Eric P. Butts

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How Casual Should You Be On Casual Fridays?

Don’t be like Mike…

I’m going to let you in on a secret about the working world. Some people may have their world shaken and may even want to fight me on this once I drop this bomb on you but sometimes the truth hurts. And it’s better to hear this new from me than from someone on the job like..your boss.

Casual Fridays Don’t Exist

If someone tells you that they have casual Fridays, don’t trust them. This is just a way to weed out the new people that have a common sense deficiency. I remember when I was working at Pepsi we had a new joiner right out of undergrad. It was a Thursday and people were talking about casual Friday and he asked me what was considered casual. Jokingly, I told him I was wearing basketball shorts. Apparently he didn’t get the joke because the next day he absolutely showed up in mesh shorts. Priceless. Not getting a picture that day was one of my bigger failures to date.

Always Play It Safe In The Office

If you ever have any doubt, err on the side of too formal. Wear khakis instead of jeans. Wear loafers instead of gym shoes. Even if your casual Friday is more specifically named jeans day, you still need to take some precautionary steps. First, please don’t ever in your life wear jeans like Michael Jordan. People just won’t respect you after that. Jeans need to be rip-free and fit your body, unlike these jeans Jordan wore. If you decide to wear a polo instead of a standard button-down, make sure your iron it in the morning before you leave so you don’t look like you slept in it the night before.

When You’re With Colleagues You’re Always On

As you progress in your career, image and its less tangible relative “executive presence” become increasingly important professional development areas, and every interaction with those you work for is a data point people will subconsciously (at least) use when assessing your readiness to go on to the next level.

In other words, a rule of thumb for work functions is don’t dress like a clown and stay away from the tequila shots as if your life depended on it because your career does.

Click here for more tips on casual Friday dress
Here’s another reference for casual Friday style

Feel free to share any points you have in the comments below. Thanks to Never Less Than Success reader Michele for asking this question!

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How Far Would You Go to Avoid Wearing a Collared Shirt?

Shirt Collar With No Shirt
This actually happened…

A couple of weeks ago, a guy walks into the office wearing a v-neck sweater with nothing under it but a t-shirt. Said guy’s manager advises him to hit the mall to buy some collared shirts to go under those v-necks. After all, perception is everything in this business.

This week, I go into one of the conference rooms — at the client site — to take a phone call, shut the door, and I find this hanging on the back of the door…

It would appear that said guy, a manager at a consulting firm, chose to go with this feaux collar instead of taking the time to wear a shirt under his sweaters. One could look at this in one of two ways:

  1. Genius innovation for speed and comfort
  2. An odd manifestation of immaturity in the workplace

Which one do you think it is? Let me know in the comments.

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How to Identify A Fraudulent Tax Return

So I recently posted about myths associated with CPAs, the last of which I “mythbusted” by showing just how funny we accountants are.  When I wrote that, I was only considering intentional comedy by CPAs, but after a late night reading of the Journal of Accountancy last night (yes, this is how I unwind), it seems CPAs aren’t the only one with jokes. Yesterday’s news posted by the JoA included an article “IRS Chief Counsel’s Office Issues Guidance on Identity Theft Returns” that I had to double check at multiple points to make sure I hadn’t actually flipped over to The Onion.
I’m still not sure this wasn’t a parody posting.  Can somebody please confirm this for me??

Here is the first gem from our friends at the IRS. You may have been confused on what makes for a fraudulent tax return before, but they set the record straight yesterday:

“a return filed by an identity thief is not a valid return because it is not filed by the true taxpayer or with the true taxpayer’s consent and it lacks a valid signature. This is a position the Office of Chief Counsel has taken in prior guidance.

I especially love the last line referring to “prior guidance.” My one comment/question on this is what other position could could they possibly have taken under this scenario?!

The article becomes even more strange when it all but says some types of fraud are ok. I’m going to paraphrase what the official guidance says but you can check the article for yourself.  The quick summary of The IRS did not address situations where the name and/or SSN were fake/stolen but the return was otherwise correct. In these situations, the return WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S IDENTITY is an attempt to comply with federal tax law…so the fraud is ok…

To be fair, it does mention that this is often the case with undocumented workers, but I’m fairly sure that stealing identities is not part of the tax code. It seems like a dangerous game to pick and choose when fraud is acceptable.We really need to come up with a better process for undocumented workers to comply with tax law.  Any ideas on how to handle this? Is there anyway a different ID number could be used?