Ha, you think I’m talking about the current political environment. Nope, I’m talking about my workplace. I’ll be honest. I’m a bit old-fashioned. I’m in a different generation than most of my co-workers and some of the things that are important to them are absolutely ridiculous to me. For example, the company dress code.
Years ago, one of my co-workers lamented to me about how he couldn’t wear “a hoodie and flip-flops” every day at work. This is important to him. The fact he has to wear business casual clothes (which does include jeans) is a problem. And strangely, employers now have to cater to their employees despite an overwhelming labor force eager to take those positions.
Recently, my employer conducted an experiment. You could wear anything you wanted to work as long as it wasn’t revealing or offensive. Personally, I didn’t change a thing, but many others broke out sandals, flip-flops, shorts, tee shirts, hats, and more casual dresses and skirts. The workplace went from business casual to resort casual, and in my opinion, became more slobby.
The experiment went for 2 weeks and when it was announced that it was going to end, “hoodie and flip-flops” wrote to the HR director asking why it was ending if there were no complaints about how people abided by the rules. The answer was “we’ll see.”
On the first day after the experiment’s conclusion, “hoodie” came in and announced loudly, “Fuck this place!” He didn’t get fired or even written up for that, but did get counseled on his behavior. He had to write an apology letter to the HR director saying he wouldn’t do anything like that again. His letter also mentioned it was the loss of the relaxed dress code that caused the outburst. It was a great way to make the case for keeping it, for sure.
But here we are, a couple of weeks later and great news! For a limited time, SlobFest has returned to our workplace! For the rest of the summer (excluding days where clients will be visiting), dress down, be comfortable (since that’s so important to you), act like you’re on vacation. But please, if there’s anything else we can do for you, don’t hesitate to just shout out, “fuck this place!” and we’ll see how we can accommodate you.
Me, I’m outta here. Fuck this place.
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