(Image: a4o)

Dear Urban Diplomat,
I run a tech company, and a lot of my meetings take place via Skype with programmers and designers who work from home. More and more, I’m noticing the guy on the other end hasn’t shaved or even put on a dress shirt. I take the time to look professional. Shouldn’t he?
—Hot under the collar, LIBERTY VILLAGE

Given that Mark Zuckerberg, the poster boy for unsociable, hoodied programmers everywhere, is a few years away from ruling the world, your call for the collar seems quaint. If said slovenly programmers are on camera for an internal meeting—that is, with their fellow company geeks—a T-shirt and jeans are probably fine. Such a casual code even works to your advantage: out-dressing your subordinates is a subtle, unspoken way of maintaining the master-slave dialectic. However, if they’re on a conference call and representing the firm to clients or investors, then you should absolutely ask them to dress the part—from the waist up, at least.

Send your questions to the Urban Diplomat at urbandiplomat@torontolife.com

The proper sandal etiquette depends entirely, of course, on where you work. If you’re a lawyer subject to one of Bay Street’s essay-length dress codes, sandals constitute a serious breach, even if they’re made of stingray skin and cost more than a family sedan. On the other hand, if your place of work is über-relaxed or über–fashion forward (last year’s gladiators were a must for budding fashion editors), covering your toes would be tantamount to a dress code infraction. For everyone in between, workplace policy can clarify matters quickly, as was the case last year when the City of Vaughan banned flip-flops among its office staff, much to the chagrin of its sandal-sporting mayor, Linda Jackson (better known lately for scandals than sandals). Provincial employees have more foot-flashing leeway: in 2007, Dalton McGuinty OK’d a casual code as part of a green initiative to decrease air conditioner usage during the summer. When deciding whether to toe or not to toe, it helps to follow a few tips: spare yourself and your colleagues the sock-sandal spectacle, leave the Crocs in the garden, and if you must don flip-flops, walk with care to minimize the beachy slappity-slap. And it goes without saying that regular upkeep is a must. If you’re not willing to pedicure, keep those dogs in a cage.

• Jason Klippenstein, the Annex

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