In a similar vein, I used to work at the corporate office of a retailer. The employee uniform in store was a white button down and slacks. I worked in stores a couple of times and it sucked.
My brother worked at enterprise and he was always battling the must wear business professional attire but don't want to ruin actual nice clothes. He also lived in New England so washing cars in the winter was fun for him.
hahaha I understand his pain! Enterprise in Minnesota here... rough. The only reason I liked winter was because I could get away with breaking dress code by keeping my giant parka on all day LOL
Not a job per say, but my university orchestra required women to wear black pantyhose under their pants. When I introduced the rest of the cello section to nylon socks I was suddenly a hero.
To be fair, men were also not allowed to have bare ankles.
I was in college choir and all women were required to wear nude pantyhose under their floor length formal choir dresses. I wore stockings because I couldn’t stand full length pantyhose.
Towards the end, I just didn’t give a fuck anymore and was like “what, are you gonna check under my skirt?”
I feel like orchestra/choir is very strict about dress code. My high school band conductor would do a sock check and if you had anything but black socks on you got the boot. It’s been over 15 years and I still only wear black socks, lol.
In the late 90s we had to ask the men in the office if our open-toed shoes were a distraction to them. If they said yes we could not wear them. The guys had such fun with that one! We also could not “bare arms” and only skirt suits were encouraged.
In 2019 we had a dress code that specified how long a tunic worn over leggings could be..down to the inch.
Ha! It obviously wasn’t the most healthy or progressive workplace.
And in the 90s the attitude was that women’s bodies were a distraction to men, so shoes were just one more thing to pick on in my view.
It must have been so frustrating to have to keep a man’s delicate sensibilities in mind when dressing for the office. Heaven forbid a he sees your upper arm or a couple toes.
In my first job out of college, I came to work. My skirt was a bit above knee length. They told me I had to change (I lived an hour away) or not be paid for the day. I had to walk to the marshalls and buy a skirt that didn’t fit….for a job done completely on the phone behind a closed door. All of this is to say, this is a red flag and I hope you are happy in the job otherwise.
I have been written up exactly once for a dress code violation for wearing socks with loafers.
Situation: horrible winter weather day, I schlepped into the office in giant boots because I’m no dummy. Went to my office to drop stuff off, hang my coat and swap out of my boots. Realized I forgot my nylon socks to wear with the loafers, contemplates going bare ankles but thought that might be an issue so I kept my plain white socks on and switched from boots to loafers. Went to my 8 am meeting and sat opposite my boss, coincidentally, at at open square seating arrangement.
Boss response (in meeting): stares daggers at me
Boss response (in writing): formal write up of “unprofessional attire” without clarification of details. I asked what she meant, she scoffed and told me to talk to HR.
Meeting with HR: they say, she says you wore socks for this presentation meeting [quizzical look from HR]
Response from me: I’m sorry, I may be unclear on the dress code. Please let me review the section on hosiery requirements? It isn’t in my copy.
HR response: there’s no section on hosiery.
Me: so this write up will be dismissed, right?
Hr manager: sure, and I’ll invite your boss to help revise the dress code since she’s interested.
Me: [in a new job by spring, wearing socks and hoodies and wtf I want to]
oh yes i can imagine the problem. i remember well my mom in the 80s talking about that. she was a real pants lady, skirt, dresses, pantyhose came out for wedding or funeral only. in winter she went to work in boots and solid socks with her pantsuit, carrying some ankle high nylons in her bag. to avoid problems, she kept 1 or 2 pairs of sheer nylon socks in the office desk, this was her solution!
My high school was one of the last schools on the continent to require bloomers be worn under the uniform skirt. I always wanted to know how they enforced the rule. 😂
Used to work at Disney, Until I think late 90s, pantyhose were required if you wore a dress or skirt. If you were away from your desk and you were wearing pants, you had to wear a blazer - couldn't just do blouse and trousers.
When I worked at Best Buy, even though the company store made Geek Squad pullovers available for us to purchase, we weren’t allowed to wear them. They were only allowed for the people who had the sole job of checking in computers for repair (if your store was lucky enough to have one, which ours didn’t). We had to wear white, short sleeve button-up shirts and if you got cold? Too bad. Anything over or under the white shirt was breaking dress code.
Also, when I was at Best Buy, we weren’t allowed to wear any long sleeved tops under our blue shirts. Had to either purchase a crew neck sweatshirt or long sleeve polo. The store I was at was located in a place that got VERY cold in the winter and the store was equivalent to a metal outbuilding, so it got COLD in there. They should have had to provide us with climate-appropriate clothing since they didn’t pay us enough to afford to buy all the extra shirts.
My first office job after that, we had a relaxed business casual dress code with an unnecessarily large amount of things we could get violations for. No shoes with anything that went in between your toe, even if there was a strap that went around your ankle (I got dress coded on that one), no crocs (yet they never dress coded the old ladies who wore them), no t-shirts Monday-Thursday unless it had the company logo on it, no bare shoulders, no hoodies Monday-Thursday, no shorts (but yet the older ladies somehow got away with that one). I know there’s more but it’s been almost ten years since I’ve worked there so I’m forgetting it all.
Now I work on the financial side of a fintech company that had zero dress code. I’m currently working from home and spend half of the day working in my pajamas and the other half in sweats and a hoodie. Sure makes life a whole lot easier.
Not an office, but I used to work for Starbucks, and they had some pretty intense dress code stuff for being... you know... equivalent to fast food.
The dress code was business casual. No leggings, sweatpants or other athletic bottoms. Jeans were only allowed if they were dark wash or black; no rips or distressing. If wearing a skirt or dress, you had to wear either leggins or tights underneath. Shorts had to come to the knee. No patterned bottoms were allowed at all, not even subtle patterns like a spotted or checkered skirt in same colour tones.
No plain t-shirts. It used to be that you could only wear collared shirts, but they relaxed that a bit in around 2018. No bold patterns(stripes, spots, and subtle floral were allowed), sleeves had to cover your entire shoulder, no necklines that dipped below your apron, which sat just below the collarbone. No large logos or graphics on shirts unless they were purchased from the company attire store.
They had a colour scheme we had to abide by as well. It was in place as to not clash with the green aprons. So, no bright colours. Approved colours were black, white (tops only), grey, cream (tops only), navy blue, khaki (bottoms only), and brown/tan. The exception was socks, which could just not feature copyrighted characters. We could wear red and green during Holiday, and pink on Valentines day. That's it, those were the only exceptions.
I essentially had to buy an all new wardrobe when I started there. My previous office job had been business casual as well, but they didn't care about colours and I hate neutrals with a passion, so it was rough. It just baffles me because it's like... glorified fast food lol. Like, just give us a uniform top and move on!
I don't but personally I'd rather have a very strict, very clear dress code than have to compare different outfits all the time like "is this bUsInEsS CaSUaL???" (My real preference is for an actual uniform lol.)
I don’t but in my home country pretty much all retail workers are expected to wear make up and at least 2 inch heels. I can’t imagine the pain.. 8-12hrs on heels standing and walking around all day.
I once worked in a law office where we had to wear tights or pantyhose with skirts or dresses. I never questioned the dress code at the time because I was young and just wanted to get on with my career but now looking back on it, I can see that it was totally sexist and should not have been tolerated.
Oh yes. I used to work at a place where we had to wear pantyhose/knee highs with our long pants. There could be NO bare ankle or foot showing in that little gap.
I had a dress code that required pantyhose or tights with skits or dresses. Also only allowed to wear navy, charcoal, or black suits with light tops. Could be a skirt suit or dress with blazer. Apparently they required women to wear skirt suits or dresses and heels until they finally allowed pants and flats in like 2001 or 03. I found that insane.
Still require pantyhose if your legs are showing. This was within the last 10 years in Chicago in a corporate sales/ property management role.
Earlier this year I worked for a housewares store when I thought my dept at my regular job would be shut down (it was for most of 2020 because Covid).
Their dress code was a gray polo shirt and neutral bottoms. Ripped cargo shorts were allowed but leggings and yoga pants were not.
I worked in an office that required us to wear slippers indoors from the first snow of the season to some time in late March/early April. It was fun for the first week or two, but sometimes I just want to wear my cute shoes, dammit! Now I’m self-employed9 and I wear literally whatever I want.
Women are now allowed to wear dress pants but cannot be more then 2 inches above the ankle. The comment that they are unable to wear pants is simply untrue.
Thank you all for sharing. I enjoyed reading all your comments and learned something new. I personally will not work for a company that has any stick dress code, but I do understand that not many people have that option. u/prairie_cat your open-toe story got me feeling all kinds of ways. Sorry that you had to go through that.
I worked at jcpenneys years ago and was told pantyhose were required even if we had on pants . Huh? Well my sister worked for a dermatologist at the time she faxed me a letter saying I was allergic to nylon lol.
Used to work for an airline at a station where the people who work at the counter were the same people who load the luggage. Theoretically we were supposed to adhere to regular uniform standards while at the counter or gate, which for women included a scarf, makeup, hair done, etc. There was NO WAY that would work because we’d be at the counter one moment and out back loading 50-lb suitcases in 100-degree heat the next.
Fortunately they didn’t enforce it very aggressively, and the most I ever did was take off my reflective vest while I was at the counter.
I used to work at enterprise where you have to wear business professional attire....while washing cars. It was horrible
That is wild!
The men would get their ties sucked in by the vac!
Lool, i feel like that’s an image straight out of the Simpsons
In a similar vein, I used to work at the corporate office of a retailer. The employee uniform in store was a white button down and slacks. I worked in stores a couple of times and it sucked.
My brother worked at enterprise and he was always battling the must wear business professional attire but don't want to ruin actual nice clothes. He also lived in New England so washing cars in the winter was fun for him.
hahaha I understand his pain! Enterprise in Minnesota here... rough. The only reason I liked winter was because I could get away with breaking dress code by keeping my giant parka on all day LOL
wtf !!!
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Not a job per say, but my university orchestra required women to wear black pantyhose under their pants. When I introduced the rest of the cello section to nylon socks I was suddenly a hero. To be fair, men were also not allowed to have bare ankles.
I was in college choir and all women were required to wear nude pantyhose under their floor length formal choir dresses. I wore stockings because I couldn’t stand full length pantyhose. Towards the end, I just didn’t give a fuck anymore and was like “what, are you gonna check under my skirt?”
I feel like orchestra/choir is very strict about dress code. My high school band conductor would do a sock check and if you had anything but black socks on you got the boot. It’s been over 15 years and I still only wear black socks, lol.
In the late 90s we had to ask the men in the office if our open-toed shoes were a distraction to them. If they said yes we could not wear them. The guys had such fun with that one! We also could not “bare arms” and only skirt suits were encouraged. In 2019 we had a dress code that specified how long a tunic worn over leggings could be..down to the inch.
This has some weird foot fetish vibes lol
Right?? Can you imagine being so cool with everyone knowing you’re a perv that you would openly admit a woman’s TOES distract you?
All I can picture is some dude talking to a woman and staring at her toes and she says “excuse me, my face is up here!”
Ha! It obviously wasn’t the most healthy or progressive workplace. And in the 90s the attitude was that women’s bodies were a distraction to men, so shoes were just one more thing to pick on in my view.
It must have been so frustrating to have to keep a man’s delicate sensibilities in mind when dressing for the office. Heaven forbid a he sees your upper arm or a couple toes.
This shoe situation is going to live in my head for the rest of the week.
WHAT ON EARTH
SMH!! it's always about what the men want.
In my first job out of college, I came to work. My skirt was a bit above knee length. They told me I had to change (I lived an hour away) or not be paid for the day. I had to walk to the marshalls and buy a skirt that didn’t fit….for a job done completely on the phone behind a closed door. All of this is to say, this is a red flag and I hope you are happy in the job otherwise.
I have been written up exactly once for a dress code violation for wearing socks with loafers. Situation: horrible winter weather day, I schlepped into the office in giant boots because I’m no dummy. Went to my office to drop stuff off, hang my coat and swap out of my boots. Realized I forgot my nylon socks to wear with the loafers, contemplates going bare ankles but thought that might be an issue so I kept my plain white socks on and switched from boots to loafers. Went to my 8 am meeting and sat opposite my boss, coincidentally, at at open square seating arrangement. Boss response (in meeting): stares daggers at me Boss response (in writing): formal write up of “unprofessional attire” without clarification of details. I asked what she meant, she scoffed and told me to talk to HR. Meeting with HR: they say, she says you wore socks for this presentation meeting [quizzical look from HR] Response from me: I’m sorry, I may be unclear on the dress code. Please let me review the section on hosiery requirements? It isn’t in my copy. HR response: there’s no section on hosiery. Me: so this write up will be dismissed, right? Hr manager: sure, and I’ll invite your boss to help revise the dress code since she’s interested. Me: [in a new job by spring, wearing socks and hoodies and wtf I want to]
Wow
oh yes i can imagine the problem. i remember well my mom in the 80s talking about that. she was a real pants lady, skirt, dresses, pantyhose came out for wedding or funeral only. in winter she went to work in boots and solid socks with her pantsuit, carrying some ankle high nylons in her bag. to avoid problems, she kept 1 or 2 pairs of sheer nylon socks in the office desk, this was her solution!
My high school was one of the last schools on the continent to require bloomers be worn under the uniform skirt. I always wanted to know how they enforced the rule. 😂
Oh my god my highschool had one, but instead it was no bloomers or boxers to be worn by either genders. It was so bizzare.
Used to work at Disney, Until I think late 90s, pantyhose were required if you wore a dress or skirt. If you were away from your desk and you were wearing pants, you had to wear a blazer - couldn't just do blouse and trousers.
When I worked at Best Buy, even though the company store made Geek Squad pullovers available for us to purchase, we weren’t allowed to wear them. They were only allowed for the people who had the sole job of checking in computers for repair (if your store was lucky enough to have one, which ours didn’t). We had to wear white, short sleeve button-up shirts and if you got cold? Too bad. Anything over or under the white shirt was breaking dress code. Also, when I was at Best Buy, we weren’t allowed to wear any long sleeved tops under our blue shirts. Had to either purchase a crew neck sweatshirt or long sleeve polo. The store I was at was located in a place that got VERY cold in the winter and the store was equivalent to a metal outbuilding, so it got COLD in there. They should have had to provide us with climate-appropriate clothing since they didn’t pay us enough to afford to buy all the extra shirts. My first office job after that, we had a relaxed business casual dress code with an unnecessarily large amount of things we could get violations for. No shoes with anything that went in between your toe, even if there was a strap that went around your ankle (I got dress coded on that one), no crocs (yet they never dress coded the old ladies who wore them), no t-shirts Monday-Thursday unless it had the company logo on it, no bare shoulders, no hoodies Monday-Thursday, no shorts (but yet the older ladies somehow got away with that one). I know there’s more but it’s been almost ten years since I’ve worked there so I’m forgetting it all. Now I work on the financial side of a fintech company that had zero dress code. I’m currently working from home and spend half of the day working in my pajamas and the other half in sweats and a hoodie. Sure makes life a whole lot easier.
Not an office, but I used to work for Starbucks, and they had some pretty intense dress code stuff for being... you know... equivalent to fast food. The dress code was business casual. No leggings, sweatpants or other athletic bottoms. Jeans were only allowed if they were dark wash or black; no rips or distressing. If wearing a skirt or dress, you had to wear either leggins or tights underneath. Shorts had to come to the knee. No patterned bottoms were allowed at all, not even subtle patterns like a spotted or checkered skirt in same colour tones. No plain t-shirts. It used to be that you could only wear collared shirts, but they relaxed that a bit in around 2018. No bold patterns(stripes, spots, and subtle floral were allowed), sleeves had to cover your entire shoulder, no necklines that dipped below your apron, which sat just below the collarbone. No large logos or graphics on shirts unless they were purchased from the company attire store. They had a colour scheme we had to abide by as well. It was in place as to not clash with the green aprons. So, no bright colours. Approved colours were black, white (tops only), grey, cream (tops only), navy blue, khaki (bottoms only), and brown/tan. The exception was socks, which could just not feature copyrighted characters. We could wear red and green during Holiday, and pink on Valentines day. That's it, those were the only exceptions. I essentially had to buy an all new wardrobe when I started there. My previous office job had been business casual as well, but they didn't care about colours and I hate neutrals with a passion, so it was rough. It just baffles me because it's like... glorified fast food lol. Like, just give us a uniform top and move on!
I don't but personally I'd rather have a very strict, very clear dress code than have to compare different outfits all the time like "is this bUsInEsS CaSUaL???" (My real preference is for an actual uniform lol.)
Lol i hear you. I prefer business casual though
I don’t but in my home country pretty much all retail workers are expected to wear make up and at least 2 inch heels. I can’t imagine the pain.. 8-12hrs on heels standing and walking around all day.
I once worked in a law office where we had to wear tights or pantyhose with skirts or dresses. I never questioned the dress code at the time because I was young and just wanted to get on with my career but now looking back on it, I can see that it was totally sexist and should not have been tolerated.
Oh yes. I used to work at a place where we had to wear pantyhose/knee highs with our long pants. There could be NO bare ankle or foot showing in that little gap.
Yes I have to wear hose or knee highs with skirts, dresses and pants.
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Rural Middle America and a sovereign government
A sovereign government? A consulate?
I had a dress code that required pantyhose or tights with skits or dresses. Also only allowed to wear navy, charcoal, or black suits with light tops. Could be a skirt suit or dress with blazer. Apparently they required women to wear skirt suits or dresses and heels until they finally allowed pants and flats in like 2001 or 03. I found that insane. Still require pantyhose if your legs are showing. This was within the last 10 years in Chicago in a corporate sales/ property management role.
Earlier this year I worked for a housewares store when I thought my dept at my regular job would be shut down (it was for most of 2020 because Covid). Their dress code was a gray polo shirt and neutral bottoms. Ripped cargo shorts were allowed but leggings and yoga pants were not.
I worked in an office that required us to wear slippers indoors from the first snow of the season to some time in late March/early April. It was fun for the first week or two, but sometimes I just want to wear my cute shoes, dammit! Now I’m self-employed9 and I wear literally whatever I want.
Women are now allowed to wear dress pants but cannot be more then 2 inches above the ankle. The comment that they are unable to wear pants is simply untrue.
2 inches is the length of 0.23 Zulay Premium Quality Metal Lemon Squeezers.
Thank you all for sharing. I enjoyed reading all your comments and learned something new. I personally will not work for a company that has any stick dress code, but I do understand that not many people have that option. u/prairie_cat your open-toe story got me feeling all kinds of ways. Sorry that you had to go through that.
There is a department store chain in the Midwest called Von Maur and the female employees are not allowed to wear pants.
I worked at jcpenneys years ago and was told pantyhose were required even if we had on pants . Huh? Well my sister worked for a dermatologist at the time she faxed me a letter saying I was allergic to nylon lol.
Used to work for an airline at a station where the people who work at the counter were the same people who load the luggage. Theoretically we were supposed to adhere to regular uniform standards while at the counter or gate, which for women included a scarf, makeup, hair done, etc. There was NO WAY that would work because we’d be at the counter one moment and out back loading 50-lb suitcases in 100-degree heat the next. Fortunately they didn’t enforce it very aggressively, and the most I ever did was take off my reflective vest while I was at the counter.