Suitable office attire ..

[confus-ed]

Sunday morning came & went & I was just debating what to cook for dinner, when the phone rang;-

"Ed can you go & do me some technical cover at that call centre just up the road from you ? - nothing to do really, money for old rope, just sit in the System Admins office & do what he does, look important & not much else .."

Sure says I, rings my mother to do some babysitting & sets off.

So two & a bit hours later, I've read what I had left of the sunday papers, drunk several cups of coffee, got absolutely incensed with the vending machine which kept giving me 'healthy stuff' when I wanted chocolate, & tinkered about doing a couple of fault calls the engineers hadn't gotten around to, but so far so good .. the job is 'as advertised' ..

But then from the depths of the call centre I can hear shouting - oh ffs thinks I - what's this then ?

Toddles off to discover two females being held apart by their co-workers, obviously a fight has just been busted up - so I looked at 'em a bit, shook my head & announced, "You two had better get your behinds down to Human Resources & get whatever the hell this is about, sorted out - you first, & you can stop here .."

The crowd kind of looks at me most appropriately confus-ed & I can hear various mutterings about that being closed, so its my job ! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH !

Ok says I, taking the two asside, You two can go home & the HR manager can sort this tomorrow - to which both of them turn to me & say NO !

WTF ?!?!? We aren't going anywhere unless you send all those sluts home too ?

Now I'm really confus-ed - what sluts & why didn't anybody tell me ? [dis-engages horny mode & remembers he's supposed to be in charge !]

Err just what are you talking about ladies ?

THEM !

& they point at the crowd I thought were seperating them from each other (the office is about 90% female)

Err why ?

Well look at them - skirts up to their armpits & more cleveage than Dolly Parton ! (that wasn't quite the wording, but near enough) - they want our Men !

This is now getting far too difficult for me, this is gonna require human type skills & tact, as most of you will well know, I like computers better, they don't require that stuff .. SO what to do ? The two ladies who were apparently fighting are of the Asian variety & admittedly far more modestly dressed than the rest of the staff who are mostly young & white..

So foolishly I ventured that, they all looked quite nice to me, infact very nice - at which point round 2 kicked off !

I gave up & called security, who looked at me as if ... well I dunno - but very strange looks indeed. Thankfully peace ensued until the end of the shift.

When my relief turned up, I went through all of this with him & he explained it was an ongoing problem but had never gotten this far before - oh gee thanks for clueing me in then !

So this morning, its time for me to making some irrate phone calls, as being referee on what's suitable work clothing & dealing with cultural issues, I'm pretty sure wasn't in the job specs ! I got no real explanation, other than what folks have probably gathered so far (that some ladies thought other ladies were dressing a bit too provocatively) & a half arsed apology for getting left to deal with it ..

But it left me wondering, just what is 'completely suitable workwear' in today's multicultural & Politically correct world ? What do you think ladies & gentlemen ?

[Guts3d]

On Base here we are pretty lax... The reservists have "pickle suits" ( green camo ) and us consultants are pretty much allowed whatever we want, to a point. One guy comes in regularly with a t-shirt that has the sleeves cut off, and a skull printed on the front of it. We have all 'advised' him, to no avail. As soon as someone complains we will all be forced into either suit and tie or the dreaded "nice collared shirt and dress pants". That will suck, as I hate that costume... Quite a few of the teenage summer hires dress very provocatively, and only the wimmen folk seem to mind...

[Matridom]

it's fairly relaxed around here

management are not allowed jeans and must wear a collarded shirt

The rest of us grunts are a little more laxed. shorts must be no higher then mid thigh, shoulders must be covered, shirts can't have degridory remarks or images, all clothes must be in good repair (meaning no cut/riped cloths).

The only question i have is how deep a V neck for women can be... ?

[amyb]

I work at a church, the pastor wears jeans as do I. My other jobs I wore jeans as well (and a nice shirt). The jeans are not ripped and the shirts are conservative. My 2 cents is that women should not wear short skirts/revealing shirts. It is a place of business not a bar.

[geoscomp]

I work at a church, the pastor wears jeans as do I. My other jobs I wore jeans as well (and a nice shirt). The jeans are not ripped and the shirts are conservative. My 2 cents is that women should not wear short skirts/revealing shirts. It is a place of business not a bar.

So they SHOULD wear short skirts and revealing shirts in a bar?

It's a call center..unless I miss my guess, there is no direct customer interaction? No interaction with the public? Around here casual would be the way to go..jeans..shirts..etc. The pay scale is so low in those places that placing a dress code often results in no employees. Sounds like an intercultural disagreement more than anything..btw ed, were the men that those women wers supposedly after also employees in the call center?

[confus-ed]

..btw ed, were the men that those women wers supposedly after also employees in the call center?

As far as I could gather, both ladies apparently fighting are engaged/'involved' somehow with two blokes who also work there, who were on shift at the same time & I think are a bit too friendly with some of the various other female staff, for their ladies liking ..

[El_Squid]

Sounds like they need to toughen up their security, if those two non-employees were able to saunter in to the Call Center in the first place. Secondly, they need to issue a published minimal dress code of some type, if they ever hope to successfully persue any type of disciplinary action regarding inappropriate clothing issues. Third, the gentlemen in question need to be warned about "fraternization" during working hours. What you do on your time is your business. When you are on the clock, you follow the rules. It may sound restrictive, but my experience in managing people has proven that it is just like raising kids: clear rules with consistent consequences will save you a lot of grief later.

We used to be lax in our dress code, but have become more "corporate" as our agency has grown. Now, its business attire (dress shirt and pants, with necktie) Tuesdays through Thursdays. Casual business Monday and Friday, with jeans allowed on Friday, with a $1 contribution to the employee activity fund.

[amyb]

So they SHOULD wear short skirts and revealing shirts in a bar?

It's a call center..unless I miss my guess, there is no direct customer interaction? No interaction with the public? Around here casual would be the way to go..jeans..shirts..etc. The pay scale is so low in those places that placing a dress code often results in no employees. Sounds like an intercultural disagreement more than anything..btw ed, were the men that those women wers supposedly after also employees in the call center?

No, not saying that. Just saying women can wear what they "want" outside of the office.

[Tecumseh]

It's incredible how we all get psych'd-up about what garments we should or should not wear. It actually boils down to a form of control. If I were in charge, everyone would come to work naked and those who ojected could work from home.

[confus-ed]

Sounds like they need to toughen up their security, if those two non-employees ..

Everybody involved was officially on the payroll & employed there, except me ! - you must've gotten confus-ed by my ramblings

..everyone would come to work naked..

Well errrr - errr -errr ... I think that's too mad a suggestion even for me !

[DonJ]

One of our sales ladies used to wear very revealing (even see-through blouses) when going out on a sales call. And I must admit, she was very nice on the eyes.

She did bring in a lot of customers but it back fired on her once when a potential customer started getting too frisky and even started calling her at odd times at the office making inappropriate comments, etc. She even wanted me to go with her so that she wouldn't be have to be alone with him.

As for us normal techie types that head out on service calls, we usually dress according to the customer. If they are in a professional, office type environment, then we dress in nice slacks and a tie. If it is in more of an industrial type environment, then jeans may suffice.

[BOB IROC]

I work for a High School district so it is a semi-professional attire. Since I am in technology I wear jeans and a nice shirt because you never know when you will have to crawl under a desk or in a ceiling. It usually not the teachers you have to worry about, but the high school girls very rarely follow dress code. I guess it is all in the eyes of the beholder. Some may think a v-cut blouse and a semi-short skirt looks professional and others may think it looks "slutty". In my experience I find there is no pleasing women. They care too much about the women around them and think they are competition. If you put a strict dress code on them they claim sexism and you are prohibiting them of their freedoms, if you are to lax and a women dresses revealing and you happen to glance they claim sexual harrassment. No winning!!

[slgrieb]

Tecumseh, I like your dress code policy better than Basic Islamic Fundamentalist or Amish Essential, but it can be distracting to work in an environment where your co-worker's attire keeps making you trip over your tongue or shove Mr. Happy out of your face in order to see your work. Not to mention the very real chance of injury caused by the blood suddenly rushing from your brain and causing momentary unconciousness.

But all joking aside, I worked in a company where our manager's Executive Assistant normally dressed in very provocative clothing, and filed sexual harrasment suits on all and sundry men who even glanced in her direction. Fortunately, she was so prolific and indiscriminate that she won only her initial suit, but our company still paid her off to the tune of a few grand rather than fight it out in court even up to the third (maybe fourth, I forget) lawsuit. Still, she kept filing or threating to file over and over. Can you say "Drain on productivity?" Sure, I knew you could.

BTW, Tecumseh, you look familiar. Were you at Woodstock? Any Chickasaws in your family somewhere?