Survey: Flip-flops are top office faux pas

With all the skimpy, sporty or revealing items men and women might wear to work in the summer, what's the No. 1 most egregious?

Flip-flops.

That's according to the 2011 summer workplace survey conducted for Melville-based staffing firm Adecco, in which 71 percent of the 1,000 adults polled named the thonged footwear as the most inappropriate of office summer wardrobe choices.

Men were a little more forgiving, with 67 percent of guys giving a thumbs down, compared to 75 percent of women. Miniskirts came in a very close second on the fashion faux-pas list, with 70 percent calling them inappropriate (80 percent of women, 61 percent of men).

So, what's at the root of the anti-flip-flop findings? The sight of colleagues' unpedicured feet, perhaps?

"Flip-flops are not appropriate for the office," says Lois Cooper, vice president, corporate social responsibility and inclusion for Adecco. For one thing, "they're noisy. Everyone can hear you coming."

Says Gladys Ahrens, vice president of administration, Chernoff Diamond Co. Llc, in Garden City: "No matter how casual a workplace is, remember, you are at work and one shouldn't detract by dressing as though going to the beach. Unless of course they work at the beach."

Still, some business types have a lighter touch with the footwear rules. The dress code indicated for Friday's Summer Social Media Bootcamp, presented by the Fair Media Council at Briarcliffe College in Bethpage: "Shorts and flip-flops expected."