{"id":297989,"date":"2026-07-16T19:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297989\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T19:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:56:16","slug":"is-this-the-summer-new-yorkers-should-all-wear-shorts-to-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297989\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this the summer New Yorkers should all wear shorts to the office?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This column originally appeared in Looped In NYC newsletter. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Summers in New York City: They\u2019re only getting hotter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Does it follow, then, that wearing shorts in the office is only getting \u2026 more appropriate?<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, following an afterwork jog along the West Side (where everyone\u2019s naked), I had to make an unexpected return to my desk when a colleague informed me that my knees shouldn\u2019t be visible in the workplace.<\/p>\n

This was enough to make me curious, so I did a little poking around and discovered that everyone from Seattle<\/a> to Sydney<\/a> is talking about this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some stylists and experts say wearing shorts in the office is cool<\/a>. Others say no, it makes you look like a Minion<\/a>. The Atlantic declared the stigma around office shorts \u201cthe most illogical fashion convention still standing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t actually care what professional stylists or logicians think. I care what my coworkers think. So I threw on a pair of khaki shorts (gotta have skin in the game) and asked them.<\/p>\n

Watch this week\u2019s video:<\/p>\n

Darnell Jefferson, our senior coordinator for security and office service operations \u2014 and a 13-year WNYC veteran who has what they call \u201cinstitutional knowledge\u201d \u2014 said wearing shorts to the office is \u201cof course\u201d fine. (He had them on as well.)<\/p>\n

Iru Ekpunobi, an assistant producer for our \u201cNYC NOW\u201d podcast, said yes \u2014 but the longer the better, especially if they\u2019re jorts.<\/p>\n

Housing reporter David Brand was a no.<\/p>\n

Health reporter Caroline Lewis was a yes.<\/p>\n

Eddie Mouradian, a senior director for corporate and event development, said he\u2019s pro-shorts (\u201cmy calves are my best quadrant\u201d), but conceded that in his department, it\u2019s not yet kosher to meet with clients or donors with your knees out.<\/p>\n

Luke Green, an associate producer for \u201cAll of It,\u201d said he\u2019s a \u201chard, hard no.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it deeply off-putting to have my legs out in front of my colleagues,\u201d he said. (When asked whether that sentiment was applicable to others or more of a \u201chim problem,\u201d he admitted it could be the latter.)<\/p>\n

John Schaefer, the esteemed host of \u201cNew Sounds,\u201d also happens to be a legendary shorts-in-the-office guy. When asked about his approach, he doubled down and said his shorts (often of the soccer variety) are best paired with fun socks. (The ones he had on said, \u201cJust resting my eyes\u201d in a nifty font.)<\/p>\n

After fielding all these varying opinions, I remembered one key nugget of my hater\u2019s argument: It was against company policy to wear shorts in the office because our employee handbook clearly states that we have a \u201cbusiness casual\u201d dress code.<\/p>\n

So I went in search not for an opinion but an answer: What does our company\u2019s head of human resources say?<\/p>\n

Ru Sharma, our new chief people officer, who once worked for a bank and has a long track record of officiating people in a corporate environment, gave it to me straight: \u201cThe shape of the garment does not determine what is too casual for work or formal enough for work. If you can wear a skirt, you can wear shorts.\u201d<\/p>\n

So there we had it, the truth: It\u2019s OK to wear shorts to our office.<\/p>\n

But in this process, I also discovered my truth: Having my legs out all day felt vulnerable, weird and too chilly under the office AC.<\/p>\n

As bold as I felt walking into the boss\u2019s office looking like I\u2019d just stepped off a boat, I ultimately think I\u2019m more confident, more at ease, with a 34-inch inseam, even in the heat of summer. Maybe it\u2019s a \u201cme problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This column originally appeared in Looped In NYC newsletter. Sign up here. Summers in New York City: They\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-297989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}