Short dresses & flip flop tan lines
I wear shorts to work. And tank tops. And short dresses. I’m not trying to imply that I like showing leg. It’s just….well, it all stems back to my first week of work in the corporate world.
It was late September. My boss called me into her office and shut the door. I figured I was in trouble for emailing too much. Or tweeting. Or chatting with my coworkers. (Okay fine, I wasn’t the world’s best employee). But it was my first job out of college, and I had this (not-so) irrational thought that she was monitoring everything I did. All. Day. Long.
So she shut the door to her office. I took a deep breath and prepared for a lecture.
And instead of mentioning anything remotely related to a computer, she told me someone complained about what I was wearing.
I looked down.
Hmm. My shirt wasn’t low-cut. My pants sure seemed long enough. I’d taken my nose stud out (Which, incidentally, my dad paid me to do, but that’s a whole other story…).
No, no. It wasn’t any of those things. It was because the dress code said women must wear panty hose. And it just so happened that someone noticed the tiny section of my feet that my ballet flats left exposed. And *gasp* - they weren’t covered!
How terribly offensive.
I took a deep breath, bit my tongue so I didn’t laugh about how ridiculous the whole situation was, and walked out the door. Because that wasn’t all I conformed to. Dresses had to go to the knees. Flip flops (even dressy ones) weren’t acceptable. Tank tops? Also a no-no.
Today I work in the best office in Austin. I have a flip flop tan line, I just found three new summer dresses, and most importantly…
I’m sure as hell not wearing panty hose in April.
