My husband joined a new company this past year, and within the first month he almost made a huge faux pas that could have ended any semblance of a grand new career.

What almost took him down? Those two little words that wreak so much career havoc -- and most people don't even know what they've done before its well beyond too late -- business casual.

Look at those words again, business... casual.... Am I the first to think they don't belong together? These two words couldn't be any more opposite. No wonder they can have the affect of halting a career in its tracks.

The range range of interpretations as to what constitutes business casual is huge. So how do you know what's right for you and in your company?

Here are a few items to keep in mind.
  1. Let's start with the old adage that we've heard time and again ... you never get a second chance to make a first impression. What does this mean in the context of business casual? Let me give you an example. I was talking with a friend yesterday about someone they just reconnected with on-line through the website Facebook. When explaining this person to me he said, "I don't think you've ever met him." To which I replied, "I have. He's the one that always
    wore the dirty t-shirts." My friend was shocked I remembered him. I was shocked to find out the guy worked in a lucrative field and holds an MBA. I had written him off the first time I met him because of his appearance. So, appearance does matter. If he had dressed just a little better, I might be using him now as my financial planner, and he might actually be the manager of the financial planners rather than still one of them.
  2. This brings me to my next point ... I've said it before and I'll say it again, dress at or above your level. Don't look to your peers for their interpretation of business casual at your office. And, don't look to the top either. The guy at the top can do whatever he wants, he's already there. As for the guy next to you, if he dressed a little better, he might be perceived a little better, and wouldn't have been in the same position for the past 10 years. Look to the people that are one to three steps up the rung from where you sit today. This is who you want to emulate.
  3. Finally, always err on the conservative side because it's never going to hurt you. Do three out of the six managers wear button downs and slacks and the other three managers wear khakis and a polo? You wear the slacks and button downs. 
Don't drink the Kool-Aid. Don't buy what your co-workers are selling. And by all means, don't think of business casual as business casual, instead think of it as, well ... business.