If you’ve been working in the same place for some time, you’ll have worked out the office fashion rules.
There are certain things you might wear in everyday life that you simply can’t pull off in front of colleagues, or that you might choose to pair with tights or a vest. But when one woman got told off at work for wearing “inappropriate” clothing, she shared a video of her outfit and the supposed meeting she had about her style choices.
TikToker @ultimatebykomi said she reckoned her outfit wasn’t “too bad” as she showed off the sleeveless bodycon frock, giving the camera a twirl.
Then she asked her boss “for a quick chat” where she told him about the HR email slating her outfits. She was told her clothes were “distracting,” to which her boss responded: “What was she referring to?”
After explaining her current outfit had been given as an example, the boss he reckoned it was “appropriate work attire.”
Come the meeting with HR, she boasted she was “basically [wearing] a blazer” as she paraded her kit to the camera. While the dress was short and “low-cut,” she said: “Who cares?”
The HR team took notice, however, kicking off the meeting saying: “Um, I must admit I’m slightly disappointed seeing how you dressed today following on from the email […] We do need to address this issue because we are having comments from other members of staff.”
The woman defended her choice, insisting that if she was “distracting other members of staff,” it wasn’t her fault, saying instead: “That’s kind of on them.”
“The comments I’ve had are that you’re trying to you’re begging [for] attention,” HR continued. “Are you going to do anything differently?” The woman agreed she would go shopping on the weekend to update her outfit.
While the supposed meeting may have been shocking, people in the comments largely agreed the woman’s outfit was not appropriate. One said: “Honey, imma hold your hand when I say this. That is a clubbing dress.”
Another chimed in: “I wanna be a girls girl, but babe, I have that exact dress, and I wear it to the bars, lmao.”
Other comments included: “Too short and tight for the office,” “With all due respect ma’am, that’s a 2000s clubbing dress,” “Are you being serious? That’s way too short for work,” while one offered a balanced view: “I think the comments about you begging for attention were completely out of line, but at the same time neither of these are office appropriate.”
Meanwhile, another user commented: “POTENTIALLY with black tights, boots and a long cardigan but HR ain’t wrong here,” adding, “It’s work, not a disco”.