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

[toohotforallthis]

I live in an area that has a red weather warning for extreme heat for the next two days.

Today the office was sweltering. It’s been 35° minimum all day, but in the office it’s been closer to 40°. We’ve all been unable to function.

We had a “friendly reminder” that the dress code still applies - dresses to mid calf, no shorts, shirts must cover to the mid arm.

AIBU to say fuck it and turn up in a T-shirt and shorts tomorrow? We have no client contact whatsoever, I will not see a single service user tomorrow. The only people I will see are my coworkers.

My line manager has said she’s fine with it, but if the “big bosses” walk in (from their air conditioned office!), we may get in trouble.

Surely the worst they’ll do is send me home, which is a win for me 😂

So wear a knee length one?! Why is that even an issue, you’re not being forced to wear ankle length anything.

I've got a full length cotton dress on (NHS, patient facing job but no patients today), and the length is really helpful for absorbing my slippery legs 😉

Dizzy sick and lightheaded probably needs more water. If the office really is 40C then that's not a reasonable temperature and you should have the option to work at home.

Does anyone see you at work?

I honestly couldn’t care less about my legs offending someone though, it’s horrible in that office and I just can’t deal with it again. I come home and I can’t do anything for the rest of the evening because it’s so hot and draining

I honestly couldn’t care less about my legs offending someone though, it’s horrible in that office and I just can’t deal with it again. I come home and I can’t do anything for the rest of the evening because it’s so hot and draining

3l consumed so far today, if I drank more I’d burst!

Only other office workers. We do sometimes walk around the office campus but we don’t have badges on, so nobody can tell if we’re staff or members of the public

As a paramedic we now have the option of uniform shorts, however i don't actually own a pair (the thought of kneeling on some of the floors we see is nauseating).
I had an interview this week, and thought to myself i wonder what they'd think if i turned up in uniformed shorts.

Turns out one of the interview panel did just that, fair play to him.

Dresses/skirts to mid calf?? That’s bizarre in any weather - a knee length pencil skirt would generally be seen as a very standard formal bit of office wear. It would look oddly out of place in my office as it would look too formal.

Such a big fuss over this hot weather. I lived in Australia in the nineties. Most houses had no air con, schools never closed, people didn't feel the need to dress in beach clothes at the office. Shock horror - life carried on and everyone survived.

I would care about your bare sweaty thighs being on the office chairs though.
Incidentally the whole point of sweat and feeling damp against your skin is to cool you down. It's a wonderful mechanism!

Perhaps you drank too much water at 3 litres. I was out in the sun all day yesterday in a loose dress and probably drank 2 litres. The sweat running down my back did a wonderful job of cooling me and the dress did a great job of absorbing it.

We each have our own chairs.

The issue is that the sweat cannot go anywhere, it’s so hot. So it sits in the fabric, against the skin and we’re just getting hotter and hotter.

You can go in wearing a flioaty dress that will be the coolest thing to wear. Is male colleagues I feel for in trousers and shirts- that could be relaxed a little. But I do think yabu shorts won’t make any difference from a dress

Again, if I was outside I’d agree. But I think a lot of people are just ignoring the point I’ve made.

I think some flexibility while maintaining sensible standards is fair enough.

I work in a school and normally wear polo shirt and black pants all year around. I have got myself some thick strapped vests which still smart and cover everything but are cooler instead.

it’s not an either or thing.

OP you’ll get nowhere on here, you’re asking a bunch of people who were socially conditioned at primary school to do exactly what they were told and not to question it or they’ll face social rejection, they are terrified of going against the grain and the mere suggestion of it is clearly igniting people in the race to the bottom because they have been successfully taught that they are not special so must suffer with grace.
No op there is no need to wear uncomfortable clothing in the name of looking professional but you won’t hear that on here.

Surely, you can only go off sick if you are sick

I don’t understand what the point is then?
You want to wear shorts instead of a dress because it’s hot. What has being inside or outside got to do with it.
Without air con it’s hot everywhere and wearing shorts won’t change that and isn’t appropriate in your work place. Plenty of professions this week are wearing clothes that are unsuitable and are just having to get on

My point is it’s so hot that the sweat isn’t drying, it’s sitting on my clothes and trapping even more heat

I kind of think that the worse that could happen is they send me home, which then means I’m sat in my nice cool garden instead of the boiling hot office

Op is not her own boss. Have you missed that bit in your rush to demonstrate your superiority to the rest of humanity?

Yes it’s hot but people are doing jobs in much hotter conditions, they’re not telling you to wear a coat and scarf, just appropriate office attire. Get yourself a fan.

It's an interesting question. OP says her health is at risk. Are preventative sickies a thing? I don't know.

If it’s that hot will shorts really make a difference? I’m by no means slave to a dress code but I don’t think having more flesh on show makes a difference to temperature than light trousers and t-shirt does. You’ll still be hot and sticky, I find fabric makes more of a difference - cotton and linen rather than polyester.