Writer's Block: Work Clothes

[azurelunatic]

Remember the bodysuit? Fashion designer Donna Karan, who changed the way career women dressed in the 1980s, turns 60 today. Office dress codes have relaxed since then, but every workplace has its own rules. What passes for appropriate where you work? Is there anything you can't wear to work?

http://www.livejournal.com/misc/latestqotd.bml?qid=576
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I do believe that I am too young to remember the bodysuit. I was living isolated from much of the world (without television, with radio) in Alaska for much of my childhood, and thus pretty much missed the US pop culture of the 1980s.

I could get away with shorts and a Thinkgeek t-shirt at work. Quite a few of my co-workers do. I don't, because these days I prefer a long skirt and I haven't built up a collection of shirts as my last job didn't allow printed shirts.

We can't wear drug-related clothing, as the guy with the Jack Daniels shirt found out. I'd probably get stared at if I came in wearing full business armor (which I don't own). I'd get stared at if I came in wearing pants, come to think of it. Or color.

This really means that I need to see if they're still making that frog fabric on the brilliant turquoise background, and duplicate a skirt from my teenage years.

Comments

[wibbble]

I really wish we had some sort of dress code at work so that the CTO's stepdaughter (who does phone-monkey-level first tier support and babysits automated testing) would stop wearing clubwear and PUT HER FUCKING TITS AWAY.

Sorry, but the clothes she wears are so inappropriate that anywhere else she'd get sent home. I mean, boobs are nice, but I'm trying to work.

[azurelunatic]

We aren't allowed excess cleavage at work. I can see how that would be an issue, yes.

[wibbble]

Extreme excess of cleavage, plus really short skirts. She dresses like girls I've known when they've been going out on the pull on a Saturday night.

Given that she's the boss's stepdaughter and it's 95% male geeks, no one wants to say anything.

[azurelunatic]

Oh dear.

Magnus on my team, who used to be QA, had commentary about girls on the call floor. Most of them seemed to have approximately 30 chat windows open, none of them work-related. One of the other girls on my team and I made some noise about that, because that doesn't describe either of us, really. That's because we're more one of the guys, rather than a flirtatious non-geek. The fact that we're both otherwise occupied probably contributes too.

[wibbble]

I won't start with the horrors related to this one person, because I'd never stop. :o/