Is there a book of standards out there? I think it is opinion.

While i think there are basic things that would be considered "professional" i think most are based on the opinion of each individual person. For instance i think that showing cleavage at work is unprofessional, but someone else may not agree.

I bring this up because the office i share space with is a joke when it comes to its rules- but maybe i just differ in opinion.

Tell me what you think about this-

The girls who work at the front desk cannot wear:

-capris or show ANY ankle for that matter (but skirts are allowed)
-open toed shoes UNLESS there is a strap on the back
-open backed shoes UNLESS the front is closed
-large earrings (??)
-shirts or pants that are "too tight"
-they MUST wear stockings at all times, no matter the weather
-if you have a tattoo is has to be covered- the one girl has one on the back of her neck and was told she could not wear her hair up. She has cut her hair short since and must wear a jacket with a collar at all times
-the (female) manager has complained about a employees nipples showing through her shirt when she was cold (??!)

ok so the list goes on and on...to me half of them are ridiculous. What i wanted was others opinions on this. Maybe its just me and the others that work here, but when they try to speak with the manager she says its unprofessional to do "this and that" and she wont budge. I feel that it is her personal opinion because she is very conservative and older and not fair to make a whole practice follow her guidelines.

enlighten me please.

it depends on the environment

do these people have to deal with clients? and what are the clients like?

my work is "professional," but we all wear scrubs. it's entirely dependent on where you are and what services you are performing.

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I think it really depends where you work. If you are a lawyers, or a big bank, you don't want a secretary whose got boobs hanging out of a halter neck top, flip flops and tattoos everywhere. Receptionists are the first people someone visiting the company will see, so you want to set a good impression. Your manager may be conservative but in many cases your clients may be that age, or older, and potentially even more conservative.

they work for eye doctors. the techs wear scrubs but the front desk is not allowed to because it is "unprofessional".

Well it would be quite weird if your receptionists wore scrubs. Infact I would find it quite alarming- I'd be worried that once I was anaesthetised, all sorts of untrained professionals would be going wild on my eyes.