dapaterson said:
Business casual includes jeans in every organization I know of outside the archaic pseudo Brits of Canada's military.
Then you know very little organizations outside the CAF, Dapaterson.
I spent my whole life in the professional/industrial civilian world of Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Calgary and the US North-Eastern area (never really worked for La-La -Land West of the rockies, so maybe there?) and I can tell you that in the management side of things, and in the office side in general, as opposed to the shop floor, jeans are NOT acceptable as business casual. Someone showing up in jeans at the office would be sent packing faster than a speeding bullet - with two exceptions: high-end clean jeans are acceptable on casual Fridays (for those businesses that have it only - professional's offices for instance do not have that) unless you have to meet with clients, and it is accepted, with proof of payment on days where it is "sold" as a charity fundraiser, such as the Cancer Society's National Denim Day.
I happen to know, however, that wearing jeans to the office is fairly common amongst civil servants of various departments, probably more as something that developed because the civil service does not really try to have "standards" and with Union protection, you can't fire the civil servants for incompetence, let alone for the way they dress. But I am willing to bet that even in the civil service, you will not find EX-2 or above dressed in jeans at the office very often.
As for the acceptability of the rule: Well, it is the rule and the CAF is your employer, so follow them. You know, there is a long working hockey player called Tomas Pleckanec who played 13 years for the Canadiens. He wore a small goatee - always trimmed and clean - for his whole career. He was just traded to the Maple Leafs and guess what - he had to shave it clean. Why? Because an old fashion fart called Lou Amoriello has this rule that all players must be clean shaven at all times. Is it a stupid rule? Is it backwards? Is it old style management? Probably, but it is the employer's rule and everybody has to follow it.
Same goes for the CAF.
PS: I don't want people to think this is just a Military College rule. I mentioned in an earlier post that it was the rule in my days , mid 1970's, but I have to specify: I never attended MilCol. The rule existed and was applied for cadets at Chilliwak, at Venture and in the NROC program. It was the rule, basically, at all phases of an officer cadet training. We talk about RMC here, but, what is the current rule at the Leadership school in St-Jean for officer cadets right now?
