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 😂

1. it's just 1 day
2. if your productivity goes down, then that's what the bosses ordered!
3. do what you want, it's up to you to take on the risks

If you’re not customer facing will they authorise you working from home? Then you can sit in your pants all day 🤷‍♀️

We have fans.

I don’t see why people doing jobs in hotter conditions means I should be uncomfortable

I wish. Despite it being possible they say no

I rest my case

I think you’re getting a hard time on here.

I’m a manager of a large team based in an office and who aren’t client facing. The last thing on my mind today was to instruct them on what to wear. I’ve got far more pressing things to worry about than whether some shows a little bit of thigh or shoulder.

I can’t stand people who love to insist on petty rules being kept whatever the circumstances. Whoever gives a shit that someone’s shoulders are showing on a day like today is a sour, small-minded, pathetic pedant.

I think you're probably hot and grumpy (understandably) but being a bit awkward for no reason.

I don't think shorts and a t-shirt will be noticeably cooler than a knee length dress.

Ultimately, work is work. You chose to work there knowing the dress code.

Then buy some clothes that are more comfortable in this weather. The wrong fabric will trap sweat inside or outside

What case? 😆

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.

I’m in a loose floaty dress today. It has been hell. I can tell you now, shorts and a t shirt would’ve been cooler.

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!

I am wearing a 100% floaty cotton dress. What else am I meant to wear?

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.

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.

Exactly. If it was a crop top and tiny shorts I think they’d have a point but it would be some mid thigh shorts and a nice baggy t-shirt

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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’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.