It's In My Jeans

Because I've been a retail slave for most of my working-life, I've been forced to adhere to strict dress-codes for most of that time. Not that I consider myself the most anarchic person I know, but I do have a serious problem with dress codes that enrage me to the point of screaming and yelling sometimes. Unreasonable? Probably.


Forcing someone to wear something that they don't want to, to me, is a way to completely stifle a person's individuality. Now, I know that this sounds like the argument that you'd get from a preteen about why they shouldn't wear school uniforms, but really...it is. There are a million excuses as to why people should wear uniforms to their retail jobs including, for the ease of customers to be able to identify store employees, for employees to look professional and well-groomed, or for employees to remain completely down-trodden and shat upon by their respective employers. These reasons, though, are all thrown out the window when a company feels like they're going to reward employees with a "Jeans Day."


Now, the "Jeans Day" has got to be one of the most condescending mother-fucking things I've ever encountered in my working life. Whether under the guise of "Casual Friday," or used as a reward for sales, credit card applications, charity-drives or whatever...this is a way that a shitty company rewards employees without having to really DO anything. I mean, they could buy you lunch, give you a bonus or a day-off, but why bother when they're nice enough to let you wear your own clothes!

Feh.

I could go on and on about how all of the aging Baby-Boomers are keeping these archaic notions of professional work-wear or how foolish it is to judge someone by how "dressed-up," they are, but it's an annoying argument that I haven't been able to win since I wanted to wear my ripped-up Jimmy Buffett t-shirt to Christmas Eve dinner at my Grandfather's house fifteen years ago. The truth of the matter is, is that if a company can allow their employees to wear casual clothes EVEN ONCE, then clearly, they're running the kind of business where their employees could wear casual clothing all of the time.

For instance, when I worked at Starbucks, we were allowed to wear jeans on Steeler's game days (the rage that courses through my body *groan*) when they were in the playoffs or when we'd hit a certain goal in VIA sales. So, it is completely reasonable to wear jeans and make coffee drinks when the NFL and the Accounting Department is involved, but it's insanely unprofessional to make coffee drinks and wear jeans any other time? Whatever.

You can take your "Jeans Day" and shove it straight up your ass.