If there's one thing all accountants can get excited about, it's being granted the privilege of donning denim at the office. Time was, no accountant in their right mind would show up to the office in jeans for risk of public shaming.
These days, things are less strict although there was a near mutiny in KPMG's Denver office1 a few years back. But today we have reached a new high (low?) in casual dress for accountants with Baker Tilly's announcement that it will allow its employees to wear jeans any day of the week:
The Chicago-based accounting firm has launched a pilot program allowing its professionals to wear jeans any day of the week they deem it appropriate. No longer will denim be confined to Friday, a fairly common practice in the profession, or purchased as a one-off dispensation for a $5 charitable donation.
Such a practice is fairly unusual in the buttoned-down profession. “If Baker Tilly is jeans every day, they're probably leading the way on that,” said Todd Shapiro, president and CEO of the Illinois CPA Society in Chicago.
The official name for this pilot program is "Dress for Your Day" and it is effective immediately for all offices. Naturally, BT employees still have to dress professionally for client meetings but otherwise, they can rock denim every day. Just be aware that some people have strong feelings about tuck/no-tuck.
Anyway, I know it's early in 2016, but this could be the most controversial development in the accounting profession of the year.
[Crain's]
1Disclosure: I used to work in KPMG's Denver office and occasionally wore jeans without approval.
