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It's official: Almost half of Americans don't always wear pants while working from home, survey says

Only 53% regularly wear pants working from home while sheltering in place. The rest might go without pants, skirts, shorts or any bottoms at all.

Clifford Colby Managing Editor
Clifford is a managing editor at CNET, where he leads How-To coverage. He spent a handful of years at Peachpit Press, editing books on everything from the first iPhone to Python. He also worked at a handful of now-dead computer magazines, including MacWEEK and MacUser. Unrelated, he roots for the Oakland A's.
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Nearly half of us aren't always wearing pants on video calls, a survey found.

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Apparently it's not just morning talk show reporters and residents of Taneytown, Maryland. A survey found that nearly half of Americans don't wear pants while working from home during shelter-in-place orders amid the spread of COVID-19. According to YouGov, a research data and analytics group based in London, around 47% of Americans surveyed aren't always putting on pants, skirts, shorts or other bottoms during their workdays at home.

The survey found that men are three times as likely as women to say they never wear legwear (defined in this survey as pants, skirts, shorts, etc.) while working from home.

The survey also found that those who are working from home did put more thought into how they looked above the belt on video chats, with 54% reporting they brush their hair before a video conference and 51% saying they wash their face before turning on the camera. About half say they brush their teeth before a video call. 

According to YouGov, 29% of us do move our laptops to an area with flattering lighting, 24% of us shave and 19% put on makeup to get ready for a call.

The survey results follow a wardrobe slip-up by Good Morning America reporter Will Reeve, who appeared on camera wearing a suit jacket and shirt on top but no pants underneath. Going pantless also seems to be a city-wide activity in Taneytown, where police urged residents to put on pants before going out to check their mailboxes.

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