Adults who don't dress properly for winter

[Bearpawk]

Driving me mad.
I work in an office where must people have a commute or a decent walk to get to work . I'd say about 90% can't dress themselves properly.
Young woman next to me ankle trainer socks. Midriff showing. Pissing and moaning about being cold. It's 1 degree outside and it's December.
It's raining and they come in wearing canvas shoes and a fluffy coat. No umbrella or waterproofs. Then expect to have the heating on full whack all day to dry their coats and shoes out.
In a training room all day where the lead trainer (middle aged, old enough to know better) insisted on having the heating cranked up all day because she's wearing a thin acrylic jumper and got cold to the bones on the way to work and can't warm up.
Everyone without exception has access to the weather forecast via their phones. It shouldn't be a shock when it's raining or cold. Yet they dress like it's May, all year round.
They earn decent money and aren't hard up so it's not a financial issue (maybe with some of the VERY junior/ young ones fair enough )

AIBU to fed up of people moaning about being cold or wet but making zero attempt to dress appropriately for the weather ?

Whilst I agree with the value of warm clothing, I hate waterproof coats with a passion. They’re all just so boring! The only ones I like are dry robes and that’s a whole other thread 😂. So I’m sorry if it offends your sensibilities OP but I will not wear one unless I’m hiking across the moors.

I will however use an umbrella to keep my fluffy coat dry. I’m old but that doesn’t mean that I need to wear sensible slacks and a wool jumper.My fluffy coat is the only thing which lifts my spirits in winter!

I remember this! I wore a thick fluffy angora jumper ( from M and S) over a blouse in my freezing office.

We did spend a long time however sitting on the radiators. No one seemed to care what we did then!

Isn’t is SO interesting how so many people on MN harp on about ageism on threads. Yet, it’s always okay to be ageist towards younger people?

No one actually cares about ageism. People just don’t want certain generations to be generalised. But it’s fine to do that to younger generations? Ridiculous

Erm @PerspiringElizabeth did you read my post? It said they all complain all day about getting too cold or wet on the way to work. So I deduced they're not dressed properly, given it's December and they're in summer clothes in 0 degrees and the pissing rain.

Not if the cardi and tights are acryllic, no, but wool makes a huge difference. I can and have gone directly from work to watch midweek football matches with only a (proper) coat and a hat extra.

You can get second hand wool and even cashmere jumpers on Vinted for good prices. I have a couple of second hand kilts as one day it dawned on me that it was a cheap way of getting 100% wool skirts. They were about £25 on EBay. A petticoat or slip is a cheap way to add an extra layer. Tights from M&S may not be the cheapest but they are great value. You can get excellent thermal tights from Lidl.

Good quality coats and shoes or boots are expensive, though, and I think it must be hard for people who can’t afford decent shoes, in particular. Work shoes can be such a nightmare for women.

Merino doesn't need washing very often! It is a miracle fibre. Game changer.

I was walking over to the market on my way home from work. A teenager was wearing uncomfortably tight black running leggings, a cropped jumper, white trainer socks and crocks. Looked cold and bizarre.

In my office they have finally fixed the heating. It was cold last year. It’s a 1930s listed building. I actually have to make sure I’ve got access to short sleeved option now

If we're talking about +1c type winter weather like in the op. I really don't think you need thermals and layers and jumpers. Just socks that cover your ankles, winter coat that covers your torso, scarf, hat, gloves, and shoes that don't become wet immediately. It is easily professional. And this is enough clothing for majority of people when it gets below freezing.

Fleece lined leggings from Primark are the best invention ever.

I was taught very young that any fool can be cold, wet and miserable but with just a bit of thought, you can be warm and dry.
Likewise people moan about the weather whereas it is usually just the wrong clothing.
Just like people struggling to de-ice their car of a morning using hot water or a credit card. Frosts & ice are a matter of fact in the winter so just how difficult is it to keep a scraper in the glovebox?

I agree with the OP, why should a workplace be heated to the discomfort of the many (along with the cost and environmental impact) when people could have dressed appropriately in the first place.

I agree. A man in shorts of teens in hoodies freezing on a bus stop is December is something I I've never seen outside the UK:D Like, whyyyy??????

I guarantee none of the posters complaining about younger people on here were out buying merino wool, thermal tights and the like when they were 23. But now they’re older and wiser and have life experience, they’re quick to castigate young people today for not being as practical and prepared as them.

You'd think I was a knobhead if you saw the way I dress in winter. I used to be a cold tattie, now that I'm in perimenopause, I'm always far too hot. I sleep with a fan directly on me all night and often only wear a t-shirt and leggings in cold weather. The slightest bit of warmth makes me sweat buckets.

22 degrees is a normal temperature in winter.

We also wouldn't have dreamed of insisting the heating was turned up beyond what was comfortable for our elders though 😉

Not ‘arf. I went out for a walk in the pissing rain the other evening (gotta get those steps!) wearing my new full length Michelin Man puffa from the Mountain Warehouse. I could see the rain battering down on the pavements and hear it hitting my hood but was otherwise barely aware of it and certainly not cold.

In my late teens, early 20s, of course, I wouldn’t have been seen DEAD in such apparel and went out practically naked. Some of that still lingers on apparently as I still tend to go out for walks in the winter wearing trainers and NO SOCKS. 😅

Your mum never told you to put warm clothes on? I’m calling bullshit on that one! 😉

To be fair though… in your 20’s it falls under a couple of categories

• fashion over function (a hold over from the teenage years)
• prioritization of funds …wool is expensive!
• knowing but not really understanding what a difference fiber makes
• necessity - is it a cold snap or is it a prolonged winter plunge that you have to plan for.

those were all personal experience 🙂

Well, @Bearpawk is if it has an effect on her comfort. I have the same people who come to the office in sleeveless tops and no socks, and crank the rad up and then someone else will open the window to fight against the heat. Its bloody wearing thin now

Is it, says who? The HSE says minimum 16⁰ for an office and British Gas says room temperature is 18⁰-21⁰

I don’t understand people that don’t wear waterproof jackets in the rain..
we are the uk where it predominantly rains. Then they bitch and moan they are cold and wet… I wear ankle socks at work because I also wear shorts, I don’t do long socks with shorts… absolutely not… however I make sure I’m wrapped up going to and from work, I have a medical condition where cold and hands and feet happen regardless of what I’m wearing.

Drives me mad. Three young colleagues said how good I looked today- they were dressed like the op described- ankle socks- etc.
I’m wearing long sleeved thermal top, tights, boofy socks medium healed boots (colleagues in ballet flats 🤯) and I’m warm as toast.

Am I allowed to moan when I have a long sleeve top, a jumper, a scarf, an insulated jacket and fleece lined boots on and I'm still cold?

Some adults are just like this. Even older adults! I had a DP once who would always get it wrong. I'd have to coax her into figuring out what to wear come rain or shine and sometimes I just couldn't. E.G we'd be going to sit at something outside all day in autumn/spring so not freezing but not warm and she'd be in a thin jacket and T-Shirt and complain she was cold after 20 minutes. Other times it'd be cracking the flags heat and she'd be in jeans and a thick jumper/hoodie complaining she was sweating her boobs off.
It drove me nuts!

I've learned the hard way but it did take me until probably my late twenties-layers and a bag are the answer for all day things!

Cannot speak for work colleagues though.

Any fool can be cold.