Dress Code in the Workplace

Frank Burger was a longtime lawyer at the esteemed Howard Fitzpatrick Law Firm and one Friday, in celebration of the firm’s 50th anniversary, the firm decided to have a casual-dress Friday. The law firm had a pre-existing rule regarding appropriate workplace attire on casual days to protect the company from losing potential business clients who visited the office. The rule stated that “all employees, on casual dress days permitted by the company, may wear comfortable articles of clothing that do not contain any offense material or message in an effort to protect this law firm’s reputation and client base”. On the casual Friday, Frank wore a “Not My President” t-shirt and spent the day having meetings with clients and coworkers. About halfway through the day, Burger was called into his boss’ offices and was told to change his shirt because of several coworkers complaints about the shirt’s inappropriate message in a workplace setting. However, Burger refused to take off the shirt claiming that to him the shirt was not offensive or inappropriate and on casual Fridays, he is allowed to wear clothing he feels comfortable in. He also defended his shirt by saying that other lawyers were wearing shirts he didn’t necessarily agree with such as sports teams he hated and other cultural references. After a half hour of heated discussion with his boss, Frank walked out of the crowded office and received a call later on saying he had been fired for “disruption of the workplace” and breaking the office’s dress code that they have the right to enforce because they are a private company.