casual for some businesses.
Impact As business and industry adopted a more
casual dress code in the 1990’s, manufacturers met
the customers’ demand for twill cotton pants and
skirts and knit polo shirts, while sales for men’s ties
and women’s hosiery plunged. Some major retailers
provided “casual career” shops within their depart-
ment stores. However, casual Fridays may have
peaked and started a decline. Web sites, textbooks,
and fashion consultants advise that people perform
better when they look more professional.
Subsequent Events Some businesses started to re-
think their dress codes, and a return to a more tradi-
tional business dress evolved. Companies discovered
that casual dress often resulted in casual work and
that casual Friday led to “casual everyday.” Some
businesses replaced casual Friday with “dress-up
Thursday,” with positive reports from employees,
managers, and customers.Further Reading
Johnson Gross, Kim, and Jeff Stone.Work Clothes: Ca-
sual Dress for Serious Work. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1996.
Kaplan-Leiserson, Eva. “Back-to-Business Attire: So-
ciety of Human Resource Management Report
Says Casual Dress Codes Declining.”Training &
Development54, no. 11 (November, 2000): 39.
Leigh SouthwardSee also Dot-coms; Employment in Canada; Em-
ployment in the United States; Fashions and cloth-
ing; Women in the workforce. Cell phones
Definition Wireless telephones that use radio
signals to transmit and receive messagesCell phones have revolutionized the way that people commu-
nicate with each other and have greatly affected an individ-
ual’s accessibility, security, and coordination of activities.After fifteen years of research and development un-
der the direction of Martin Cooper, the first truly
portable cell phone was manufactured by Motorola
in 1983. As a result of innovations in cellular net-
works that enabled phone calls to be switched from
a network in one geographical area to a network in
another, the use of cell phones became increasingly
popular during the late 1980’s. In the early 1990’s,
in addition to mobile car phones, tote bag models
that could be hooked to a car battery through the
cigarette lighter and briefcase models that had
their own large battery to provide power were devel-
oped.
By 1991, North American cellular phone compa-
nies were using digital cellular service in place of
analog service. The chosen technologies for these
second-generation cell phones were Global System
for Mobile (GSM) Communications, Time Division
Multiple Access (TDMA), and Code Division Multi-
ple Access (CDMA). This protocol allowed up to154 Casual Fridays The Nineties in America