To think that “professional” standards shouldn’t apply during periods of extreme weather?

Have you confused me with op? I don’t have a boss dictating what I wear 🤷🏻‍♀️. She does.

I have never worked in offices that weren't fully airconditioned (or fully not airconditioned)

None of this "some people have aircon and others don't" - that seems awfully unfair and elitist it seems it's the higher ups who end up with the aircon

Is it 100% cotton?

I wasn’t suggesting I am more superior than you so I’ll forgive you for projecting as that obviously comes from a fear of social rejection should you not conform.
You’re clearly uncomfortable with someone questioning everything you know so I’ll leave you to obey the other people you see as more superior than you.

I thought that people in European countries are more likely to wear loose clothing in natural fibres, such as a loose shirt and trousers for men and a flowy dress or skirt for women. I’m cooler in a dress, certainly.

A few days here and there dressing down shouldn't be an issue to anyone normal. Let's face it, happy staff work better so value them.

But it is an issue. It doesn’t matter the circumstances: RULES MUST BE OBEYED!

Wear what you like tomorrow and bring floaty dress in bag in case it causes a problem. Explain your health concerns if challenged too.

I'm amazed anywhere requires skirts so far below the knee in this day and age!

I’ve been in Italy for the last 10 days, in mentalist temperatures, and have come back to worse! I thought with loose linen trousers and floaty shirts I’d packed for the heat. But I ended up buying a loose linen dress, hem to the knee, sleeves to the elbow, and mostly wearing that. So it it an effective way of dressing in the heat, and it was modest enough to allow me into synagogue.

but I have worked in those sort of disgusting offices that are maladapted to hot weather, and it’s hateful. Can you take your own fan in for your workspace? Freeze a bottle of water and put it in front of the fan to push more cool air? I swore I’d never take a job in a place without AC after one particularly shitty summer.

Exactly, who the fuck would care if someone wore a non-regulation skirt that showed the full calf! I don’t know anyone in real life who would bat an eyelid.

MN can be another planet sometimes, and populated by some of the most uptight, inflexible, rule-obsessed miseries that exist!

I don’t think shorts and t-shirt will be any cooler than a lightweight dress. I’d wear a thin summer dress-possibly just below the knee/capped or short sleeve rather than midi/mid arm, but I wouldn’t be wearing shorts anyway.

Well, you won't be cooler in anything else/ linen 🤷

It's a few days! Most of this week, don't think finishes until Sat.

I've not read the whole thread, but if you're menopausal, I think companies now are supposed to take into account for that.

Oh bless you.

I'm NHS... the only offices with AC are the ones management are in.
Clinicians and receptions and patients have to suck it up

I agree. It's fabric that makes the difference- cotton or linen- & a flowing dress/ skirt & flowy top is WAY cooler than shorts & a vest top with lycra in - tshirts are much thicker too.

It was hotter than the surface of the sun in work today & I was lugging boxes of books around (secondary school, end of term here & I'm moving teaching space). I had on a cotton, short-sleeed very flowy dress (over sized look) & sandals. I was hot but would have been way hotter in shorts & a vest/tshirt.

We need to dress professionally always, & no option of being home. It's hard but we need to just get on.

What type of organisation is still working with those types of archaic dress codes? Even without hot weather, every law firm, accountants, banks etc I deal with dress much more casually than pre COVID and no one bats an eyelid.

I think it amounts to a power trip. On the face of it, there's very few jobs that need to be suited and booted in this kind of weather and also expectations has lowered over the years. I doubt anyone, customer or otherwise will be upset to see someone in a smart t-shirt and shorts in this weather.

Stop treating people like minions and treat them as part of a team of workers who are all, every one of them, suffering in the heat. A few days here and there dressing down shouldn't be an issue to anyone normal. Let's face it, happy staff work better so value them.

I think you're getting a bit of a tough time. Im struggling in the heat and I have to wear a uniform but my work have said in these conditions we can wear own clothes. Also DH works in an office where he doesn't have a uniform but has to wear smart clothes but because the air con in his office isn't working, he is allowed to work from home while the temperatures are high.

Ffs, the OP isn’t expecting to come in a tiny bikini, just to wear clothes are completely normal in this weather.

This needing to wear a skirt/dress that’s mid-calf makes me think we’ve gone back to the 1880s! It’s ridiculous and unnecessary.

Yes, some people will have to wear hotter clothes, but that’s generally because their job requires it, not because some boss yearns for a return to the Victorian age!

If you wear shorts and a vest top, you will be hotter than in a long floaty loose dress. The sweat will still have no where to go, it will drip off your naked skin and be revolting for your colleagues. Your employer should be getting in temporary AC.